I use a “system” sort of like fizgig’s that developed in a sort of ad hoc fashion, but seems to work pretty well for me. (I’m in grad school for English.) I leave out the actual cards, though I used to use them, and instead type my notes into my computer (documenting source and page for each, of course.) I type a lot faster than I write, and I like being able to copy-and-paste from notes to draft.
After doing bunch of reading and note-taking, I come up with a thesis, or at least a topic that I know has a thesis in it somewhere. Write that down.
Then I start writing. Anything. Notes, thoughts, complete sentences, drafts of my thesis statement, quotes that I think I’ll use in the paper and my analyses thereof, questions that I think of, etc. I do this on the computer, which makes it really easy to jump back and forth from one topic to the other (I try to keep relevant sections together). Questions and facts I don’t know go in bold type, e.g. “Pym written 150? years after Cook’s journals.” Sometimes I find areas that I need to research further, too.
After a while, I start to see the structure of my paper’s argument. So I type up an outline. I’m not obsessive about outlining each paragraph, but I do think it’s helpful for seeing how the argument progresses. So at this stage I have something might look kind of like this:
- Intro. Thesis statement.
- Pym. Narrative disruptions.
a. journals
b. factual/historical inserts
c. introduction and appendix
…
- Scurvy.
a. Lamb–physical/psych experience of South Seas
b. But this ignores ENCOUNTERS
- Conclusion. Restate thesis. Further questions?
Now it’s time to write my first draft, which is basically a matter of C-&-P-ing my notes into a new document, organizing them according to my outline. Of course, I have to turn notes into complete sentences, and I always find that there’s at least area that requires further research. Although the actual crafting of prose at this point is hard work, I find struggling for the right words less unpleasant when I know where that passage fits into the architecture of the whole paper.
Umm, I’m also working on keeping research/reading journals for each project, because they’re helpful for longer, more research-oriented projects–basically, I just jot down what I looked at, how I found the source, and a few notes about the topic and its possible relevance to my project.
Chula, I hope your missing paragraphs are recoverable! That’s a nightmare!
Missy2U–I don’t know what “external studies” means, but do you have access to a campus? Because there’s probably a writing tutorial service, or a writing center, and I bet they can give you some ideas on how to plan the stages of your big paper–20 pages is a lot, but if you can break it down into steps it will be a lot easier to get going. The professor should be able to give you some help on where to start, as well. Oh, and reference librarians are your friends–at the school I did my undergrad degree, you could sign up for appointments for research help, and a reference librarian in the appropriate field would show you how to use both paper and electronic resources. I learned about all kinds of crazy stuff that I never would have found on my own, such as subject-specific bibliographies. Congrats on starting college at 36–that takes guts!