1. State your purpose Provide a very brief explanation of the scope and direction of your paper. Jorge Luis Borges is commonly considered to have been the first author to conceive of a “multiverse” within a literary format. However, Borges drew most of his inspiration from the work of others and was particularly influenced by the writing of British philosopher Olaf Stapledon, his friend and rival. 2. State the goal of your research In other words, recreate your thesis. What are you trying to prove by writing this paper? Borges’s multi-world theory, most clearly seen within his story “The Garden of Forking Paths,” was directly influenced by Stapledon’s more obscure work, as well as by their ten-year correspondence. 3. State your methodology Tell your reader how you will go about examining the thesis over the course of your paper. By examining both the numerous letters exchanged between the two authors as well as Stapledon’s body of work, the following paper clearly demonstrates that Borges drew direct inspiration from the former’s published works.