1. Look for similarities among the essays you've written about and/or read. For example, do at least 2 of the authors address the fact that inferential racism or sexism occur in music videos? If so, then that aspect of the "visual culture" is surely one you should include in your essay.

2. Look for points of agreement and disagreement among the authors. For each issue you identify, examine the arguments used by the various writers. What reasons do they give for holding their positions? What specific evidence do they supply? What rhetorical strategies do they employ to win the audience to their side? Which argument do you find more compelling and why?

3. Decide on your position on each point you discovered in 1 and 2.

4. Next, create an outline for your paper, drawing from the subject matter and arguments you listed in 2 and 3. Your paper should NOT be organized in the same way as any of the articles you are examining. This is your argument, so you should structure it the way you think best. As with any essay, think about the logical progression of your ideas and the transitions you can build between your paragraphs as you construct this outline. {This outline is due with your paper and is worth 10 points.}

5. Write an introduction in which you present an argument about "constructing race" or "constructing gender" as your thesis. Within this introduction you should also insert general commentary about the positions each author you are including takes on the issues you will discuss. (You may include the title of the essays you are examining in this paragraph or later in the paper.)

6. As you write your essay, you will need to bring in the ideas of the various authors you are including while also retaining control of your argument. As much as possible, emphasize the points of agreement and disagreement between the authors as you go. Your reader should learn the following information from your essay:
• the stance of each author on key issues connected with "constructing race" or "constructing gender"
• the areas of agreement and disagreement among the authors
• the relative merits of the arguments presented by each author
your position on the issues

7. While you may need to devote a couple of paragraphs to an aspect of a single author's argument, try to organize your paper so that you bring the views of the various writers together rather than treating them separately. In other words, the paper should be a coherent argument, not a series of summaries of each separate article.