The outline is used to help a student write a paper in the most proper way because it serves to make the writer when researching and writing gather ideas and put them in the one place while properly organizing the themes which will be used in the paper. It is very useful to create an outline for research because research is consisted of extensive work on finding the proper sources which will be used in the final paper.
An outline serves the purpose of helping a researcher create a clear concept and make concise ideas related to the theme. “This is the most common type of outline and usually instantly recognizable to most people. The formatting follows these characters, in this order:
Roman Numerals
Capitalized Letters
Arabic Numerals
Lowercase Letters“ (Purdue Online Writing Lab).
The numbers and the letters are used to point out to the fact that there are divisions in the paper which have to be labeled with specific signs so that they would keep the theme in order. The organizations is essential for writing the pape because it makes the argument clear and keeps all of the aspects of writing in place and in order. The best way is to write a draft using the outline and that is why the outline has to be written in a clear way. The draft is used for the revision which comes later and it serves the final purpose of creating the final file. It is important to prepare good and comprehensive outlines so that the writer can rely on it for further development of the paper.
APA format should be used for the final paper and it consists of the proper use of the title page and of page header. It is important to mention that the title page consists of the title, of the name of the student, the institution for which the student is writing and the date can be mentioned as well. The page header consists of the line ‘Running Head’ and the title of the paper on the title page and of the title of the paper in the heading in all of the other pages. “The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation” (Purdue Online Writing Lab). The actual title may be longer, but the heading should not exceed the limit because of the economic use of space. The lines have to be double-spaced for the clarity of the paper.
The abstract is also an essential part of writing a paper in APA format and it is written in the end because it is supposed to sum up the whole paper and to make the introduction to the topic. The keywords are also supposed to be written below the abstract so that the topic would be introduced. These words represent the main and the most important vocabulary which is going to be used in the paper. “Your abstract should contain at least your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions” (Purdue Online Writing Lab). The word limit for this part of the paper is up to 250 words and it is essential for establishing the scientific tone of the paper.
The proper in-text citation needs to be cited in a manner appropriate for APA format and this means that it should follow the rules of writing the last name of the author, the year of the publication and the exact page where the citation was found. The corresponding details need to be put in the references section where all of the sources which are used have to be put in alphabetical order. This makes to paper seem concise and it helps the author achieve clarity and the scientific tone.
Works Cited
Developing an Outline (n.d.). In Purdue Online Writing Lab. Retrieved May 17, 2016, from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/03/
APA Formating and Style (n.d.). In Purdue Online Writing Lab. Retrieved May 17, 2016, from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/03/
