Containing all of your sources, quotes, claims, and ideas, research project outlines guide your writing process from the first brainstorm to your final edit. Think of your research paper outline as your paper’s roadmap or planning document—where you’ll organize your thoughts, compile your evidence, and plot the trajectory of your argument.

Research outline examples can be helpful tools throughout the entire drafting and editing process, ensuring a logical flow from section to section.

While research paper outlines can follow different organizational structures, most outlines begin by mapping out a paper’s introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. You can start your outline organization process by fleshing out these sections, including topic sentences, supporting evidence, and citations wherever possible.

The easiest way to get outlining? Check out our customizable outline example for research papers and fill in the blanks with your brilliant findings.

Research papers can cover anything under the sun. But most research outline templates will contain the following five parts:

- Introduction – The introduction highlights the questions you will answer and the argument, or thesis, that you will develop.

- Methodology – Your methodology refers to the how of your research—the steps you’ve taken to approach your research problem.

- Results and analysis – In this section, you’ll include your findings—data, interviews, quotes, and more.

- Conclusion – In your conclusion, you’ll discuss what your findings mean. Here’s where you will restate your original perspective and finish by noting further implications and uses for your research.

- References – To complete your research paper, you’ll need to include a references section, which includes a list of the literature, articles, or interviews you’ve cited.

Add these sections to your outline for the research paper template, or if you’re writing an extensive report, create a separate outline for each section—the possibilities for personalization are endless!