According to the Anchor Bible Dictionary," exegesis is the process of careful, analytical study of biblical passages undertaken in order to produce useful interpretations of those passages. Ideally, exegesis involves the analysis of the biblical text in the language of its original or earliest available form."
The following are several factors that can be considered in exegesis:
textual criticism (original wording of text, beginning and ending points of passages);
historical context (events before and at the time scriptures were written, also includes social settings and culture);
literary context (investigation of sources and authorship),
form (what is the genre?Prose or poetry, etc.),
lexical and syntactical - usage of individual wordsin order to determine the meaning to determine the original meaning.
biblical context (how do the passages fit into the Bible as a whole?)
,structural and theological meaning.
However, beforewriting an exegetical paper, be sure to check with your instructor for guidelines on conducting exegetical research.
Below are links to resources that may be helpful in conducting exegetical research as well as references to useful print Referencesources.