When you sit down to write an academic paper, ask yourself these questions:What do I know about my topic?Can I answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, how? What do I know about the context of my topic? What historical or cultural influences do I know about that might be important to my topic? Does my topic belong to any particular genre or category of topics? What do I know about this genre? What seems important to me about this topic?If I were to summarize what I know about this topic, what points would I focus on? What points seem less important? Why do I think so? How does this topic relate to other things that I know?What do I know about the topic that might help my reader to understand it in new ways? What DON'T I know about my topic?What do I need to know? How can I find out more?