first few days:

• read text in full, more than once, making notes as i read.
• note down my reactions, reflect on them.
• use text to shape my thoughts: write notes, them shape them into MY argument.
• move between my notes and the text, develop ideas.

next day or two:

• draft my own answer to the question without any scholarly work.

after first draft:

• go to library or appropriate online sources to find out what scholars have said about the question i am answering.
• keep record of everything i read so that i can reference it properly: put quotations in quotation marks and note down page numbers for both quotes and paraphrases.
• read through my own ideas and think about how info from secondary source materials would be useful in supporting my arguments, or whether i have read anything that i would like to argue against.

redrafting until completion

• keep refining my essay