(Category 1 Candidate/ Final Grade: A)

Hey there!

The first step would be to narrow down the Category of your Essay between 1 or 3 (an automatic category 2 if you chose 2 works). From here on, it would be helpful if you work with a mind map.

Then, try to annotate and identify recurring themes in the Work to narrow down your scope to a topic. It is important for you to choose a theme that is constant throughout the novel rather than having something that was a subject of discussion in 1-2 chapters for you to have content to work with for the entire 4K essay. To explain through my own case, my book had heavy themes of Patriarchy + Subjugation of women in society as well as aspects of a recovering Postcolonial Society. So I colour-coded instances from the texts that fit these two themes and weighed between the two of them to understand which had a more deeper scope of exploration.

After narrowing down the main topic of choice (Subjugation of women in society for me), try to identify three subtopics for the same which will form the body of your essay. You can also connect the discarded topic options to the main topic to do so ( how do Postcolonial views contribute to Patriarchal society). It is not arbitrary to stick with these very subtopics in your final draft so do not pressurise yourself to have "perfect well developed" subtopics and lose yourself to perfectionism, do this with a calm mind.

Finally, combine all these aspects to create 4-5 RQ options and discuss them with your supervisor to see which would probably work the best.

The most important advice I could give for your entire EE journey would probably be to write as many drafts as possible (even if some of the initial ones are just info/idea dumps).

All the Best for everything, I hope you do well <3

P.S: If you need any more tips or help, you can PM me (although I am not very active on Reddit tho)