Once you have a topic, you’ll to need to do some research.
Research should generally be from books or articles. If you don’t know what articles or books might be appropriate or useful, then you could start with Wikipedia articles or other encyclopedic sources, and look at their reference lists for ideas about further reading. These sources are fine as a beginning.
If you find someone whose writing is particularly interesting and appropriate, it is often very useful to see if you can find out what authors they admired and read. You can do this by noting who they refer to, in the text of their writings or in the reference list. You can meander productively through wide bodies of learning in this manner.
Assume you need 5-10 books or articles per thousand words of essay, unless you have been instructed otherwise.
Some thoughts on note-taking
While you are reading, see if you can notice anything that catches your attention. This might be something you think is important, or something that you seriously disagree with, or something that you might want to know more about. You have to pay careful attention to your emotional reactions to do this. This can help guide you which parts of a reading you should take notes on.
When taking notes, you should eliminate the extra detail and concentrate on communicating what is important. Try to take notes after you have read something, with the book closed, so that you are not tempted to copy the author’s writing word for word.
If you find note-taking in this manner difficult, try this. Read a paragraph. Look away. Then say to yourself, out loud, even in a whisper (if you are in a library), what the paragraph meant. Listen to what you said, and then quickly write it down.
Take about two to three times as many notes, by word, as you will need for your essay. You might think that is inefficient, but it’s not. In order to write intelligibly about something, or to speak intelligently about it, you need to know far more than you actually communicate.
Once you have your compiled your research, use your notes you to create your outline topics.
Read our "Notes" article for more information on how to take Notes on Essay.