outline instruction

It is critical that your outline identify the following:

1. An introduction that provides some background on the company.

2. A description of the company’s core mission/vision

3. Key stakeholders and their stakes

4. Problems faced by the company (with evidence) and their mission/criticalness

5. Key problem statement

6. Causes of the problem (with evidence)

7. Potential solutions

8. An evaluation of the solutions (with evidence)

9. Recommended solution (with evidence)

10. Implementation plan

11. Conclusion

A well-written outline will make the final writing of your paper a breeze. You will have organized your argument and identified the critical pieces of evidence that prove your points. Your points are then organized in a way that “walks” the reader through your argument, so that the inevitable conclusion the reader draws is that your recommendation makes sense because your argument is sound.

In essence, you will be arguing a position much like an attorney argues a case. A basic argument might go something like “if a is true and b is true, then it must follow that c is true.” This is known as a syllogism and is the basic building block of argumentation.

On the following pages is a sample outline to give you some idea of my expectations. While there is no page requirement, I generally expect a research paper of this size to generate an outline 3-4 pages long.

Research Paper Outline Sample

Topic: PSU Graduation Rates

I. Executive Summary

II. Introduction/Position

a. PSU background

i. Urban university of approximately 30,000 students

ii. Location, history, schools & degrees (source, PSU website)

1. Based in Portland, Oregon

2. Formed after WWII as Vanport College

3. Six schools

iii. Student Profile

1. % in state, out of state & international (source, Office of research & planning)

2. Non-traditional student population

b. PSU Mission & Vision (source, PSU website)

i. Let knowledge Serve the City

ii. Internationally recognized, community engagement, research to contribute to economic vitality

iii. Sustainability

c. Stakeholders & Stakes

i. Students = valuable degrees and education

ii. Faculty = stable institution with good research and education collaboration

iii. Community = well-educated employees to contribute to community

iv. Government & Taxpayers = valuable use of taxpayer dollars

v. Alumni = value of the degree and reputation

III. Sense

a. Problems faced by PSU

i. Reduced state funding creates insufficient budget

1. In the last 15 years, taxpayer support has dropped from 50% to 13% of every dollar spent (source, OUS)

2. In the same period, tuition has increased more than doubled (source, PSU office finance & administration)

3. PSU faces a budget shortfall of $20 million for 2011-12 (source, PSU finance and administration)

ii. PSU students don’t graduate at acceptable levels

1. PSU graduation rate is 35% (source, PSU)

2. Average U.S. college graduation rate in 50% (source AAUP)

3. Measurement looks at full time first time freshman, which is a small % at PSU (source)

iii. Mission critical grid

iv. Problem Statement

1. PSU seeks to offer the community well-prepared graduates to contribute to the region’s economy. However, by current standard measurements, PSU graduates a very small percentage of its students. If PSU’s graduation rates do not improve, the community will suffer from and the school could fail to attract top level students and faculty.

IV. Uncover

a. Common measurements only measure first time, full time freshman

i. Approximately 30% of PSU population (source)

ii. Part time PSU population (source)

iii. PSU Transfer population (source)

b. Why is PSU’s population of first time, full time freshman so small?

i. Mission of open access (source)

ii. Lower tuition attracts local population (source)

iii. Relatively high percentage who transfer out (source)

iv. Large transfer population served by 5 area community colleges with good transfer articulations (source)

v. PSU located in largest economic center of state, so more students have jobs (source)

vi. Few housing options for traditional students (source)

c. Why does the metric only measure full time first time freshman?

i. Traditionally used metric that favors the traditional campus and is out of date (source)

ii. Increasing % of students are non-traditional (source)

d. Fishbone diagram

e. Potential solutions

i. Increase number of first time freshmen

ii. Reduce number of part-time students

iii. Create a new metric that includes non-traditional students and publicize

V. Solve

a. Option 1

i. Increase first time freshmen by 15% by more aggressive recruiting and new housing

1. Recruitment process and costs (source)

2. Housing availability and costs (source)

b. Option 2

i. Reduce number of part-time students

1. Offer more classes in flexible time frames to give more options to nontraditional students (source that proves non-traditional students like/use flexible courses)

2. Increase financial aid so students don’t have to work (source that proves students need to work to pay for school)

c. Option 3

i. Create a metric that includes non-traditional students and publicize

1. Including part-time and transfer students raises grad rate to XX percent (source)

2. This places PSU in the XX percentile for grad rates (source)

3. Other schools face similar problem (source)

d. Decision matrix

VI. Build

a. Create metric that includes non-traditional students

i. Ethical screen

1. More accurately reflects the students population and success

2. Most good for all students

ii. Rationale for solution

1. Increases grad rates, which improves reputation and attracts better students (source that demonstrates schools with high grad rates attract good students)

2. Accurately reflects a trend in higher education toward less traditional student body (source that shows that more and more students are transferring, using community colleges and working)

3. Can be implemented at low cost

iii. Cost/Benefit analysis

1. Tangible costs: publicity

2. Tangible benefits: increased # of good students

3. Intangible costs: still not doing well by traditional standard

4. Intangible benefits: better reputation

VII. Achieve

a. Tasks for implementation

b. Schedule for implementation

c. Evaluation metric

VIII. Conclusion