Working Argument and Outline (DUE March 6 by 8:00p)

 

If you are in the early phase of writing or have a substantive draft, this exercise will help you both in organizing/improving the structure of your paper and in developing/evaluating your argument.

What you’re being asked to do is create an outline of your paper (as fleshed out as it can be depending on where you are in the process) with special attention to your argument and how it fits in to the flow of the paper. Refer to the Making an Argument workshop we did in class on 2/15 to help you in identifying and articulating your claim(s), reasons, and relevant supportive evidence.

Start by reviewing the suggested outline for your paper type (e.g., research paper, policy report). Even if you already have a substantive draft, reverse engineering an outline is a good check to make sure you are covering all the bases you need to be and that your argument rings through. It may be helpful for you to literally copy and paste that suggested outline and start filling in what you have (although you may prefer a different way of working).

As you develop and organize your outline, pay attention to when you introduce your claim(s) and where you discuss the evidence backing your reasons. Your evidence can come from a variety of sources that present themselves at different moments in your paper (e.g., from articles in the lit review, from raw data you analyzed in your findings, etc.).

Discussion and conclusion sections are great places to pull together/recap your main argument. In a discussion section you can put your data/findings in conversation with the relevant literature – all in support of your overarching claim(s).

TIPS!:

• Remember, your claim can be about a conceptual problem (about understanding something) or a practical problem (about doing something – i.e., as in policy). Being aware of this distinction and knowing which problem/claim you are working with will shape how you present your argument.
• To help you with writing precisely and specifically, refer to these helpful words and phrases (also on the Resources page).

 

Take a breath….this is a working argument and outline, so things are more in-process and open to change as you advance along with your research, data collection, analysis, and writing.

Above all – make this assignment work for you! If you complete this assignment with honest effort to make it as fleshed out as possible (that includes leaving temporary placeholders if need be), than you get the full points.

 

Please upload (or copy and paste) your abstract to a Google doc and post it in your class “Submit Assignment” Google folder. Title the doc “Argument Outline Assignment_name”