Obviously, a 25 or 30-page essay is a daunting thing.  However, if you limit your topic, start early, and be diligent in working on the piece, you'll find it much less daunting, promise.

What To Do, What To Do?

1.    Push yourself.  Don't settle for someone or something you've already worked on.  Read/skim all the primary works for the semester and see if something trips your trigger immediately.  If it's a new author/work for you, so much the better.  Much of the research experience is moving beyond what you know (or think you know) in order to discover new and exciting ideas.  Let the very choice of your author/work be the first step in this process.  Check out anthologies, on-line sources, encyclopedias, etc. to get a flavor for the possible lives and works of the author.  Then narrow your focus and settle on an author and/or work. 

2.    Once you've got your focus, read the course's selected text, at least twice.  Then sample other of the author's works, even to skim them.  Sample from different periods of his/her career if you can.  As you do so, keep notes on each piece you read.  This will help you as you narrow your focus toward that final piece you'll write on.  

3.    To reiterate:  read and reread your piece about a million times.  It ought to come to you while you're sleeping, in the middle of a conversation with your mother, when you're eating, and while you're standing behind the musty ninety-year-old woman who fiddles endlessly with her sweat-crinkled coupons at the grocery store check out.  Take notes on the piece, in several colored inks to show what new things you learned or connected each time you read it.  Also, begin to jot notes in a journal on themes and motifs that you're seeing.  Finally, begin to ask questions about the text.  Ask lots and lots, censoring none at this point; some of these you might be able to turn into a Q-H-Q for class even. 

4.    Begin to suss out what holdings MC has on your author/topic and begin to order your interlibrary loan books.  Do this as early as you can; even if you think you won't need it, order it.  You can always send it back -- but you can't see it if you haven't ordered it.

5.    Look again at your journal and ask more and more interpretive questions about your text (i.e. those which force you to argue a point, not just answer yes or no, or true or false), based on your reading of it and the secondary sources you're seeing.  Once you've done this highlight your three best ones, and then circle (or whatever) your favorite of those.  That said, do not fear changing questions or emphasis along the way.  Good research will often lead you to think of better and more interesting questions.

6.    OPTIONAL, BUT USEFUL (I think so anyway):  Now that you're reading around in both text and criticism, and have at least one question you're ready to consider at length, take a break.  Put all the critical books away -- literally -- and sit down and write an instant version of the essay.  Do this in one sitting, without breaks.  You simply want to write out a 5-10 or so page version of the argument you want to make.  Doing so will allow you to see where you vision is weak and where secondary material can really help you make your point. 

7.    Begin to your secondary research in earnest.  This means find the books, articles, and on-line sources which you're going to need to write the essay.  Again, start this process early, basically the day you settle on your topic text.  Because you're going to have to order interlibrary loan items, you don't want to delay beginning to look for critical articles/books on your piece.  There will be an annotated bibliography of your 10+ required sources due eventually.

8.    Generate a prospectus for your piece.