Final Outline
Anth 2210
Due: 11/16
For this assignment you are to present an outline of your final paper. There are a few approaches
to this detailed below, but in general it should include:
• A general outline of your argument: given the sources you’ve read and their analysis, what is
your take on the topic/question/issue?
• A sense of how paragraphs will be organized: by point, topic, or source (among others)
• Specific scholarly sources you will be quoting and/or referencing in making your point
You should not only mention the sources you’ll use, but what their arguments are and how you
might use them
Forms of Outline
I’ll be outlining Gayle Rubin’s “The Traffic In Women” as an example for each
Lines and Structure
This is a traditional form of outline. Here you would state your thesis followed by points
supporting it. Then to organize body paragraphs you would state the topic sentence (or just topic)
in a few words. Beneath it you would include a bullet list of points you will raise or sources you
will use
EXAMPLE:
Thesis: Kinship creates the sex/gender systems that dictate power relations and structure the
economy and gendered subjectivities.
• Marx
• Engels
• Levi-Strauss
• etc…
Body 1: Marx: Capitalism relies on the division of labor, but the division of labor predates
capitalism
Sources: Marx’s 1884 manuscripts, letters to Engels
• Some points
• I want to be sure to make
• So I’m writing them here
• Perhaps I’d pull a quote and write a quick commentary, “‘Marx said xyz’” which I think is
smart, but it misses…”
Body 2: Engel’s laid out how the patriarchal family structured capitalism
Sources: Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State
• These points
• Should be related to the topic
• Of the body paragraph
Body 3: Examining kinship is necessary to understand these
Sources: Levi-Strauss “Elementary Forms”
• You get the idea
• Of how this should look
And so on…
Skeleton Draft
This has more involved paragraphs with bullet points indicating where you’ll go with each.
EXAMPLE:
Introduction: [I’m thinking of something along the lines of] In order to dismantle women’s
oppression we must find the origin. Etc, etc, so on and so forth, this is what my intro would be
and right here I would state my thesis.
• Cover Marx, Engels, et al, and capitalism
• Be sure to mention kinship is coming
Body 1: Marx’s theory of capitalism is a powerful way to analyze women’s oppression,
especially by locating it within the mechanisms of capitalism itself. Class relations dictate a need
for reproductive labor which in turn relies on a sexual division of labor.
• These points I will say
• Smart stuff here
• But they should give an idea of where the argument is headed
And so on…