I need help writing a 4,500 - 5000 word essay!
The prompt is:
Explore the concept of fascist aesthetics by drawing on Susan Sontag's article 'Fascinating Fascism' and Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will".
I need help coming up with an outline - Once I have that done I'm ok, but organizing my essays is always the hardest part for me.
I know I need to define the concept of fascist aesthetics first, talk about the film, and bring in Sontag's essay into play, but I also know that i need to explain a lot about Hitler and the fascination he had with the Greecian gods and Aryan features. There's so much one could say on Hitler, and I DONT want to go off-topic.
So, please help me ASAP!!! Thank you so much!!
You already seem to have a fairly good outline. As for not going off topic, only talk about Hitler's aesthetic preferences, and you will be fine. I sometimes like to create a quote outline. That is, you can just write down all of the important quotations from your sources that seem like they should be in your essay. Then, put them in the order you think you'll use them. Once you have that done, writing the essay becomes ridiculously easy.
I say this all the time, but it is SO useful: Do not worry about the outline, just collect some really well-written articles/chapters/readings, and enjoy them. As you are reading, once in a while you'll be inspired to type a paragraph a thought. When you do, put the name of the author in parentheses after whatever sentence you wrote based on what s/he said.
If you do that for a few readings -- I'd say 12-20 for your 18 page essay -- you will have a long collection of interesting ideas. As you make this collection, you won't know what the thesis of your essay will be, but just trust it. After collecting all these, your thesis will emerge. You'll say, "What does it all mean?!"
Use cut and paste to rearrange them. When you know the hidden meaning in your paragraph soup, write the intro. THEN make the outline based on your completed rough draft.
I know you are probably required to do the draft first. I still think it is easier to write a rough draft using my method, and then make an outline based on the draft. It's SO much easier. Writing the outline first iis like Babe Ruth pointing with the bat at where he will hit the home run: it is a cool trick, but unnecessarily difficult.
Kevin's method also works. Really, when it comes to getting started on an essay, you need to find a technique that works for you. Some people need to come up with an outline. If they just start writing, their ideas go all over the place and they end up being even more confused than before. Or, they just aren't prepared to delete anything they've written, so they keep in material that should have been cut early in the revision process. Other people find it much easier to write the outline last, if it has to be written at all. They come to their ideas through the act of writing itself, and so naturally find it impossible to write an outline of their ideas before they have actually written anything. Be careful, though, when experienced writers tell you that they never bother with an outline. They may think they are telling the truth, but often they are being deceptive. For instance, I never write an outline before I begin work on an essay. However, this is true only in a literal sense. That is, I don't type an outline out in Word. I do organize my thoughts logically in my mind, though, so I am working to a plan. In that sense, I have an outline, it is just that it is a purely mental one. Writing it down would be annoying for me because I can get further faster by just starting on my ideas and cutting and pasting them as I see the need to modify the plan I had in mind.
All that said, if you are really worried about the essay and can't get started, just freewrite. Get something down that destroys the horrible blankness of an empty page or screen. That endless field of white space can be paralyzing, but it is like paralysis in a dream -- it never breaks so that you can move, so much as it breaks just as soon as you start moving.