4.8 Research Project Outline, Draft Thesis Statement, and Annotated Bibliography

This week you will have an outline, draft thesis statement, and an annotated bibliography for your research project due.

Project Outline

The research project outline should provide an overall framework for your research project. Your outline should use a standard outline format. Your outline should include section titles, topics, subtopics, major points you intend to make in your project, citations of sources that support those points, and an indication of your original contributions. Some portion of your outline should lay out the main argument/analysis that you are making in your project.

While this framework/outline may change a little as you progress through your research, this outline should serve as the guiding force through your research project.

If you are unfamiliar with creating outlines, please refer to the Guidelines for Outlining from Hunter College.

Draft Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a one-sentence version of your main argument, which should appear in your introduction. The purpose of the thesis statement is to lay out the argument that you have developed in response to the research question you asked in your proposal. The rest of your project exists to expand on that argument and provide the context and evidence to support it.

Here is an example of a thesis statement:

“As Turkish and Kurdish men’s spatial practices create masculinist spaces in public space these practices are read and racialized as ‘Turkish’ by German residents, politicians, and the media” (Ehrkamp, 2008, p. 118).

Here is another:

“In this article, I argue that the Islamic State poses a challenge to both the conceptual and tactical dimensions of the contemporary territory and territoriality of modern states” (Jabareen, 2015, p. 52).

Notice what these thesis statements do. In both cases, the thesis statement:

1. Clearly identifies the subject of the study
2. States a position that indicates how the author has interpreted the data
3. Is something that other scholars might argue against by using other data, or by interpreting the data differently

Creating a thesis statement is an iterative and often collaborative process, and what you are submitting here is a draft version. You are expected to use feedback from your instructor and your classmates to refine it as needed. As you work toward your rough draft you will continue to research and analyze your subject; as a result, you may need to further refine your thesis statement.

If you need additional guidance on writing a thesis statement, visit the Thesis Statement Tips page from the Purdue OWL. Pay close attention to the “argumentative thesis statement,” which is the kind of thesis statement you should provide in your research project.

Annotated Bibliography

Your annotated bibliography is a brief synopsis of the literature you have been reading with reference to your research project. At this point, your annotated bibliography should have at least ten entries. 

Each entry should be no more than 2 to 5 sentences in addition to the citation. Important aspects of annotated bibliography entries include:

• Literature citation in APA format,
• Brief synopsis of the literature,
• Brief assessment and reflection on the relevance (or lack of relevance) to your subject.
  • Note: Keeping track of articles that do not pertain to your research project is just as important as keeping track of those articles that are pertinent. These articles can provide you with search terms that you may want to avoid, etc. 

An annotated bibliography is not the literature’s abstract.

Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides an excellent description of annotated bibliographies. Cornell University’s Library provides excellent examples to be emulated for your annotated bibliographies.