You will have today and Tuesday's (11/21) class to work on this. That's 150 minutes of class time included in this window.

The outline must be done as follows.

I. THESIS STATEMENT

You must develop a thesis statement. A thesis statement is a brief summary of the argument to be made in your paper. It consists of two to four sentences. For example:

The multinational agreement (known popularly as the "Iran deal") to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons is a bad one. It is bad because it increases the threat that Iran poses to the United States and its allies, especially Israel, Saudi Arabia and the members of NATO. These nations are the likeliest targets of future nuclear blackmail, if not strikes, by Iran. Another consequence is escalation of the Middle East arms race.

II. - V. Consists of central points of argument with subsections that consist of, at a minimum, 3 pieces of supportive information. These subsections are where you should lean heavily on the data (i.e., paraphrases) you collected from your sources. In each subsection, there must be a reference to information obtained from a source and the source must be mentioned. Do so in abbreviated form.

For example:

II. Iran is continuing its development of nuclear weapons since the deal was signed.

A. James Mattis's assessment discussed in Miller, 2016

B. The French foreign minister's statement in Johansson, 2014

C. The Economist, 2015 on the Pakistani scientist helping Iran

III. Some major NATO allies are very supportive of the agreement.

A. Germany is supportive (Grissom, 2013)

B. France is supportive (Grissom, 2014)

C. Past NATO commander are supportive (Alec, 2014)

IV. Other NATO allies; Israel, our closest Middle East ally; and the Saudis are having problems with the deal.

A. blah, blah, blah

B. etc.

C. etc.

V. You get the point by now.

Conclude the outline with a "Works Cited" section, which at this point will contain the sources you expect to be citing in the paper.

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The outline is have no categories such as or even references to "introduction," "body," "conclusion," "history," "background," etc. I DESPISE this kind of practice. The outline is a useful framework to drafting your paper. Think of it as type of rough draft, if you will, as it is part of the drafting process. Once we draft narrative, you will be sufficiently informed and grounded to provide more of your own interpretation, reflection, explanation and opinion on your topic.

Rubric:

3 points for sharply phrased thesis statement.

2 points for each, sharply phrased central point

1 point for each clear reference to information

1 point for including a perfect "Works Cited."