Having completed most of your research, distill your conclusions about your research into a one- or two-sentence thesis statement—this is a draft thesis statement that may undergo refinement when you write your paper. The thesis statement should be a conclusion based on your research. Your thesis statement should not be a question.
At the same time, begin looking at how you will organize the ideas and information you have to present. Prepare an outline that shows how your paper will present the information. The outline should present the major sections of your paper and also the details within each major section. Development of thesis and preparation of an outline are interrelated tasks: Thinking about your thesis statement forces you to consider the main idea you will develop in your paper, and organizing the information helps you to think specifically about how you will develop the main idea. If you develop a good, preliminary thesis statement and outline, your paper will almost write itself.
The assignment you submit should include:
1. Your draft thesis statement
2. Your detailed research paper outline with specific information (either directly quoted or paraphrased) from at least 8-10 sources from your annotated bibliography.
Click on the title “Thesis and Outline Assignment” to submit your assignment as an attachment. A sample outline is attached.
Here are examples of writing a colon-separated title and a complex thesis statement in two different forms: