Organizing Research for Writing Assignments

It's easy to get overwhelmed or lost when doing research. To keep yourself organized, try creating an outline: 

1. Introduction with thesis or purpose/problem statement.
2. Topic 1
   1. All of your topics must support your argument. 
   2. List citation details to keep track of relevant background or research material. 
      1. Make sure that your notes clearly distinguish between your ideas and the material you quote or paraphrase. 
      2. Highlight or underline text on your copies of articles to make it easy to find what you wanted to quote or paraphrase.
3. Topic 2
   1. If you notice that one of your topics has a lot of notes about what to talk about and cite, that might be a sign that your topic is too broad and that you need to re-focus your thesis or purpose/problem statement.
   2. Make sure that you keep full citation details somewhere so that you can easily create your works cited page.
4. Topic 3
   1. And if you notice that one area has few notes or no citation details at all, that might be a sign that you need to do more research on that point or that you need to choose a new topic that better supports your thesis or purpose/problem statement. 
   2. Every quote or paraphrase in your paper should be there for a specific purpose. How does that quote/paraphrase support your argument? Does it provide useful background for your audience? Does it introduce a new point of view or relevant critical interpretation? 
5. Conclusion

When you're ready to sit down and write, use your outline as a framework for your research paper. Everything you need for each section should be ready to go from the outline and all you need to do is turn your thoughts into sentences, quote or paraphrase, and write transitions between paragraphs and ideas. 

Need more help creating an outline? Watch this video from Scribbr:

The style manuals for APA and MLA also include grammar rules, guidelines for structuring an argument, and other advice for writing.