Today's lesson focused on how to prepare a formal outline for a research paper. I placed a general outline form on the board: Background, Controversies, Thesis statement , Evidence, and Solutions. I then had Joshua arrange his note cards following the above organization. Subsequently, Joshua began drafting the formal outline using full sentences to describe the background and controversies surrounding his topic. Critically, we next examined and discussed the proposed thesis making sure it was narrow enough to form a foundation for the research paper. Per my suggestions, Joshua formulated a thesis that argues that internet and social media use are addictive and damaging and therefore their use should be curtailed for young people, especially in schools. Joshua also drafted the evidence portion of the outline using topic sentences . Last, we discussed posing a solution in the conclusion of the paper.