Someone once said that the difference between a student who can write
effective college papers and turn them in on time and one who can't, is
strategy. This may be an exaggeration, but writers who have a few
strategies to get them started are more likely to be able to work
through the paralyzing writers block that we all experience form time
to time! So, next time you have a writing project, try them and see
which is the most useful.
In order to write an effective paper of any kind, you need to make the topic your own--find something you want to write about that still fits the topic. This may take time. Your ultimate goal is to find a question about this topic whose answer you want to know. The answer becomes your thesis, but the question will take some thinking. The strategies below will help.
| First Questions |
As you think about the topic itself, try answering the following questions:
1. What do you already know about this topic?
2. Where did you learn it?
3. What aspects of the topic don't you know so much about?
4. What aspects of the topic would you like to learn more about?
And for each answer, ask WHY?
As you explore the topic further, keep returning to those questions. List the answers you find and generate more questions. You are looking for one question that fits the topic but that can also generate a debatable answer: a thesis.
As you explore further, think about your audience:
1. Who is you audience for this (not just your teacher)?
2. Who might be interested in this topic?
3. What do they already know?
4. What might you tell them?
5. What questions would they ask you?
6. How might you answer them?
| Nonlinear "brainstorming"
strategies |
Freewrite
- Just write and keep writing
- Don't censor yourself or stop and reread--just write
- When you finish, read what you have written and highlight interesting
ideas
- Then write some more focusing on whatever interesting or incomplete
ideas you found in
your first freewrite
- Finally, stop. Reread, and make a note of what you have found. What
does your freewrite reveal you to already know about this topic? What
does it reveal you to think/believe about this topic? What questions
does it leave? These can be starting places for a paper and even
suggest a direction for a thesis (which is your answer to a question
you generate about this topic).
- Write some key words from your topic on a sheet of paper and then generate related words
- Try to follow an idea thread as the person does below
- Once you have several threads, look for patterns (such as the importance of getting help in the example below). These can lead to a focus and eventually a thesis.
List ideas
- Make a list of aspects of the topic
- Then for each aspect, list attributes, or related ideas
- Try to take your lists down to the farthest possible point. Explore
every option.
- Finally, stop. Reread, and make a note of what
you have found.
What do your questions reveal you to already know about this topic?
What do they reveal you to think/believe about this topic? Which
questions seem most interesting? These can be starting places for a
paper and
even suggest a direction for a thesis (which is your answer to a
question you generate about this topic--or your answer to the question
"so what" about something you discover to be true).
ASK
MORE QUESTIONS
Ask yourself questions such as those below:
| Journalistic questions + one |
The following questions will help you get a sense of
what
happened--which is why they are known as the "journalistic
questions"--a good news story will answer all of them, if only
provisionally. These are sometimes known as "5Ws and an H." To turn a
news article into a college paper, you then have to answer a 7th
question: "So What?" The answer to that question can become your
thesis.
- Who?
- What?
- Where?
- When?
- Why?
- How?
and So What?
| Questions from Classical Patterns of Argument |
Definition
- How does the dictionary define ____?
- What do I mean by ____?
- What group of things does ____ belong to?
- How is ____ different from other things?
- What parts can ____ be divided into?
- Does ____ mean something now that it didn't years ago? If so, what?
- What other words mean about the same as ____?
- What are some concrete examples of ____?
- When is the meaning of ____ misunderstood?
Comparison
- What is ____ similar to? In what ways?
- What is ____ different from? In what ways?
- ____ is superior (inferior) to what? How?
- ____ is most unlike (like) what? How?
Relationship
- What causes ____?
- What are the effects of ____?
- What is the purpose of ____? - What is the consequence of ____?
- What comes before (after) ____?
Testimony
- What have I heard people say about ____?
- What are some facts of statistics about ____?
- Can I quote any proverbs, poems, or sayings about ____?
- Are there any laws about ____?
Circumstance
- Is ____ possible or impossible?
- What qualities, conditions, or circumstances make ____ possible or
impossible?
- When did ____ happen previously?
- Who can do ____?
- If ____ starts, what makes it end?
- What would it take for ____ to happen now?
- What would prevent ___ from happening?
Whichever method you try, when you finish, read over your answers, and make a note of what you have found. What do your questions reveal you to already know about this topic? What do they reveal you to think/believe about this topic? Which questions seem most interesting? These can be starting places for a paper and even suggest a direction for a thesis (which is your answer to a question you generate about this topic--or your answer to the question "so what" about something you discover to be true).
| Tagmemic Questions |
Contrast
- How is ____ different from things similar to it?
- How has ____ been different for me?
Variation
- How much can ____ change and still be itself?
- How is ____ changing?
- How much does ____ change from day to day?
- What are the different varieties of ____?
Distribution
- Where and when does ____ take place?
- What is the larger thing of which ___ is a part?
- What is the function of ____ in this larger thing?
When you finish, read over your answers, and make a note of what you have found. What do your answers reveal you to already know about this topic? What do they reveal you to think/believe about this topic? Which answers seem most interesting? These can be starting places for a paper and even suggest a direction for a thesis (which is your answer to a question you generate about this topic--or your answer to the question "so what" about something you discover to be true).
| Cubing (considering a subject from six points of view) |
1. Describe it: what color, shape, size, etc. is
it? (describe it)
2. What is it similar to? (compare it)
3. What does it make you think of? (associate it)
4. How is it made? (analyze it)
5. What can you do with it? How can it be used? (apply it)
6. Are you for or against it? (argue it)
When you finish, read over your answers, and make a note of what you have found. What do your answers reveal you to already know about this topic? What do they reveal you to think/believe about this topic? Which answers seem most interesting? These can be starting places for a paper and even suggest a direction for a thesis (which is your answer to a question you generate about this topic--or your answer to the question "so what" about something you discover to be true).
| Jacqueline Berke's Twenty Questions for Writers |
The questions below, modified from those developed by a professor at Drew University for her book of the same title, will help you think about the kinds of writing you might do in response to specific questions. As you ask these or any of the questions above, you may have an imediate answer, or you may need to think moreabout the topic in general or the questions. When you do answer them, your answers will bring your subject into focus and provide you with the material to develop your topic. Here are twenty questions or "thought starters" which present ways of observing or thinking about your topic. Each question is most likely to generate the type of essay listed in the second column.
| The questions you can ask
about a topic |
The kind of essay you
might write |
1.
What Does X mean?
|
Definition
|
(Adapted
from
Jacqueline Berke's Twenty Questions
for the Writer)
More advice and resources
| More advice and resources |
For more information and suggestions for planning
papers, see
these handouts from the Purdue University Online
Writing
Lab:
Planning
(Invention): When you start to write
Planning
(Invention): Thought Starters (Asking the Right Questions)
Adapted from:
- Linda Flower's Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing, Gregory and Elizabeth Cowan's Writing, and Gordon Rohman and Albert Wlecke's Prewriting.
- Purdue University OWL guide
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