Your task with your first major paper is to define an idea, or abstract concept, that is important to you. Some examples of ideas are: liberty, heroism, courage, evil, spirituality, and love; these are just examples. Once you think you’ve zeroed in on the idea you want to write about, there are several questions that you could ask yourself as primers. Why is the idea important to you? When did it become important to you? How does your own definition of the idea go beyond a simple dictionary definition, or differ from other similar ideas? If these questions help you, that’s great, but your paper doesn’t need to limit itself to these questions.