The Research Paper
In Western society, we have a tendency to see things in groups of threes. The Holy Trinity. The legislative, executive and judicial branches. The upper, middle, and lower classes, etc. Papers include an introduction, a conclusion and a body. Many papers have as the body, a section in favor of a position, the contrary position, and then the writer's synthesis. If this is the type of paper you need to write, AND if you don't need too many details because it's an informal outline, you're all set -- as long as you can be reasonably logical and persuasive.

Here's an imaginary informal outline for the organizationally challenged who is stuck writing an outline before writing or even seriously researching the paper.

You may fear or even realize that halfway through the research and writing you've changed your mind and reached a different conclusion from the one listed on your outline. Don't panic. With a little luck, this won't matter to your teacher, so long as you make your arguments well and find the research that supports your new position.

The conclusion may turn out to be several paragraphs or it may require no more than one sentence. Be advised that some teachers look askance at single sentence paragraphs. The best strategy for learning to write pretty much anything -- including conclusions -- is to read what others in the genre have written. Again, reading friends' papers on similar, but not identical topics should help.

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