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What’s the best way to organize the ideas and details in your research report?

Have you noticed that when your workspace is well-organized, you can get a lot more done? For example, if you’re trying to a cook a meal, it helps if the counter is uncluttered and the dishes are clean. If you have to move things around or stop and wash a bowl, it will take longer to finish the job and might also lead you to make mistakes.

Young person holding a brush and standing behind a counter with a pile of dirty dishes in front of them.

While you won’t need to clean off your desk to finish your culture research project, you do need to organize your thoughts about the culture, and the facts that you found. One way to do this is to use an outline.

Take a look at Dev’s outline for his research project about Japanese culture.

  1. Introduction
    1. What readers might already know about Japan
    2. Some elements of Japanese culture came from other countries―some go back to ancient Japan
  2. There are two main religions practiced in Japan.
    1. Shintoism – has no founder or holy books, focused on Kami, or spirits
    2. Zen Buddhism – was brought to Japan from China, focuses on enlightenment
  3. Festivals are an important part of Japanese culture.
    1. Nagasaki Lantern Festival – celebrates Chinese New Year
    2. Kanda Festival – originally started to celebrate a war victory, but now involves blessing others and wishing them prosperity
    3. Sanja Festival – honors three men who founded an important Buddhist temple
  4. Social interactions are based on the idea of respecting others.
    1. Bowing is a sign of respect – there are different levels of bowing
    2. Staring into someone’s eyes is considered rude and disrespectful.
    3. Helping others save face is very important in Japanese culture.
    4. Guests are treated with great honor.
  5. Japanese forms of entertainment blend old and new art forms.
    1. Amine began in Japan but has become popular in the U.S.
    2. Manga books are read by both adults and children.
    3. Nihon buyo is a traditional dance form that emphasizes beauty.
  6. Conclusion

Question

How does Dev’s outline distinguish main ideas from examples of these ideas?

Using Dev’s outline as an example, create an outline for your own research report. Start your outline on a new page in the Culture Research Report file you created for the previous page. (Be sure to add a section for your conclusion. You'll learn what to include in that section in another lesson.)