1) Pick your topic.
2) Figure out your goal. Is it to teach? To convince someone of something?
3) Find books, websites, and articles about your topic.
4) Go to the list of resource sites at the bottom of this page to figure out where to start.
5) Take notes not only on what you find, but where you found it (book and page number, website, magazine, etc). You might need it again! - especially for citations.
6) Organize your notes by what they have in common.
7) Slash the trash - if it’s not going to help your paper, get rid of it (this might mean getting rid of fun facts or cool stories that don’t fit anywhere in your paper. Sometimes that happens; don’t worry about it).
8) Start writing!