The historical research you've done is one set of evidence helping you to produce that argument, but it's not necessarily the entire story. You'll have to think about questions of genre and form as well. In putting together your argument, be sure to show, not tell. . Paraphrase is useful when you have to compress a lot of historical detail into a short amount of space or to summarize a complicated critical article. But it's not at all helpful when you're trying to argue a specific point.
Poets make choices about which words to use, and their choices carry meaning.
Pay attention to such decisions, and think about their implications. As I've warned many of you in conference, it's extremely easy to be overwhelmed when looking at secondary criticism. This has happened to me, and in a Chaucer course to boot. So start your Term Paper by working directly with the text of Chaucer. Generate ideas and arguments of your own before turning to what the critics have said.