A position paper outline provides guidance and structure for students to write a position paper the right way. A good outline will summarize the content you want to include in your essay and organize it in a coherent and sensible structure.
The ability to outline a position paper is an important skill because some lecturers will ask for an outline first before they give you the permission to choose a position paper topic and write the paper.
So in this article, we give you a guide on how to come up with an appropriate position paper outline.
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How to Write a Position Paper Outline
Carefully Read the Assignment Guidelines
Go through the guidelines and mark any important phrases and words in the instructions. It’s important to understand what your instructor wants before you begin to draft your outline.
If you realize that anything is vague or unclear, ask for an explanation.
Develop a Topic
While there is no doubt that outlining a paper is a great way of developing and organizing your ideas, it may be important to do some form of prewriting to start. Below are a few useful prewriting strategies that will help you get ideas for the paper you want to write.
Identify Your Purpose
What do you aim to accomplish with your position paper? Do you want to persuade, enlighten, and entertain? Or is there something else to it?
Knowing the purpose of your essay is important as it helps you to get ideas on how to proceed with your outline.
You only need to ensure that your purpose doesn’t clash with the assignment requirements. Read the assignment and identify the keywords that will help you to identify what your purpose is.
Develop Your Thesis Statement
After developing your ideas and considering your purpose for the essay, you are now ready to embark on writing a thesis statement.
Well-crafted essay statements will effectively express the main focus of a paper and also present an arguable claim. Your thesis statement shouldn’t exceed one sentence in length.
Ensure that your thesis is arguable. You can achieve this by avoiding to state matters of facts or tastes.
For instance, “America is the Greatest Nation on Earth” wouldn’t be a particularly good position paper topic since most people would agree that it is. Similarly, “Football is a great sport” shows a matter of taste and it wouldn’t work.
Your thesis statement also needs to provide enough detail. Do not just write that something is effective or good. Instead, focus on what makes it good or effective.
Decide on the Structure and Style of your Outline
Choose a Standard Alphanumeric Structure. This is the most common structure of an outline and is the one that’s easily recognized. Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, uppercase, and lowercase letters.
Decimal Outline Structure shows the relationship between our ideas. A decimal structure is nearly the same as an alphanumeric structure but uses numbers in identifying each subsection. This structure is preferred by some people because it shows how each part is contributing to the position paper as a whole.
Determine whether you are going to use brief phrases or full sentences in your outline
Full sentences are more useful in most position paper outlines because they let you write more thorough information. If your instructor asks to be given the outline, it becomes even more important to use full sentences.
Coordinate section titles and secondary subsections. Make sure that each section title features information that is of equal importance to the other titles of sections. Similarly, subsections should carry less important information than that in the section titles.
Break down each heading into two at least two parts. For each section to have adequate information, it will need to be broken down into 2 or more parts.
Organize the Information in Your Outline
Write an Introduction in the first part of your outline. The introduction hooks the reader and provides a brief overview of the topic.
The info you provide in this part should become more specific as you move to the subsections. The thesis statement should be the last of your subsections in the introduction.
Provide body information in the next outline section. Naturally, the essay body is the largest part of your paper and so you should devote a minimum of three subsections to this part of your outline.
Write a Conclusion
The last part of your outline needs to provide conclusion information. It should generally return the reader to the discussions you broached up in the introduction part.
Compare Your Work Against the Assignment Sheet
It is a good idea to go back to the rubric to ensure that your outline fulfills all the requirements.
Check doubly to ensure your outline satisfies the expectations of the instructor to get the best marks.
Conclusion
Creating a position paper outline can be a great strategy before you start writing your paper. This is because it organizes your thoughts and allows you to write much more progressively and clearly.
When written properly, an outline provides an overview or summary of the logic and order that your position paper must follow.
Creating a great outline will also be important especially if it’s a requirement that you submit it to your instructor. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to learn the skills of writing a good position paper outline. A position outline should have the introduction, body, and conclusion.