The Various Types of Outlines for Term Papers
Outlines are one of the most important tools for term paper writing. And for the same reason, you must never try to prepare a term paper without it. Because a term paper developed out of an outline is clearly distinguishable, for the audience, from one that was prepared without it. Even on not being a part of the final formal document, the outline will clearly reflect through the structure, the neatness, the clarity of presentation etc. Once you learn how to prepare outlines for term papers and do it regularly, soon it will become a habit which will not feel like extra work at all.
The purpose of an outline
There are various purposes which are fulfilled by a term paper outline. You can list them out as follows:
• It gives you an overview of all the points collected till then, which would help you in figuring out if you have enough data in hand to prove your point.
• It helps you organize the points in the perfect manner, thus bringing out the best in your term paper.
• It helps you sort out the strong points, the weak ones, the most relevant ones and the less important ones.
• It will help you spot the irrelevant points which accidentally got in. At this stage it would be easy to get rid of them.
• It will give you an idea of how much space can be spared for each point, helping you to develop it within the prescribed size, thus making your editing job much easier.
If you do not use an outline, you will end up doing all these tasks while editing, which would make your editing job extremely difficult. And when you leave it all for the last minute, you might also end up overlooking many mistakes and errors. But when you use an outline, your editing job will be as simple as that of applying the term paper format and minor corrections in the sentence structures.
The different types of outlines
There are many types of outlines for term papers. While preparing outlines for research papers or term papers, you must always see if the pattern you choose is one that suits your comprehension level. The outlines have been classified depending on various factors. Some outlines are based on the structural elements of a term paper.
1. The thesis
2. Main point
3. Second main point
4. Third main point
5. Result
6. Sources
And so on. Some others are based on its structural components.
1. Abstract
2. Literature review
3. Title page
4. Introduction
5. Body paragraph I
6. Body paragraph II
7. Body paragraph III
8. Conclusion
The criteria of choosing a particular method for an outline for term paper is that you should be able to decipher it at the time of developing it into a term paper. Pick the pattern which you feel most comfortable with.
If you are too busy to prepare an outline for term paper or if you are not being able to figure out the method, there is no need to despair. We have academic experts who have been helping students with all their academic assignments. They would be able to prepare an outline for your term paper, or better still, if you wish, they would prepare a custom term paper for you as per your specific requirements. We also have a samples section where you will find examples of APA format papers, sample term papers and sample expository essays which are available for free reference.