Before You Begin: Pre-Writing Tips
A common cliché about writing is that the first sentence of a paper is always the hardest one to put on paper. This is especially true when advance planning and structuring of the paper has been inadequate. Some of the most widely used pre-writing techniques are described below.
Brainstorming
Before you start writing, you should come up with a topic that is adequately important and relevant. This task might seem heavy, so many people find it useful first just to brainstorm for ideas and topics in relation to the assignment in question. Brainstorming is a very simple, but surprisingly productive approach for choosing a topic. Consider the following example:
You are required to write a persuasive essay for your COR/GNE112 class and you might ask yourself the questions “What do I feel strongly about? What is it that I am passionate about arguing in favor of or against?” Undoubtedly, a number of standpoints, arguments and/or general issues will spring to mind. Just write them down. You might come up with fragmentary notes of the sort: “Today’s ‘violent media’ does not create murderers”, “Animals should not be exploited by humans”, etc. Once you have put down a variety of ideas you can proceed to eliminate the ones that are awkward or that you do not feel strongly about.
Narrowing it Down
Beyond COR/GNE, you will be asked to write research papers, where you are expected to cover a major issue in a certain depth within a limited number of pages. This is when narrowing down the topic that you have initially come up with becomes essential.
Suppose that out of the example topics listed above (the results of the brainstorm), you decide on the animal rights issue. In 5–10 pages you cannot explore the whole issue in depth. Therefore, you have to select a certain aspect and discuss that alone. In this example, you might choose “The Use of Fur in the Clothing Industry” instead of taking on the entire issue of animal exploitation.
Identifying the TAP
Before you start writing, you‘ll need to figure out the answers (it is often useful to actually write them down) to the following questions: “What do I want to say/argue with this essay?”;“Who is going to read my essay/who is it directed at?”;“What is it I want to achieve with it?” (also see Writing the TAP).