Once you’ve gathered your research and started developing your ideas, the next step is to think about how to shape your material into a clear, logical structure. Outlining your dissertation helps you move from collecting information to analysing it and building an argument.
This is where you decide:
Your outline isn’t fixed, it’s a working plan that can change as you draft. But sketching out a structure now gives you a roadmap, making the writing process far more manageable.
Now is the time to get together all your notes, any findings from primary research, and analysis and reflections, and organise them.
Mind maps and concept maps can help you organise your thoughts. Try to identify themes and categories that would be useful for grouping the notes together in clusters. These themes and categories could later become sections of your essay. A synthesis matrix can help you do this.
Ask yourself: What is the central point I want to make? Write this down in one or two sentences - this will guide your structure.
You may need to do a 'discovery draft' or some preliminary writing to help you work out your ideas and thinking. It can be useful to write a rough draft of a 'working' introduction at this stage to give your thinking some direction (you can come back and rewrite it once you have completed the first draft of your dissertation).
Your argument will be the thread that leads your reader through your writing - it will give the writing shape and purpose. However, don't worry if your argument is not fully clear yet. Some students find that they need a complete first draft before they can work out what their argument is. If this applies to you, see your first draft as your way of figuring out what you mean; and allocate plenty of time to review and refine this draft so you can make your meaning - and argument - clear to your reader in your final draft.
An argument can be reduced down to the following formula:
claim + evidence + reasons = argument
Use these prompts to get to your overall argument (these can apply to the whole dissertation; or to individual chapters, sections or paragraphs):
Try explaining your dissertation to a friend.
What feels like the main point when you put it in simple terms?
Try to sum up your main claim in one sentence.
Write your research question or topic, then expand on it:
Take a blank piece of paper.
Put your research question in the centre of the page.
Branch out to show themes, theories and examples.
Look for clusters - do some examples connect to multiple themes? That might signal a core idea for your argument.
Look at your notes and ask: which ideas are evidence and which are claims?
The claims you keep returning to often signal the beginnings of your argument.
You may need to do a 'discovery draft' or some preliminary writing to help you work out your ideas and argument. It can be useful to write a rough draft of your 'working' introduction at this stage to give your thinking some direction (you can come back and rewrite it once you have completed the first draft of your dissertation).
Some students find that they need a complete first draft before they can work out what their argument is. If this applies to you, see your first draft as your way of figuring out what you mean; and allocate time to review and refine this draft so you can make your meaning - and argument - clear to your reader in your final draft.
Before moving on to the drafting stage, the next step is to plan a detailed chapter/ section outline.
Allocating word count at this stage ensures that each chapter or section has enough space to develop your ideas. It can also help you plan your time and monitor your progress during the drafting stage.
Start by drafting the skeleton outline of your dissertation with headings, subheadings and bullet points. Then add content, evidence, analysis and reasoning. In this way you build your argument step by step.
The Dissertation Outline Wizard has been designed by Academic Skills Advisors to help you generate an outline and structure that you can export and save as a Word file.
Introduction – set up the research question, context, and structure.
Chapter 1 – background, context, or theory (grounding your work).
Chapter 2 – focused analysis (primary sources, case studies, or data).
Chapter 3 – extended analysis or synthesis (bringing theory and evidence together).
Conclusion – answer your research question, reflect on significance, and suggest next steps.
Introduction – outline what the chapter will cover and how it connects to your overall question/ argument.
Development – present theory, themes, case studies, or analysis in well-structured paragraphs.
Mini-Conclusion – summarise the key insight and show how it prepares for the next chapter/ carries argument forward.
Claim - state a clear point in a topic sentence.
Evidence -support it with evidence from your research (secondary or primary sources).
Analysis - analyse and explain why it matters.
Link - link back to the research question/ argument and forward to the next idea.
