A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th edition - Kate L. Turabian 2007

Build a storyboard to plan and guide your work - State your question and working hypotheses
Moving from a topic to a question to a working hypothesis
Part I. Research and writing: from planning to production

For a short paper, you might not need a detailed plan—a sketch of an outline might do. But for a long project, you'll usually need more, especially for one as long as a thesis or dissertation. The first plan that comes to mind is usually an outline, with its I's and II's and A's and B's and so on (see 23.4.2). If you prefer an outline, use one, especially if your project is relatively short. The problem is that an outline can force you to specify too much too soon and so lock up a final form before you've done your best thinking.

To avoid that risk, many researchers, including those outside the academic world, plan long reports on a storyboard. A storyboard is like an outline spread over several pages, with lots of space for adding data and ideas as you go. It is more flexible than an outline: it can help you plan your search for evidence, organize your argument, write a first draft, and test a final one. As opposed to lines in an outline, you can physically move storyboard pages around without having to print a new plan every time you try out a new organization. You can spread its pages across a wall, group related pages, and put minor sections below major ones to create a “picture” of your project that shows you at a glance the design of the whole and your progress through it.

2.3.1 State your question and working hypotheses

To start a storyboard, state at the top of its first page your question and working hypothesis as exactly as you can. Then add plausible alternatives to help you see more clearly its limits and strengths. Add new hypotheses as you think of them, and cross off those you prove wrong. But save them, because you might be able to use one of them in your introduction (see 10.1.1).