Planning your research paper is an important first step in the research process. This will probably take more time than writing the paper, but when you finally do sit down to write, having a plan will make that task far easier. There are different methods for planning a paper, including outlines and storyboards. Use whatever method works for you, just make sure to have some sort of plan.
This is a sample outline. Yours can look completely different, this is just meant to help you get started.
1. Introduction
a. Purpose of your paper. What are you going to be talking about?
b. Thesis statement. This should state your paper's main ideas.
2. Body
a. Methods
b. Results
c. Discussion
3. Conclusion
a. Restate main ideas.
b. Explain significance of main ideas. Wrap everything up.
