Guidelines for Writing an Outline

Topic:

The Kingdom of Aksum

Organizing your paper in a logical sequence and fully developing each topic are important skills in writing academic research papers.

You use other authors&indings to support your discussion, but the organization of your researched material needs to be entirely yours to show that you have fully processed the subject matter. Your outline paper will show me that you have started organizing how you will present the research you have done so far and your thinking about this. Check the guidelines below for how to formulate your outline.

Remember to submit your outline by the end of Week 4.

The outline must have the usual introduction, body, and conclusion sections of a research paper. Write an introduction and conclusion, including the thesis statement and some preliminary ideas of what you will include in these sections of your paper.

The body must have at least three sections, each with subsections and in a logical sequence. Make sure that the body covers the requirements for your project.

This outline paper is not a rough draft of your paper. Do not submit complete papers or rough drafts of your paper at this point in the project. If you do so, you will be asked to resubmit the correct content. After this step, you may change any part of the outline, so feel free to submit tentative content. Here is an example of what an outline should look like and the type of information it needs to contain:

1. Introduction: Thesis statement and organization of paper
2. Main topic one: General description of topic
   1. Subtopic one: General description of subtopic
   2. Subtopic two: General description of subtopic
3. Main topic two: General description of topic
   1. Subtopic one: General description of subtopic
   2. Subtopic two: General description of subtopic
4. Main topic three: General description of topic
   1. Subtopic one: General description of subtopic
   2. Subtopic two: General description of subtopic
5. Main topic four: General description of topic
   1. Subtopic one: General description of subtopic
   2. Subtopic two: General description of subtopic
6. Main topic five: General description of topic
   1. Subtopic one: General description of subtopic
   2. Subtopic two: General description of subtopic
7. Main topic six: General description of topic
   1. Subtopic one: General description of subtopic
   2. Subtopic two: General description of subtopic
8. Conclusion: Restatement of thesis and final conclusions