Day 4: Outlining (Student)
1. Expanding the Outline: A Comparison
Take a look at the SAMPLE OUTLINES for the Argumentative Essay and the Research Paper. The research paper's sample outline should be very similar to what you have already created for your Argumentative Essay topic. The outline that you developed for your argumentative essay will eventually it will need to be expanded so that you will be able to write a 6-page mini research paper. Compare the two outlines and highlight/underline the differences between the two samples. What’s new in the Research Paper? How are they similar/different? Note: The research paper outline is only a guide to help you to expand your own outline. You can organize your research paper outline to resemble that one, or you can just add more supporting details to each Main Topic, or both. However you decide to do it, be sure to make it as equally detailed and lengthy as the sample in order to reach 6 pages. It’s better to have too much, than too little.
2. Organizing your Sources: The Notecard Method
The purpose of this activity is to make you realize that you may still have gaps of support in your arguments. At this point, you should be using more expert opinions, facts and statistics from research and less personal experiences. Take a look at the ORGANIZING YOUR SOURCES handout. Next, take out a copy of the reference list from your argumentative essay. Number your sources (1-4) like the sample reference list. Then take a look at the notecards on the 2nd page of the handout. Using notecards to organize your sources is a method that many students use throughout college to help them write long research papers. There are 4 parts to the notecards: There’s the Outline Code (shows you where the information fits in your paper according to where it belongs on the outline), Source # (which source 1-4 is the information from), Page #, and of course, the paraphrase/quote (you should circle which one it is so that you don’t forget). The idea is that you go through all of your sources and take notes/paraphrases, and your goal is to have at least one notecard for every single section of your outline. After you’re done taking notes from all four of your sources, you put them in order, and you’ll be able to see exactly where you are missing support. This way, you can paraphrase as you take notes, and you can write your paper just by going through your notecards--piece of cake!
3. Homework time
Use the remaining class time to either continue writing notecards for your sources or start working on expanding your outline. That way if you have questions, or you want to brainstorm with a partner about expanding your outlines, you have the opportunity. You must bring your expanded version of your argumentative outline to your one-on-one conference with me.
