Project Outline Template

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Project Outline for [Project Name]

Introduction

How does my research project improve society?
[Your answer to the question here.]

What are some publications with similar motivations?
[Summary sentence of a broad research motivation that covers many articles.]
[One-sentence summary of an article’s research motivation. Cite article.]
[One-sentence summary of an article’s research motivation. Cite article.]


Research Gap
[Weakness A]:
[Your summary of the weakness]
[Your description of the niche research area where that weakness is evident.]
[Impressions from your Literature Synopsis relevant to Weakness A. Cite relevant articles.]

[Other Weaknesses in the literature]:
follow format of Weakness A above

Research Gap:
[Describe the research gap. Combine the weaknesses to show a broader gap in the literature.]


Research Question

[Your main research question.] (This is the outline’s most important sentence.)
[Supplementary questions that provide context to the main research question.]

What publications have similar research questions?
[Summary sentence of a broad research question that covers many articles.]
[One-sentence summary of an article’s research question. One-sentence summary of articles’ experimental methods. Cite article.]
[One-sentence summary of an article’s research question. One-sentence summary of articles’ experimental methods. Cite article.]


How does my research question fill the research gap?

[Your answer to the question here.]

Methods

What are the stages of my experiment?


Data
(or other experiment stage)
What actions must I accomplish in the Data phase?
[Your answer here. Be detailed. Feel free to add flow charts, outlines, or other organization tools.]

What data do I expect those actions to produce?
[Your answer here. Be detailed. Feel free to add flow charts, outlines, or other organization tools.]

What publications provide precedents to defend those actions?
[Summary sentence of a broad Data procedure that covers many articles.]
[Summary of an article’s Data technique. Cite article.]
[Summary of an article’s Data technique. Cite article.]


[Additional Experimental Stages]

(follow the format of the Data subsection above.)

Results & Discussion

What experimental results will answer the research question?


[Main Result]:
[Your main result here. Brainstorm one or two figures or tables, and write a couple of paragraphs about the result, variables, and relationships you would like to see.]

What publications show similar findings?
[Summary sentence of a broad result or conclusion that covers many articles.]
[One-sentence summary of an article’s relevant finding. Cite article.]
[Relevant figure from the cited publication.]
[One-sentence summary of an article’s relevant finding. Cite article.]
[Relevant figure from the cited publication.]


[Additional Supplementary Results]:
(follow the format of the Main Result above.)