The first thing you should do as you begin thinking about the topic and thesis of your paper is read the sample papers on your course BrightSpace page. (If you don't have any sample papers to look at, ask your professor to recommend some example exegesis papers.) These give a good sense of what your professor is looking for. Basically what you'll find is a passage, a topic, and a thesis that argues something about that topic using exegesis of the passage. Then you can use the resources in this guide to start researching your passage and your topic.