Writing term papers is one of the greatest joys of my life.

It’s not that I’m a masochist and I like to punish myself with endless research work; it’s just that I’m a nerd and I love the rush I get whenever I finish a term paper. I get some sort of high whenever I figure out how to write a particularly complex research paper.

It’s just, well, incredibly wonderful.

For those of you who find writing term papers and other academic whatnot a chore, fear not. I hereby present to you a complete step-by-step guide to writing a term paper. Today we begin with forming an outline that will serve as the logical structure of your paper. Without it, it’ll be very difficult to figure out your research plan and will, at some point, cause you to lose focus of what it is you’re writing about.

More on writing the outline after the jump:

A basic term paper has the following outline. This structure is pretty much cut and dry for any standard term paper, though you can remove a few parts depending on the requirements of the professor. A full-blown thesis, for example, would even require a Conceptual Framework. Most 5-page term papers have no need for this.

I. Introduction

• Statement of the Problem
• Objectives
• Significance of the Study
• Scope and Limitations
• Methods of Work (Methodology)

II. Conceptual Framework (or Review of Related Literature)

III. Body

IV. Body

V. Body

VI. Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation

VII. Bibliography

That’s the basic structure of a thesis right there. If you’re working on a paper that’s a lot less formal yet no less important, however, you can retain the basic idea behind the outline yet write it in a way that’s a lot more compact and less rigid.

This is my own outline or format whenever I write a short academic paper:

I. Introduction

• Statement of the Problem
• Objectives
• Scope and Limitations (when necessary)
• Methodology (when necessary)
• Definition of Terms

II. Review of Related Literature (concise)

III. Body

IV. Body

V. Summary and Conclusion

VI. References

And that’s it. It’s actually very easy and fuss-free. Now to actually get cracking on your paper, you have to figure out how to fill in the details for all those areas in the Introduction portion, but that’s for another day.

XOXO,