Here I will address a few things that work for me. They are things that I was originally encouraged to do in high school and have stuck with me ever since. When I was a sophomore in high school, I hated writing. I cringed whenever we were given an assignment. It wasn’t until my teacher told me, “Write on any topic you choose. The topic does not have to be ‘academic’ per say or common at all. ” I went to her to get more specifics and she asked me a few questions:

• “What are you passionate about?”  Music, I answered without hesitation.
• “What type of music?” Metal, I said.
• “Is there a specific band or aspect of this music you would like to learn/teach people about?” (This assignment was supposed to be a highly-detailed research paper.) I’m not interested in teaching others at this point, but I want to learn about several specific bands. That would be cool, I said.
• She then sent me off to narrow these bands in which I was interested down to one.
• I came back, having decided, and she sent me off to find articles, interviews, and other resources concerning the band.

From there on out, things went fairly well for the first major paper that I would call my own. I came to find out that the band I picked also happened to take very strong stands on different social and political issues. To top that off, I found that I agreed strongly with their stances on these issues. Before long I had too much information for the length of the paper we were supposed to do. Then I had to narrow things down, but too much is always better than not enough.

I think the key step is asking “What are you passionate about?” or “In what area do you have or want to have specific interest or knowledge?” These are questions which will quickly get you on a streamlined path towards finding your research and writing your paper.

Although not everyone is likely to fall into the category of ‘passionate,’ each of us has something that is very important to us. Even if your life philosophy is apathy, there is still something valuable to be said or to explore towards that end. There are others who can and will learn from your words and experiences. There are always new things to learn about your areas of interest. Almost always the process of this learning opens you up to even more.

The first thing you need to do is analyze the essay prompt. Within a set of instructions given to you by your professor, you need to figure out exactly what he or she is asking of you and what your essay topic should be about. For example, say you are given the following prompt:

“Describe the events leading up to the American Revolution, and analyze the effects of Great Britain’s new taxation policy on the colonists’ need to revolt. Was ‘taxation without representation’ the biggest issue for the colonists?”

This prompt tells you exactly what you need to focus your essay on. Firstly, you need to describe the events leading up to the American Revolution. In this part of your essay, you would simply tell your reader what happened, leaving your own personal opinion out of the discussion. In the second portion of your essay, you would analyze the effects of Great Britain’s new taxation policy on the colonists’ need to revolt. This will require you to move beyond a mere description of this taxation policy and towards a more in-depth look at how this change in policy affected the colonists’ need for independence and self-determination. The third part of the prompt is asking for your educated opinion: was this policy change the biggest issue for the colonists? Here you would either argue in favor of this view or against it, giving supporting evidence from the course texts and lectures to back up your claim.

Now if your prompt is not as specific as the one mentioned above – say if your professor asks you to write a 10-page paper on some aspect of the American Revolution, then you might need to brainstorm for ideas, keeping in mind that your topic needs to be focused and specific. Writing a 10-page paper on the entire revolution would be too general and superficial (there are whole books committed to the American Revolution!). Instead you need to narrow your topic to a specific aspect of the revolution. “Women and the American Revolution” and “warfare technology of the American Revolution” are narrowed topics, but even these will need to be narrowed further. “How women helped further a sense of patriotism during the American Revolution” and “how new military tactics and technology influenced the American Revolution” are good examples of narrowed, focused topics.

Now that you’ve analyzed the prompt and what your professor expects of you, it’s time to formulate a thesis statement and plan your essay. Some people come up with the thesis first and then plan out the essay; others wait until after they have established a conceptual framework to write a good thesis. The best method is, of course, whichever way works for you. In coming up with a thesis statement, make sure it describes your essay topic and your opinion of it (see the section on Writing your Thesis Statement for more information).

Planning your essay requires that you outline which topics you plan to discuss. You need to outline your essay from start to finish, whether you find it more helpful to come up with a very detailed outline of everything you plan to discuss in each paragraph of your essay or whether you find it easier to briefly note what will be discussed in each paragraph. In our above example, you would start with an introduction (that includes your thesis statement), then you would (using as many paragraphs as you need) describe the events leading up to the American Revolution, analyze the effects of Britain’s new taxation policy, and then give your educated opinion as to whether this policy change was the biggest issue for the American colonists. You would finish your essay with a conclusion that not only restates your thesis but also, and more importantly, states how your essay topic is significant.

Now that you’ve planned your essay, you can begin writing it. The essay pre-writing stage is indeed very important because it allows you to look at not only what you’ll be writing but, more importantly, how and in what way you’ll be getting your point across. Write more coherent and thought-provoking essays – and make the writing process itself easier – by taking time to thoughtfully plan your essay.

Eric Gutierrez
Writing Center Consultant

One of my favorite writing tactics is what I’ll call the “15 Minute Blitz.” If I’m unsure about what I want to write or how I wanted to get started, I employ this tool to get something on that screen in front of me. I set a timer for 15 minutes and type continuously until the timer goes off. I’m not allowed to reread what I’ve written or to go back and make any changes. When I’m finished, I at least have something on the page. I feel better because now I know I have something, and now I can begin to refine my ideas. It’s a lot easier to work with something you already have on the page than stare at a blank screen while ideas swirl around in your head.

This tactic is also a great way to realize what you really want to say about something and can even yield your thesis. It’s similar to stream-of-consciousness writing, in which one simply writes what is on his or her mind continuously for 15 minutes. Stream-of-consciousness writing often surprisingly yields a new conclusion at the end, and the 15 Minute Blitz can work the same way! Without adding all researched, textual support, simply type out what you want to say and why you believe it to be so. Then you will see what your real thesis is! After you’ve cemented what you are trying to say with your paper, you can go back and break up evidence into paragraphs and add the necessary textual support!

Staring at a blank screen? Try the 15 Minute Blitz today!