OK, once you’ve done your preliminary deep thinking and your research you can organize your project.
Step One: What are the 3-4 key claims/arguments you want to make? Write them down (1, 2, 3..).
Step Two: What are the passages/quotes from your primary text where you see the claims in step one? Write them down. Step Three: How does your research illuminate your claims/arguments from step one? And/or how does your research illuminate your assessments of the key passages you identify in step two? Write down your answers.
Step Four: What new nuances, contradictions, insights do you see in your thinking? Should you include these in a conclusion, or should you revise/expand on your claims?
Step Five: Notice how your thinking is getting more complicated, more complex. Yay you! Also notice that you have plenty to argue and lots of evidence–you can feel confident that your essay is going to be really good. What’s the working title of your project? If you haven’t already, give your project a title now. You can always change it later. Your title should reflect your topic, your personality, and/or your argument. By including it in your draft, you will feel a sense of purpose in your writing. All of this is time consuming. Please trust trust that this advance work is writing.
You just created the original content. You also have a substantive plan for how you can organize your essay. You should take a break, clear your head, and then start writing. Begin with your introductory paragraph. In this paragraph be sure to introduce your topic, primary text(s), and your thesis. You thesis may appear in several sentences. It states the 3-4 claims you generated from your organizing research questions. Remember that in your introduction, you do not have to prove anything. It’s purpose is to tell the reader what she should expect to learn.
