Your outline should reflect the general organizational structure or ‘backbone’ of your paper. It should be approximately 1 page, double-spaced in length. This outline is not written in stone; you are free to rearrange, delete, or supplement the ideas you include here once you receive feedback.
Outline
Organize your outline according to the following sections. Use the section headings
indicated:
2
When you come to write a complete draft of your paper, you will have an introductory section that outlines your critical issue and states your argument. It is meant to ‘draw readers in’ to your paper. Give your readers a sense of where you are taking them by indicating how your paper will be organized.
In 1 concise paragraph (double-spaced), state the following:
What is the critical issue and why is it important to investigate this issue?
What is your argument/thesis statement? This can be provisional, and subject to change.
This is the ‘meat’ of your paper and consists of several ideas or main points that work as building blocks for your argument.
In 2-3 concise paragraphs, lay out these building blocks. Use sub-headings:
Sub-heading one (indicating one thing we know about the topic based on the existing literature) – this can be as little as 3-4 sentences, citing relevant references from your bibliography (e.g. (Miller, 2002))
Sub-heading two (indicating another thing we know about the topic based on the existing literature) – this can be as little 3-4 sentences, citing relevant references Sub-heading three (optional, depending on how much you need to cover)
Introduction
Body
Sub-heading four (this is where you lay out anything else we need to know to support your argument) – this can be as little as 3-4 sentences, citing relevant references
[note, in your full paper, you will have a conclusion section, which brings everything together and summarizes your argument – but for this outline, I am not asking you to discuss your conclusion]

In narrowing it down, think about a question pertaining to police-community relations you are interested in answering through your research. Here are a couple of examples:

– What specific program or programs work to strengthen police-community relations? And why does it/they work? To answer this question, you’d need to study the research evidence (i.e. that a program(s) has been scientifically evaluated)

– What are the biggest challenges to building police-community relations? E.g. reducing use of force, enhancing accountability, promoting community policing. To answer this question, you’d need to look at what the research evidence tells us.