CSC208 Elliott—Structured Outline

Write a structured outline for a formal paper, as follows:

Gather the research for your paper and block out the notes. Think about what you want to say. Then...
Write the title of your paper. This should fairly represent what the paper is about.
Introduction. Tell us what you are going to say. Tell us why we care. This is a road map of where we will be going. If you are going to use sections, you might want to include information about what they will contain. Label this paragraph Introduction:
(You can include a lead and etc. from other writing styles—this is up to you as long as we get the road map and we know why we care to read your paper.)
(Optional) Are there major sections? If so, give us the major sections. These would correspond to sufficiently distinct, major organizing principles. For example we might have a paper on simulating the brain with a computer program. The first section might be on how we believe the brain works, while the second section might be on how the computer program simulating it works. The third section might contain an ethical analysis of the result.
For our purposes the section title is sufficient, but in some papers you would want to add a section introduction and/or section summary.
Now, in the body of the paper tell us what you are saying. Say it.
Each paragraph has one cohesive idea in it. Each new idea gets its own paragraph.
For each paragraph in the finished paper we would have:
- TOPIC SENTENCES. The first sentence tells us what you are going to say by introducing the idea. Most important.
- The following sentences give us the idea, explain it.
- Sometimes the last sentence sums up or clarifies the idea.
- Note that this paragraph form is also true of your introduction, conclusion, and summary paragraphs.
For the outline, write the TOPIC SENTENCE (the first sentence) of each paragraph only . If one sentence is not sufficient to tell us what the paragraph is going to be about, you usually need to break the paragraph up. You are forbidden to write more than one sentence.
SPECIAL NOTE: This is the time to rearrange your ideas, as necessary, often after letting the outline "age" for a few days. Put the sections and topic sentences in an order that makes sense so that we can best understand what you are telling us. Move ideas that are not currently needed to your "cuts" file.
Conclusions. Now that you have explained all your supporting ideas and we understand what you are talking about, give us a conclusions paragraph that formally states the conclusions to which you want us to come, based on your logical arguments. Label this paragraph Conclusions:
Summary. Tell us what you have said. Tell us why we care to have read your paper. This is a road map of where we have been, but now with specific landmarks to which you refer. Now that we understand your vocabulary and your ideas, you can repeat what you said in the introduction. The difference is that in the introduction you had to use general terms, and now you can be very specific. Label this paragraph Summary:
Note: In a style that we will not be using for this class, sometimes the conclusions and the summary are folded together in one paragraph. But even then the purpose of each is different. Conclusions are logical arguments for which you have made your case, and to which you have brought us to agreement, based on your formal, methodical, logical discourse. A summary is a road map for the paper that we have read. When you combine these two structural components into one paragraph you must be crystal clear in your understanding that they each have a wholly distinct purpose.
We should get increasingly clear ideas of what your arguments are by reading (a) your title, (b) your introduction, conclusions, and summary, (c) your section headers (if you have them), and (d) the topic sentences of your paragraphs.

The content of your outline

What you say is up to you, as long as you apply an ethical framework and provide an analysis of some action you propose taking. You might have sections, for example, on (a) the basic idea of the ethical theories you are going to use, (b) some position you take on what should be done, (c) a survey of what the major traditional positions are, (d) a clarification of what the issues are without taking a position, (e) a detailed working out of how some ethical framework applies to the particular position you have taken, and so on. What is important for the outline is that you make absolutely clear whatever it happens to be that your paper is about.

Bring your printed outline to class for discussion and review. Do NOT write the paper.

It is almost always a good idea if your outline includes examples as part of your structure.

It would be typical to write, and re-write (edit) your outline many times before you are happy with it. This saves time in writing the final paper.