1. Recall the topic for this term paper — "Corporate Power in 2012: A Case Study." What questions and issues does corporate power raise for you, given the research you have conducted on your specific corporation?

2. Review the original instructions for the term paper. Two key aspects of the assignment's format to take careful notice of are (1) your term paper " incorporates original research while engaging issues and debates raised by the course," and (2) "the final product will be around 20 pages in length and integrate five thematic sections, i.e., Essays 2-6."

3. Order the essays you've written so far into their final sequence. I suggest you start by compiling them in this order:

Think about how these essay topics organize an analysis and an argument in a certain direction. As viewed in this order, what new findings, connections, or themes emerge from this new work? Start to develop a new argument that is 'larger than the sum of its parts' — i.e., is more than just an anthology of five separate essays.

Think about the tone your term paper will adopt. Your early essays may have struck a tentative note, using questions or broad speculations to signal the fact that your research hadn't begun yet, while your later essays probably used a more empirical or confident voice, since your analysis now rested on concrete facts. Similarly, your early essays were probably written in the future tense ("I will study..."), while your later essays were written in the present or past tense ("my corporation lobbied on..."). Your final term paper will need to fix these inconsistencies in order to adopt a consistent tone.

4. Revise your five essays into a single body. You are welcome to rewrite, add new writing or sections, delete passages of old writing, or leave as much of your original essays in their original form as you see fit. Your guiding criterion should be: what do you need to do to put together a coherent yet complex argument?

Pay attention to passages in individual essays that are repetitive, and revise/delete them as necessary. Look for passages where you can signal and develop new themes across the larger term paper, and revise them or write new material as necessary. Look carefully at the introductions and conclusions of your old essays. What might have worked well in a stand-alone essay may no longer be as effective, particularly when you now need to make transitions between sections of the term paper.

The term paper should include sections and maybe subsections, each with their own title. These may be the original titles of your separate essays, but think about revising them; earlier titles like "Who bought this election?" may not convey the substance of your argument or the direction of your narrative so well.

5. Write an introduction. The first section of your term paper will possibly draw on material from your original Essay 3, but possibly not much. Your criteria should be: (a) what bigger picture or larger argument does the body of your paper now support, and (b) how can an opening section introduce that bigger picture or larger argument? Don't forget the questions raised in the original instructions — for instance, are corporations "strong" or "weak," and under what contexts?

Remember, you're no longer writing in the classic 5-paragraph essay style you may have learned in high school. Consequently this opening section, there's no need to answer those questions beforehand and preview your findings in a simplistic way. Focus on engaging the reader with your topic and its significance for this year's election. The latter is also a theme of your Essay 2, which you are welcome to integrate into this section as you see fit.

6. Write a conclusion. The last section of the term paper will of course have to tie together the threads of your earlier writings and state definitively the bigger picture you have before you. "Definitive" doesn't mean certain; in fact, your research may raise further questions for investigation, which are proper topics for a concluding section.

The conclusion should also engage issues and debates raised by the course — if you haven't already done so earlier in the paper. Do your findings confirm, reject, or complicate the class dominance hypothesis of Domhoff, or the pro-business worldview like Jack Welch? What are the implications for patterns of socioeconomic inequality (which we studied in the second week) or the global power of finance (described by Gerald Davis)? How does your argument fit within the arc of themes and debates we studied in class? There's no need to run through all of these questions, but find at least one way to incorporate our readings and discussions into your term paper.

7. Use the proper bibliographical format. So far I haven't graded your work in this class based on how carefully you have used the ASA Style of in-text citations and end-of-paper references. I will be doing that for the term paper; your final grade will include how correctly you use this style.

8. Read through and revise your whole paper. How does this new, larger document read? Is your argument clear? Is it maybe too clear — does your argument seem too simplistic or too repetitive? Does it give proper recognition of the complexities and nuances of your findings, particularly once Essays 4-6 are juxtaposed to one another?

Don't forget the best resource for feedback on your term paper: your fellow term students. Use the three questions we've answered before each in-class paper review session to help them give you the most effective comments possible.