TO

Your outline should organize the arguments you intend to present in your art project, but this process and product are also designed for academic papers.

Purpose:

A thick outline offers you a chance to precisely plan your final product and decide exactly how you will use each of your peer-reviewed sources to support your specific arguments. 

Process:

Choose between 3-5 arguments (no fewer; no more) you would like to address. Brainstorm the support you have for each argument from the peer-reviewed literature you read for your Annotated Bibliography. Label these with 1-3, 1-4, or 1-5 (whichever the case may be for you) in descending order of strength (meaning, #1 is the argument you have the most/best support for). Organize your outline into the same format you would use if you were writing a paper (e.g., intro with thesis statement, second strongest argument (2), weakest argument (last), next weakest argument (next to last) etc., strongest argument (1), conclusion). Sometimes it makes more sense to organize your arguments in a different way (e.g., chronologically, from general to specific, etc.). That is okay, but be sure your choices are purposeful. This is your chance to show me the connections you are making to what you found in your literature search. 

Product:

One-two page outline following an academic format (Intro with marked thesis, argument paragraphs, and Conclusion) with headers (at least Intro, some kind of Body, Conclusion, and Bibliography, but could include others) and detailed, substantial, informative bullet points. This should be a THICCCCK outline. The thicker the better. Give me fleshed-out bullet points with accompanying citations. Include phrases you want to use, specific quotes, statistics; anything you can think of. You want to communicate both what you are thinking and who you are thinking with. I should be able to read your outline and know EXACTLY how a paper you wrote from it would flow. Include a Bibliography with perfect citations at the end. I should be able to identify your thesis (label it!), your arguments, and see the literature you use to support those arguments (both the specific findings and how they relate to your thesis statement).

An example of a thick outline is included in the module for this week, and can also be found in the Files tab.