The Research Paper Outline

Your research paper outline provides the framework of your formal project or dissertation. While they vary, many common elements are included regardless of how many chapters (usually 4-6). The first few chapters are included in the proposal, which is approved prior to conducting the study. The last few are written after the data collection. The completed study is presented in this general format.



Chapter 1: Introduction

*General Introduction/Background--broad, then narrows to the problem statement

*Statement of the Problem--the specific issue, often leads into a clear purpose statement

*Significance of the Study--why the study is useful and important

*Definitions of Terms--define key terms, both constitutive (common meaning) and operational (how you will use them in your study)

*Research Questions and/or Hypotheses--the research answers these question and/or tests the hypotheses

*Scope of the Study--regardless of placement, address external validity (participants, location)

*Summary

Chapter 2: Literature Review (may be part of Ch. 1)

Summarize what is already known on the topic. Anticipate the fact that you will also discuss your findings in light of the literature later on. You may also use sections to validate your instrument in the methods section.

Chapter 3: Research Methods

*Introduction--what has happened so far, what is in this chapter

*Research Design--present the game plan (e.g., descriptive, qualitative, correlational, experimental) that will answer your research question(s) and/or test hypotheses.

*Participants/Source of Data/Selection of the Sample--describe the subjects and/or where you will access your data.

*Instrument/Measures Used--describe what you will use to collect the data. Provide validity and reliability.

*The Variables--for experimental designs, identify the variables that you will manipulate and observe.

*Procedures/Method of Data Collection--describe in detail how you will collect the data. (Include pilot testing)

*Data Analysis--present how you plan to analyze the data that you will present in the next chapter.

*Assumptions--what are you assuming is true (e.g., that the participants gave truthful responses)

*Limitations of the Study--address the internal validity of the study

*Summary

This ends the proposal and planning prior to data collection.

Introduce the chapter, then present your findings--just the facts, don't discuss them yet. Use visuals (tables and figures) and highlight important statistics in the text when you refer to the visuals.

Final Chapter(s)

*Introduction

*Summary of Major Findings--present the main points, highlighting statistics

*Discussion--discuss your findings and relate them to the literature; make important points about your study

*Conclusions--in a nutshell, what did you find?

*Recommendations--address implications (what this means to the body of knowledge), applications (how the findings can be used), and future research.

Your research paper outline may be adjusted and sections may be assigned different titles, depending upon your design and nature of your study. It is most important to present detail so that readers can evaluate it for themselves and replicate it, if desired.

Also see:

Research Basics

Research Designs

Research Terms

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