G171/COM1388 Communicating in Your Profession

Research papers can be daunting. Sometimes even the idea of starting
to think about writing a paper can stop you from even starting. One
way to get over the writer’s block is to create an outline. An outline
is just the building block of your paper. It is where you start to put
your ideas down on paper in some type logical order to help guide you
in your research and writing of the course project.

Outlines are an important and underutilized writing tool. A
strong outline creates a “road map” that can be used to keep your topic
and message on track. The length of your outline will be determined by
the components of your proposal topic.

For this class, the course project is based on an outline that
you will create and submit in the FINAL PROJECT only (Module 05). This
week you will have an opportunity to create a practice outline that is
based on a library article that is provided. In this assignment, read
the provided article and create an outline of it. The next step will be
for you to write your own outline (using the format listed below) to
help you write your course project. The course project outline will be a
part of the final course project grade.

Remember, you will be writing two outlines in this course. The
first one will be here in this assignment; this is an outline of a
library article.

The second one will be done separately and will be
specifically about your course project topic. You will submit the
second outline as a piece of the final project in Module 05.

For this assignment, follow a traditional outline format using the information below as a guide:

General Information on Outlines:

• Outlines can be as detailed as you want them to be.
  Start out with vague ideas, and as you research your topic, you
  can fill in the holes. Make the outline more detailed as you get
  closer to the writing of your project.
• The sentences you use in an outline don’t have to be
  complete sentences. They can be short ideas, words, statistical
  data (that have been cited).
• Use headings (see below) to help you get an idea of what your paper will look like as a final product.
• You must have two main ideas for each point

Example of an Outline Format:

• Purpose Statement: Why are you writing this paper? What
  is the goal your paper? What are you hoping to do with your
  research? Why do you care and why should your audience care?
• Problem: List out specifics of the problem
  • Main idea
  • Main idea
• Original and Creative Solution to the Problem:
  • Main idea
  • Main idea
• Conclusion: Where you wrap it all up and re-iterate your
  Purpose Statement and Original and Creative Solution how you
  proved it.

For this assignment, you will need to read one of the provided
articles and fill in the blank of the outline format that has been
provided to you. You are looking for main ideas or thoughts that the
author is trying to convey to you. Below you will find a link to an
article. Read it and develop an outline based on the main points in the
article. While reading the article, locate and write down the main
ideas and secondary ideas.

Meyer, E. (2014). Navigating the Cultural Minefield. Harvard Business Review, 92(5), 119-123.