How do I get ideas for a great coursework essay?

Coursework essays are a great place to get truly creative with your ideas, but don't let the endless possibilities daunt you; there are ways to get going with your work which will give you a definitive structure from which the creativity can flow. Firstly, get reading the primary texts and make sure you engage properly with them before worrying about contextual detail or critical background. It can be a useful exercise to pick small extracts at random and really dig into them - rather than naming linguistic or rhetorical techniques, try and note down ideas that are evoked by what you are reading, and then think about any underlying structures which might be behind those impressions. This will allow you to maintain a personal engagement with the text while also focusing really clearly on the fine detail of the language. Once you've started this, you may already be seeing links between or across the texts. Then work outwards from this close analysis, looking at context or critics that you might have explored in class (or you can be directed to) relating to the ideas that you've collected. From this point, you can focus down to areas of particular interest, or, if you've already been working with a set question in mind, you can refine your ideas further into a more linear structure ready to think about the writing process itself...