AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION / Research Paper …



AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION / Research Paper Outlining Guide

Name: ____________________________________________ Date: _________

Directions: Use an electronic version of this sheet to complete your research paper outline. Please type! As you type your outline, you should delete my directions, but do make sure to use the sentence stems for the items where you are directed to complete the sentence (in regular Ariel font), meaning keep my wording, just fill in the blank. If you need more space than is provided, you may enlarge the text boxes, add pages, etc. Please understand that while you should follow this guide for your outline and use the sentence stems I provide, I should NOT see any of these same sentences in your actual paper! You will want to include the ideas in the order they are in this outline—but you want to make them sound a lot better!

I. Intro/Thesis

II. Narration

III. Confirmation

IV. Concession/Refutation

V. Conclusion

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Your introduction may be more than one paragraph for a paper of this length, but it should still contain all the elements of a good intro—namely, a hook, a thesis, and logical progression of ideas between the two. Your introduction should also establish your ethical appeal. Part of your ethical appeal in this paper is your warrant, or the common ideals/values your opinion is based upon. (For more on introductions, see the following link: .) Before you begin your paper, complete the 5 Why activity to get a better understanding of your warrant. Then, outline your intro by completing the sentence stems below.(You do not need to use the MTS formula):

A. HOOK: An overall concept that I can use to introduce and unify the information in this paper is _________. (You will find a specific type of hook to convey this concept in your actual paper!)

B. WARRANT: The underlying common or shared value(s) or belief(s) I am basing my argument on is/are________________

C. THESIS: In this paper, I plan to prove that___________________.

Your narration is the background that the reader needs to understand your argument. It is NOT part of your argument. You will likely need one paragraph of narration. At the most, you may have two paragraphs. Outline your narration by completing the sentence for each paragraph—changing “first” to “second” if you have two paragraphs-- and then filling in as many details as needed (only three are given, but you may add more).

A. The first thing readers need to know about to understand my argument is _________________________________.

a. Detail #1 from note card

b. Detail #2 from note card

c. Detail #3 from note card

Your confirmation is the part of your paper where you PROVE your argument stated in your thesis. To complete this section, complete the sentence stem provided by inserting the part of your thesis you inserted in the introduction section in (letter C) in the first blank and then filling in the second blank with your reason. Then you should add as many details per paragraph as needed to support your reason (I have provided space for three; you may have two, or you may have more than three per paragraph). For each detail, you should then indicate what TYPE of support it is, choosing from: anecdote, facts, quantitative data, and expert testimony. I have provided the format for only TWO body paragraphs. You should have MANY. (Note: Use your research questions for this, but remember that you will likely have more than one body paragraph per research question!)

A. The first reason I believe (thesis) is because/that _________________________________.

a. Support #1 from note card – type of support

b. Support #2 from note card – type of support

c. Support #3 from note card – type of support

B. The second reason I believe (thesis) is because/that _________________________________.

a. Support #1 from note card – type of support

b. Support #2 from note card – type of support

c. Support #3 from note card – type of support

You must have a developed concession and refutation in your paper. For this part, you must address the arguments that informed people may have against your argument. (Note: the arguments informed people may have against your argument are NOT necessarily the opposite of your argument. For more information about this section, see “Counter arguments” at the following link: .) You should recognize these arguments by conceding their legitimate points, but then you should refute these arguments by showing why your argument makes more sense. To adequately complete this part, you must know what the arguments are against your point AND you must use facts, data, etc. to refute those arguments. Use the sentence stems I have provided for your topic sentences. I have provided a two paragraph outline for this section; you may add more if needed.

A. Those who disagree with my argument make the point that _____.

a. Detail #1 about concession from note card

b. Detail #2 about concession from note card

B. HOWEVER, these people do not recognize my argument is still valid because __________________________________.

a. Support #1 from note card – type of support

b. Support #2 from note card – type of support

c. Support #3 from note card – type of support

In a persuasive paper, your conclusion is extremely important. It is your last chance to drive home your point. While you should NOT bring up any new information in your conclusion, you should do more than simply restate what you have already said. It should also be where you put your strongest emotional appeal, reminding your reader of the underlying warrant for your argument (for more on conclusions, see the following link: ). Complete this section by filling in the sentence stems (Note: You may answer these questions in more than one sentence; in fact, a conclusion in a paper of this length may be developed into more than one paragraph. You may also change the order of B and C):

A. Once again, I have proven (restatement of thesis)

B. You, the reader, should care about this because __________.

C. The broader implications of this situation are _____________.

D. This ties back into my hook by ________________________.

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