In many ways, you are at the most difficult stage of a research paper. You need to sort through your secondary sources and figure out what they are saying. Then you need to consider how they relate to your primary text and how they may answer your research question. Some of you have found that the sources you have looked at don't answer your question at all. In this situation, there are two ways to proceed. One is to get help from a research librarian and find new sources. The other is to change your focus based on the information you have gotten so far.
Again, this is often the hardest part. It is common to feel frustrated, confused, defeated, to fall into the "dark night of the soul." This, too, is part of the process. Take breaks to clear your head. But also don't neglect to put the necessary time into reading and thinking.
The outline due Tuesday is just an initial sketch. It's your best idea of what the paper will look like based on the evidence and ideas you have now. As I said in class, the format is up to you. I definitely want to see a tentative thesis statement and a basic flow of the argument in the form of the points of the body paragraphs. Literature and Its Writers has some good advice for forming a thesis out of research notes on pages 1629-1631. If you want more examples of outlines, the Owl has some good pages here and here. And the slideshow I presented in class Thursday can be found as a pdf on the class site through MyPortal (look under "files," the name is "MLA-1B-researchpaper2.pdf").
(the image at the top is from Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon)
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