Overview
Sometimes, the most difficult part of writing an essay is getting past the first few sentences or even the first few words. The blank page or the blinking cursor on the blank computer screen mocks the writer who doesn’t know what to write. There is hope, with some strategies for prewriting the essay to get past that first step.
The Free Write
Many students from elementary school on have written freely for 10, 15, 20, or 30 minutes as a discipline every day or every few days. Some people journal to write about thoughts and feelings. It can also be a strategy for prewriting, because eventually a topic that is close to thoughts and feelings will emerge. Jan is a basketball player on the varsity team. During freewriting, she writes about the struggle of balancing conditioning workouts, team practices, and games with getting algebra, history, and English homework done.
Clustering Ideas
Another way to generate the essay topic is by clustering ideas. Write a main topic in the middle of a page, and when write down all the ideas that occur to you about the topic. Suppose that Jim is thinking about choosing a career. Some of the topics include interests, abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and education needed to be successful. Once the ideas are written on the page, they can be connected in a web. If the web doesn’t work immediately, try writing ideas in a list and cross out those that do not fit with the others.
Examining Ideas
Another way to narrow down a broad topic is to look at it from different perspectives. How can it be described? How can it be compared and contrasted? What does the topic suggest? For example, the broad topic of prejudice might suggest segregation to one person and riots and marches to another. How can the subject be analyzed and broken down into smaller parts? Similarly, how can it be used and why is it useful? What are its benefits? What are the reasons for and against it? That strategy is useful when writing an essay about current events.
Write a Draft Outline
Once there are a number of ideas and relationships on the screen, it is possible to develop a working topic and a draft outline. Students who are writing on the computer may be able to start with their list of ideas, copying and pasting those that work together, and deleting those that do not, or at least moving them to another place on the computer screen. At this point, a draft first paragraph might come out of the idea clusters and examinations. The essay probably won’t write itself at this point, but at least there might be something on the page.
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