developing ideas essay writing

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

• Introduction

Good writing requires good ideas—intriguing concepts and analysis that are clearly and compellingly arranged. But good ideas don’t just appear like magic. All writers struggle with figuring out what they are going to say. And while there is no set formula for generating ideas for your writing, there is a wide range of established techniques that can help you get started.

This page contains information about those techniques. Here you’ll find details about specific ways to develop thoughts and foster inspiration. While many writers employ one or two of these strategies at the beginning of their writing processes in order to come up with their overall topic or argument, these techniques can also be used any time you’re trying to figure out how to effectively achieve any of your writing goals or even just when you’re not sure what to say next.

What is Invention?

Where do ideas come from? This is a high-level question worthy of a fascinating TED Talk or a Smithsonian article , but it also represents one of the primary challenges of writing. How do we figure out WHAT to write?

Even hundreds of years ago, people knew that a text begins with an idea and that locating this idea and determining how to develop it requires work. According to classical understandings of rhetoric, the first step of building an argument is invention. As Roman thinker Cicero argued, people developing arguments “ought first to find out what [they] should say” ( On Oratory and Orators 3.31). Two hundred years before Cicero, the Greek philosopher Aristotle detailed a list of more than two dozen ideas a rhetor might consider when figuring out what to say about a given topic ( On Rhetoric , 2.23). For example, Aristotle suggested that a good place to start is to define your key concepts, to think about how your topic compares to other topics, or to identify its causes and effects. (For ideas about using Aristotle’s advice to generate ideas for your own papers, check out this recommended technique .)

More recently, composition scholar Joseph Harris has identified three values important for writers just starting a project. Writers at early stages in their writing process can benefit from being: Receptive to unexpected connections You never know when something you read or need to write will remind you of that movie you watched last weekend or that anthropology theory you just heard a lecture about or that conversation you had with a member of your lab about some unexpected data you’ve encountered. Sometimes these connections will jump out at you in the moment or you’ll suddenly remember them while you’re vacuuming the living room. Harris validates the importance of “seizing hold of those ideas that do somehow come to you” (102). While you can’t count on these kinds of serendipities, be open to them when they occur. Be ready to stop and jot them down! Patient Harris supports the value of patience and “the usefulness of boredom, of letting ideas percolate” (102). It can take time and long consideration to think of something new. When possible, give yourself plenty of time so that your development of ideas is not stifled by an immediate due date. Compelled by the unknown According to Harris, “a writer often needs to start not from a moment of inspiration ( eureka! ) but from the need to work through a conceptual problem or roadblock. Indeed, I’d suggest that most academic writing begins with such questions rather than insights, with difficulties in understanding rather than moments of mastery” (102). Sometimes a very good place to begin is with what you don’t know, with the questions and curiosities that you genuinely want resolved.

In what follows, we describe ten techniques that you can select from and experiment with to help guide your invention processes. Depending on your writing preferences, context, and audience, you might find some more productive than others. Also, it might be useful to utilize various techniques for different purposes. For example, brainstorming might be great for generating a variety of possible ideas, but looped freewriting might help you develop those ideas. Think of this list as a collection of recommended possibilities to implement at your discretion. However, we think the first technique described below—“Analyzing the Assignment or Task”—is a great starting point for all writers.

Any of these strategies can be useful for generating ideas in connection to any writing assignment. Even if the paper you’re writing has a set structure (e.g., scientific reports’ IMRAD format or some philosophy assignments’ prescribed argumentative sequence), you still have to invent and organize concepts and supporting evidence within each section. Additionally, these techniques can be used at any stage in your writing process. Your ideas change and develop as you write, and sometimes when you’re in the middle of a draft or when you’re embarking on a major revision, you find yourself rethinking key elements of your paper. At these moments, it might be useful to turn to some of these invention techniques as a way to slow down and capture the ephemeral thoughts and possibilities swirling around your writing tasks. These practices can help guide you to new ideas, questions, and connections. No matter what you’re writing or where you are in the process, we encourage you to experiment with invention strategies you may not have tried before. Mix and match. Be as creative and adventurous with how you generate ideas just as you are creative and adventurous with what ideas you generate.

Some Invention Techniques

Analyzing the assignment or task.

What do I do? If you are writing a paper in response to a course instructor’s assignment, be sure to read the prompt carefully while paying particular attention to all of its requirements and expectations. It could be that the assignment is built around a primary question; if so, structure your initial thoughts around possible answers to that question. If it isn’t, use your close consideration of this assignment to recast the prompt as a question.

The following list of questions are ones that you can ask of the assignment in order to understand its focus and purpose as well as to begin developing ideas for how to effectively respond to its intensions. You may want to underline key terms and record your answers to these questions:

• When is this due?
• How long is supposed to be?
• Is the topic given to me?
• If I get to choose my topic, are there any stipulations about the kind of topic and I can choose?
• What am I expected to do with this topic? Analyze it? Report about it? Make an argument about it? Compare it to something else?
• Who is my audience and what does this audience know, believe, and value about my topic?
• What is the genre of this writing (i.e., a lab report, a case study, a research paper, a reflection, a scholarship essay, an analysis of a work of literature or a painting, a summary and analysis of a reading, a literature review, etc.), and what does writing in this genre usually look like, consist of, or do?

Why is this technique useful? Reading over the assignment prompt may sound like an obvious starting point, but it is very important that your invention strategies are informed by the expectations your readers have about your writing. For example, you might brainstorm a fascinating thesis about how Jules Verne served as a conceptual progenitor of the nuclear age, but if your assignment is asking you to describe the differences between fission and fusion and provide examples, this great idea won’t be very helpful. Before you let your ideas run free, make sure you fully understand the boundaries and possibilities provided by the assignment prompt.

Additionally, some assignments begin to do the work of invention for you. Instructors sometimes identify specifically what they want you to write about. Sometimes they invite you to choose from several guiding questions or a position to support or refute. Sometimes the genre of the text can help you identify how this kind of assignment should begin or the order your ideas should follow. Knowing this can help you develop your content. Before you start conjuring ideas from scratch, make sure you glean everything you can from the prompt.

Finally, just sitting with the assignment and thinking through its guidelines can sometimes provide inspiration for how to respond to its questions or approach its challenges.

Reading Again

What do I do? When your writing task is centered around analyzing a primary source, information you collected, or another kind of text, start by rereading it. Perhaps you are supposed to develop an argument about an interview you conducted, an article or short story you read, an archived letter you located, or even a painting you viewed or a particular set of data. In order to develop ideas about how to approach this object of analysis, read and analyze this text again. Read it closely. Be prepared to take notes about its interesting features or the questions this second encounter raises. You can find more information about rereading literature to write about it here and specific tips about reading poetry here .

Why is this technique useful? When you first read a text, you gain a general overview. You find out what is happening, why it’s happening, and what the argument is. But when you reread that same text, your attention is freed to attend to the details. Since you know where the text is heading, you can be alert to patterns and anomalies. You can see the broader significance of smaller elements. You can use your developing familiarity with this text to your advantage as you become something of a minor expert whose understanding of this object deepens with each re-read. This expertise and insight can help lead you towards original ideas about this text.

Brainstorming/Listing

What do I do? First, consider your prompt, assignment, or writing concern (see “Analyzing the Assignment or Task”). Then start jotting down or listing all possible ideas for what you might write in response. The goal is to get as many options listed as possible. You may wish to develop sub-lists or put some of your ideas into different categories, but don’t censor or edit yourself. And don’t worry about writing in full sentences. Write down absolutely everything that comes to mind—even preposterous solutions or unrealistic notions. If you’re working on a collaborative project, this might be a process that you conduct with others, something that involves everyone meeting at the same time to call out ideas and write them down so everyone can see them. You might give yourself a set amount of time to develop your lists, or you might stretch out the process across a couple of days so that you can add new ideas to your lists whenever they occur to you.

Why is this technique useful? The idea behind this strategy is to open yourself up to all possibilities because sometimes even the most seemingly off-the-wall idea has, at its core, some productive potential. And sometimes getting to that potential first involves recognizing the outlandish. There is time later in your writing process to think critically about the viability of your options as well as which possibilities effectively respond to the prompt and connect to your audience. But brainstorming or listing sets those considerations aside for a moment and invites you to open your imagination up to all options.

Freewriting

What do I do? Sit down and write about your topic without stopping for a set amount of time (i.e., 5-10 minutes). The goal is to generate a continuous, forward-moving flow of text, to track down all of your thoughts about this topic, as if you are thinking on the page. Even if all you can think is, “I don’t know what to write,” or, “Is this important?” write that down and keep on writing. Repeat the same word or phrase over again if you need to. If you’re writing about an unfamiliar topic, maybe start by writing down everything you know about it and then begin listing questions you have. Write in full sentences or in phrases, whatever helps keep your thoughts flowing. Through this process, don’t worry about errors of any kind or gaps in logic. Don’t stop to reread or revise what you wrote. Let your words follow your thought process wherever it takes you.

Why is this technique useful? The purpose of this technique is to open yourself up to the possibilities of your ideas while establishing a record of what those ideas are. Through the unhindered nature of this open process, you are freed to stumble into interesting options you might not have previously considered.

Invisible Writing

What do I do? In this variation of freewriting, you dim your computer screen so that you can’t see what you’ve written as you type out your thoughts.

Why is this technique useful? This is a particularly useful technique if while you are freewriting you just can’t keep yourself from reviewing, adjusting, or correcting your writing. This technique removes that temptation to revise by eliminating the visual element. By temporarily limiting your ability to see what you’ve written, this forward-focused method can help you keep pursuing thoughts wherever they might go.

Looped Freewriting

What do I do? This is another variation of freewriting. After an initial round of freewriting or invisible writing, go back through what you’ve written and locate one idea, phrase, or sentence that you think is really compelling. Make that the starting point for another round of timed freewriting and see where an uninterrupted stretch of writing starting from that point takes you. After this second round of freewriting, identify a particular part of this new text that stands out to you and make that the opening line for your third round of freewriting. Keep repeating this process as many times as you find productive.

Why is this technique useful? Sometimes this technique is called “mining” because through it writers are able to drill into the productive bedrock of ideas as well as unearth and discover latent possibilities. By identifying and expanding on concepts that you find particularly intriguing, this technique lets you focus your attention on what feels most generative within your freewritten text, allowing you to first narrow in and then elaborate upon those ideas.

Talking with Someone

What do I do? Find a generous and welcoming listener and talk through what you need to write and how you might go about writing it. Start by reading your assignment prompt aloud or just informally explaining what you are thinking about saying or arguing in your paper. Then be open to your listener’s reactions, curiosities, suggestions, and questions. Invite your listener to repeat in his or her own words what you’ve been saying so that you can hear how someone else is understanding your ideas. While a friend or classmate might be able to serve in this role, writing center tutors are also excellent interlocutors. If you are a currently enrolled UW-Madison student, you are welcome to make an appointment at our main writing center, stop by one of our satellite locations , or even set up a Virtual Meeting to talk with a tutor about your assignment, ideas, and possible options for further exploration.

Why is this technique useful? Sometimes it’s just useful to hear yourself talk through your ideas. Other times you can gain new insight by listening to someone else’s understanding of or interest in your assignment or topic. A genuinely curious listener can motivate you to think more deeply and to write more effectively.

Reading More

Sometimes course instructors specifically ask that you do your analysis on your own without consulting outside sources. When that is the case, skip this technique and consider implementing one of the others instead.

What do I do? Who else has written about your topic, run the kind of experiments you’ve developed, or made an argument like the one you’re interested in? What did they say about this issue? Do some internet searches for well-cited articles on this concept. Locate a book in the library stacks about this topic and then look at the books that are shelved nearby. Read where your interests lead you. Take notes about things other authors say that you find intriguing, that you have questions about, or that you disagree with. You might be able to use any of these responses to guide your developing paper. (Make sure you also record bibliographic information for any texts you want to incorporate in your paper so that you can correctly cite those authors.)

Why is this technique useful? Exploring what others have written about your topic can be a great way to help you understand this issue more fully. Through reading you can locate support for your ideas and discover arguments you want to refute. Reading about your topic can also be a way of figuring out what motivates you about this issue. Which texts do you want to read more of? Why? Capitalize on and expand upon these interests.

Visualizing Ideas

Mindmapping, clustering, or webbing.

What do I do? This technique is a form of brainstorming or listing that lets you visualize how your ideas function and relate. To make this work, you might want to locate a large space you can write on (like a whiteboard) or download software that lets you easily manipulate and group text, images, and shapes (like Coggle , FreeMind , or MindMapple ). Write down a central idea then identify associated concepts, features, or questions around that idea. If some of those thoughts need expanding, continue this map, cluster, or web in whatever direction is productive. Make lines attaching various ideas. Add and rearrange individual elements or whole subsets as necessary. Use different shapes, sizes, or colors to indicate commonalities, sequences, or relative importance.

Why is this technique useful? This technique allows you to generate ideas while thinking visually about how they function together. As you follow lines of thought, you can see which ideas can be connected, where certain pathways lead, and what the scope of your project might look like. Additionally, by drawing out a map of you may be able to see what elements of your possible paper are underdeveloped and may benefit from more focused brainstorming.

The following sample mindmap illustrates how this invention technique might be used to generate ideas for an environmental science paper about Lake Mendota, the Wisconsin lake just north of UW-Madison. The different branches and connections show how your mind might travel from one idea to the next. It’s important to note, that not all of these ideas would appear in the final draft of this eventual paper. No one is likely to write a paper about all the different nodes and possibilities represented in a mindmap. The best papers focus on a tightly defined question. But this does provide many potential places to begin and refine a paper on this topic. This mindmap was created using shapes and formatting options available through PowerPoint.

Notecarding

What do I do? This technique can be especially useful after you’ve identified a range of possibilities but aren’t sure how they might work together. On individual index cards, post-its, or scraps of paper, write out the ideas, questions, examples, and/or sources you’re interested in utilizing. Find somewhere that you can spread these out and begin organizing them in whatever way might make sense. Maybe group some of them together by subtopic or put them in a sequential order. Set some across from each other as conflicting opposites. Make the easiest organization decisions first so that the more difficult cards can be placed within an established framework. Take a picture or otherwise capture the resulting schemata. Of course, you can also do this same kind of work on a computer through software like Prezi or even on a PowerPoint slide.

Why is this technique useful? This technique furthers the mindmapping/clustering/webbing practice of grouping and visualizing your thoughts. Once ideas have been generated, notecarding invites you to think and rethink about how these ideas relate. This invention strategy allows you to see the big picture of your writing. It also invites you to consider how the details of sections and subsections might connect to each other and the surrounding ideas while giving you a sense of possible sequencing options.

The following example shows what notecarding might look like for a paper being written on the Clean Lakes Alliance—a not-for-profit organization that promotes the improvement of water quality in the bodies of water around Madison, Wisconsin. Key topics, subtopics, and possible articles were brainstormed and written on pieces of paper. These elements were then arranged to identify possible relationships and general organizational structures.

What do I do? Take the ideas, possibilities, sources, and/or examples you’ve generated and write them out in the order of what you might address first, second, third, etc. Use subpoints to subordinate certain ideas under main points. Maybe you want to identify details about what examples or supporting evidence you might use. Maybe you just want to keep your outline elements general. Do whatever is most useful to help you think through the sequence of your ideas. Remember that outlines can and should be revised as you continue to develop and refine your paper’s argument.

Why is this technique useful? This practice functions as a more linear form of notecarding. Additionally, outlines emphasize the sequence and hierarchy of ideas—your main points and subpoints. If you have settled on several key ideas, outlining can help you consider how to best guide your readers through these ideas and their supporting evidence. What do your readers need to understand first? Where might certain examples fit most naturally? These are the kinds of questions that an outline can clarify.

Asking Questions

Topoi questions.

In the introduction, we referenced the list that Aristotle developed of the more than two dozen ideas a person making an argument might use to locate the persuasive possibilities of that argument. Aristotle called these locations for argumentative potential “topoi.” Hundreds of years later, Cicero provided additional advice about the kinds of questions that provide useful fodder for developing arguments. The following list of questions is based on the topoi categories that Aristotle and Cicero recommended.

What do I do? Ask yourself any of these questions regarding your topic and write out your answers as a way of identifying and considering possible venues for exploration. Questions of definition: What is ____? How do we understand what ____ is? What is ____ comprised of?

Questions of comparison: What are other things that ____ is like? What are things that are nothing like ____?

Questions of relationship: What causes ____? What effects does ____ have? What are the consequences of ____?

Questions of circumstances: What has happened with ____ in the past? What has not happened with ____ in the past? What might possibly happen with ____ in the future? What is unlikely to happen with ____ in the future?

Questions of testimony: Who are the experts on ____ and what do they say about it? Who are people who have personal experience with ____ and what do they think about it?

If any of these questions initiates some interesting ideas, ask follow-up questions like, “Why is this the case? How do I know this? How might someone else answer this question differently?”

Why is this technique useful? The questions listed above draw from what both Aristotle and Cicero said about ways to go about inventing ideas. Questions such as these are tried-and-true methods that have guided speakers and writers towards possible arguments for thousands of years.

Journalistic Questions

What do I do? Identify your topic, then write out your answers in response to these questions:      Who are the main stakeholders or figures connected to ____?      What is ____?      Where can we find ____?  Where does this happen?      When or under what circumstances does ____ occur?      Why is ____ an issue?  Why does it occur? Why is it important?      How does ____ happen?

Why is this technique useful? This line of questioning is designed to make sure that you understand all the basic information about your topic. Traditionally, these are the kinds of questions that journalists ask about an issue that they are preparing to report about. These questions also directly relate to the Dramatistic Pentad developed by literary and rhetorical scholar Kenneth Burke. According to Burke, we can analyze anyone’s motives by considering these five parts of a situation: Act ( what ), Scene ( when and where ), Agent ( who ), Agency ( how ), and Purpose ( why ). By using these questions to identify the key elements of a topic, you may recognize what you find to be most compelling about it, what attracts your interest, and what you want to know more about.

Particle, Wave, Field Questions

One way to start generating ideas is to ask questions about what you’re studying from a variety of perspectives. This particular strategy uses particles, waves, and fields as metaphorical categories through which to develop various questions by thinking of your topic as a static entity (particle), a dynamic process (wave), and an interrelated system (field).

What do I do?

Ask yourself these questions about your issue or topic and write down your responses:

• In what ways can this issue be considered a particle, that is, a discrete thing or a static entity?
• How is this issue a wave, that is, a moving process?
• How is this issue a field, that is, a system of relationships related to other systems?

Why is this technique useful?

This way of looking at an issue was promoted by Young, Becker, and Pike in their classic text Rhetoric: Discovery and Change . The idea behind this heuristic is that anything can be considered a particle, a wave, and a field, and that by thinking of an issue in connection to each of these categories you’ll able to develop the kind of in-depth questions that experts ask about a topic. By identifying the way your topic is a thing in and of itself, an activity, and an interrelated network, you’ll be able to see what aspects of it are the most intriguing, uncertain, or conceptually rich.

The following example takes the previously considered topic—environmental concerns and Lake Mendota—and shows how this could be conceptualized as a particle, a wave, and a field as a way of generating possible writing ideas.

Particle: Consider Lake Mendota and its environmental concerns as they appear in a given moment. What are those concerns right now? What do they look like? Maybe it’s late spring and an unseasonably warm snap has caused a bunch of dead fish to wash up next to the Tenney Lock. Maybe it’s a summer weekend and no one can go swimming off the Terrace because phosphorous-boosted blue-green algae is too prevalent. Pick one, discrete environmental concern and describe it. Wave: Consider environmental concerns related to Lake Mendota as processes that have changed and will change over time. When were the invasive spiny water fleas first discovered in Lake Mendota? Where did they come from? What has been done to respond to the damage they have caused? What else could be proposed to resolve this problem. How is this (or any other environmental concern) a dynamic process? Field: Consider Lake Mendota’s environmental concerns as they relate to a range of disciplines, populations, and priorities. What recent limnology findings would be of interest to ice fishing anglers? How could the work being done on agricultural sustainability connect to the discoveries being made by chemists about the various compounds present in the water? What light could members of the Ho-Chunk nation shed on Lake Mendota’s significance? Think about how environmental and conservation concerns associated with this lake are interconnected across different community members and academic disciplines.

Moving Around

Get away from your desk and your computer screen and do whatever form of movement feels comfortable and natural for you. Get some fresh air, take a walk, go jogging, get on your bike, go for a swim, or do some yoga. There is no correct degree or intensity of movement in this process; just do what you can and what you’re most likely to enjoy. While you’re moving, you may want to zone out and give yourself a strategic break from your writing task. Or you might choose to mull your tentative ideas for your paper over in your mind. But whether you’re hoping to think of something other than your paper or you need to generate a specific idea or resolve a particular writing problem, be prepared to record quickly any ideas that come up. If bringing along paper or a small notebook and a pen is inconvenient, just texting yourself your new idea will do the trick. The objective with this technique is both to distance yourself from your writing concerns and to encourage your mind to build new connections through engaging in physical activity.

Numerous medical studies have found that aerobic exercise increases your body’s concentration of the proteins that help nerves grow in the parts of your brain where learning and higher thinking happens (Huang et al.). Similarly, from their review of the literature about how yoga benefits the brain, Desei et al. conclude that yoga boosts overall brain activity. Which is to say that moving physiologically helps you think.

Dr. Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, an associate professor of English at Belmont University and an alum of UW-Madison’s graduate program in Composition and Rhetoric Program and a former assistant director of Writing Across the Curriculum at UW-Madison, investigates the writerly benefits of walking. She provides a full treatment of how this particular form of movement can productively support writing in her book Afoot and Lighthearted: A Mindful Walking Log . In the following passage, she argues for a connection between creative processes and walking, but much of what she suggests is equally applicable to the beneficial value of other forms of movement.

A walk stimulates creativity after a ramble has concluded, when you find yourself back at your desk, before your easel, or in your studio. In 2014, Stanford University researchers Marily Opprezzo and Daniel L. Schwarz confirmed that walking increases creative ideation in real time (while the walker walkers) and shortly after (when the walker stops and sits down to create). Specifically, they found that walking led to an increase in “analogical creativity” or using analogies to develop creative relationships between things that may not immediately look connected. So when ancient Greek physician Hippocrates famously declared that walking is “the best medicine,” he seems to have had it right. When we walk, blood and oxygen circulate throughout the body’s organs and stimulate the brain. Walking’s magic is in fact threefold: it increases physical activity, boosts creativity, and brings you into the present moment.

Similarly, in her post about writing and jogging for the UW-Madison Writing Center’s blog, Literary Studies PhD student Jessie Gurd has explained:

What running allows me to do is clear my head and empty it of a grad student’s daily anxieties. Listening to music or cicadas or traffic, I can consider one thing at a time and turn it over in my mind. It’s a groove I hit after a couple of miles; I engage with the problem, question, or task I choose and roll with it until my run is over. In this physical-mental space, I sometimes feel like my own writing instructor as I tackle some stage of the writing process: brainstorming, outlining, drafting.

While Bonnie Smith Whitehouse walks as an important part of her writing process and Jessie Gurd runs to write, what intentional movement looks like for you can be adapted according to your interests, preferences, and abilities. Whether it’s strolling, jogging, doing yoga, or participating in some other form of movement, these physical activities allow you to take a purposeful break that can help you concentrate your mind and even generate new conceptual connections.

All aspects of writing require hard work. It takes work to develop organizational strategies, to sequence sentences, and to revise paragraphs. And it takes work to come up with the ideas that will fill these sentences and paragraphs in the first place. But if you feel burdened by the necessity to develop new concepts, the good news is that you’re not the first writer who’s had to begin responding to an assignment from scratch. You are backed by a vast history of other writers’ experiences, a history that has shaped a collective understanding of how to get started. So, use the experience of others to your advantage. Try a couple of these techniques and maybe even develop some other methods of your own and see what new ideas these old strategies can help you generate!

Works Cited

Aristotle. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse . Edited and translated by George Kennedy, Oxford University Press, 1991.

Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives . University of California Press, 1969.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. On Oratory and Orators . Edited and translated by J.S. Watson, Southern Illinois University Press, 1986.

Desai, Radhika, et al. “Effects of Yoga on Brain Waves an Structural activation: A review.” Complementary Therapies in clinical Practice ,vol, 21, no, 2, 2015, pp. 112-118.

Gurd, Jessie. “Writing Offstage.” Another Word , The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 7 October 2013, https://writing.wisc.edu/blog/writing-offstage/ . Accessed 5 July 2018.

Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts . Utah State University Press, 2006.

Huang, T. et al. “The Effects of Physical Activity and Exercise on Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Healthy Humans: A Review.” Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports , vol. 24, no. 1, 2013. Wiley Online Library , https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12069 .

Oppezzo, Marily, and Daniel L. Schwartz. “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition , vol. 40, no. 4, 2014, pp. 1142-52.

Smith Whitehouse, Bonnie, email message to author, 19 June 2018.

Young, Richard E., Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike. Rhetoric: Discovery and Change . Harcourt College Publishing, 1970.

Writing Process and Structure

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Developing a Thesis Statement

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

Developing Ideas

Is your essay too short? Has the instructor asked you to "develop" or expand on points in your paper? Are you not sure what else you can say about your topic? It's possible you need to do some more research so you'll have more material to include—you can visit a research librarian to help you find more sources. More than likely, though, you need to say more about the points you're already making. But don't simply repeat or add fluffy language to reach your page count. Your instructors want to see you provide depth and analysis about your topic. This handout provides various strategies for developing your thoughts, giving you more rich material to write about.

Types of Development

• Details: Ask yourself the Five W's and How: Who? Where? What? When? Why? and How? Be specific and thorough.

Peter, an overly anxious person, sat trembling in the old decrepit gymnasium on the coldest of fall mornings, awaiting the ACT—a test he know he needed to do well on to enter college.

• Amplification: Expand a previous idea by sticking with it in subsequent sentences:

College is frustrating. It takes a lot of time and energy. However, students continue to apply.

• Appealing to Emotion: What images, ideas, events, and memories do you want to trigger in your readers' mind?

The fact remains—a student drops out of high school every 26 seconds in the U.S. ("11 Facts About High School Dropout Rates").

• Analysis: To develop your argument, reflect on the significance of quotes, facts, ideas, and broader claims you are making. Ask yourself, "What does this quote or idea or statistic really mean? Why did I include it or think it important to my point?"

The Reds' baseball home opener drew in countless spectators—a sea of red. Yet why Cincinnati? Historically, professional baseball players were quite invested in their communities, much like Cincinnati is known by its neighborhoods today.

• Citing Authority: What major authority figures (e.g. scholars, book editors, politicians, scientists) will support your argument?

The surgeon general claims...

• Analogy: Make an argument based on the similarity of one thing to another.

Applying for graduate school is like searching for a partner: it's a courtship. You need to work at it, remaining patient. Research the school online; schedule a visit, meet with a professor or student in person. You will find your match eventually.

• Qualification: Cover all your bases. Especially if you are making a new or bold argument that goes against the trend, you want to qualify what you are saying to limit your reader's interpretations (that is, so they don't take your ideas out of context).

I by no means want to suggest that all teachers lack organizational skills.

• Application: Readers often like to imagine or consider what you are saying in practice.

If an athlete were to apply Dr. X's theory to athletic training practices, she would find it quite difficult to actually perform Dr. X's theoretical ideas in a real-world context.

• Talking It Out. Sometimes you just need to "bounce ideas back and forth" with someone. Consider asking a classmate or friend if you can "talk out" your argument. You will be surprised just how helpful it can be to articulate your ideas out loud. Howe Writing Center consultants are specially trained to help with this "back and forth" of ideas—consider making an appointment to practice this strategy.
• Diagramming. Especially if you are trying to add more detail to your writing, make a list of as many descriptions, ideas, or sources (even if only books or articles you want to read at a later point). Who/What are the key figures in a debate? What are the most essential elements of your story?
• Free Writing. Without worrying about grammar or organization, "free write" about a topic for 10-15 minutes. Just write down whatever comes to mind, even if your sentences feel fragmented. Reread your writing. Pick out a sentence or idea and write about that for another 10-15 minutes. Continue reading and writing to see how far your free-flowing ideas can take you.
• Looking to Models. Look up an academic article or another piece of writing typical of your field of study or current type of project (many articles found through the library databases work well). How are other scholars/writers developing their ideas? How do they back their claims?
• Interviewing. There are of course multiple types of "sources" (e.g. books, articles, digital media, as well as people). To develop your ideas on a specific topic—especially if your research is new and cutting edge—interviewing to gain insight can glean quite productive results. Remember to get permission from anyone you interview to use their words (also remember to follow university protocol for ethical research practices).
• Researching (Internet and Library Resources). While a "Google search" is often an appropriate starting point, the library databases contain countless articles and research data you can access to give your paper authority and depth. Don't hesitate to contact a librarian or make an appointment with the Howe Writing Center for help with this strategy.

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Essay Writing

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

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This resource begins with a general description of essay writing and moves to a discussion of common essay genres students may encounter across the curriculum. The four genres of essays (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) are common paper assignments you may encounter in your writing classes. Although these genres, also known as the modes of discourse, have been criticized by some composition scholars, the Purdue OWL recognizes the wide spread use of these genres and students’ need to understand and produce these types of essays. We hope these resources will help.

The essay is a commonly assigned form of writing that every student will encounter while in academia. Therefore, it is wise for the student to become capable and comfortable with this type of writing early on in her training.

Essays can be a rewarding and challenging type of writing and are often assigned either to be done in class, which requires previous planning and practice (and a bit of creativity) on the part of the student, or as homework, which likewise demands a certain amount of preparation. Many poorly crafted essays have been produced on account of a lack of preparation and confidence. However, students can avoid the discomfort often associated with essay writing by understanding some common genres.

Before delving into its various genres, let’s begin with a basic definition of the essay.

What is an essay?

Though the word essay has come to be understood as a type of writing in Modern English, its origins provide us with some useful insights. The word comes into the English language through the French influence on Middle English; tracing it back further, we find that the French form of the word comes from the Latin verb exigere , which means "to examine, test, or (literally) to drive out." Through the excavation of this ancient word, we are able to unearth the essence of the academic essay: to encourage students to test or examine their ideas concerning a particular topic.

Essays are shorter pieces of writing that often require the student to hone a number of skills such as close reading, analysis, comparison and contrast, persuasion, conciseness, clarity, and exposition. As is evidenced by this list of attributes, there is much to be gained by the student who strives to succeed at essay writing.

The purpose of an essay is to encourage students to develop ideas and concepts in their writing with the direction of little more than their own thoughts (it may be helpful to view the essay as the converse of a research paper). Therefore, essays are (by nature) concise and require clarity in purpose and direction. This means that there is no room for the student’s thoughts to wander or stray from his or her purpose; the writing must be deliberate and interesting.

This handout should help students become familiar and comfortable with the process of essay composition through the introduction of some common essay genres.

This handout includes a brief introduction to the following genres of essay writing:

• Expository essays
• Descriptive essays
• Narrative essays
• Argumentative (Persuasive) essays

The Writing Process

Making expository writing less stressful, more efficient, and more enlightening, search form, step 1: generate ideas.

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” —Albert Einstein

In expository writing, though, even for a research paper, you will want to "generate ideas" first. Why? First, you will want to see what you already know and think about a subject. Second, you will want to see what ideas you can come up with yourself. And third, the methods below will help you define what questions you want to start your research with.

Moreover, freewriting is often useful to non-native speakers of English who still struggle with fluency (i.e., writing quickly or relatively easily, in contrast to accuracy, which an overriding concern for at this stage of the writing process can inhibit the flow of words and ideas).

There are four primary methods of generating ideas:

• Brainstorming
• Freewriting
• Idea Map/Web
• "Moodling "

Photo "Büro im Wasser" from Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-08112 / CC-BY-SA. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 de via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo "Ideas" ©2014 Rafal Knop

Developing Ideas for Writing

Prewriting definition.

Prewriting means just what it says—it’s the writing that occurs before you actually write a draft. Richard Nordquist writes that

“In composition, the term prewriting refers to any activity that helps a writer think about a topic, determine a purpose, analyze an audience, and prepare to write.  Prewriting is closely related to the art of invention in classical rhetoric.

‘The objective of prewriting,’ according to Roger Caswell and Brenda Mahler, ‘is to prepare students for writing by allowing them to discover what they know and what else they need to know. Prewriting invites exploration and promotes the motivation to write’ ( Strategies for Teaching Writing , 2004).” [1]

In order to explore and identify what might be fruitful ideas for writing, I tend to jot concepts, phrases, and notes to myself.  Sometimes I draw linkages to connect related ideas. Other writers tend to just write in order to explore and identify patterns of thought. Still other writers list out all of the concepts and information they can think of around a certain topic, and then narrow and refine their lists. Others start writing a really “drafty draft” of an essay, and then circle back into prewriting strategies to develop ideas. Any prewriting strategy is fine, depending on “how your mind thinks” and how you like to discover and explore ideas.

Prewriting Processes

(text from here to end of page © Empire State College)

How do writers develop ideas for writing? Writers use many techniques, and it’s a bet that most of the techniques involve writing itself. Think of a composer creating ideas for a song by playing notes on a piano keyboard. Think of a sculptor creating ideas for a statue by shaping and reshaping pieces of clay. Think of a quilter creating ideas for a quilt pattern by arranging and rearranging different snippets of fabric. All creative endeavors go through preliminary stages in which creators generate ideas, discard some, and play with others that capture their imaginations or that seem to “fit the bill.” Each creator develops ideas by getting immersed and “doodling” in the particular medium. And writing is no different. In writer’s terms, that preliminary stage of idea development is called “prewriting.”

Prewriting usually is messy in terms of having ideas scattered all over the place–think of the quilter with pieces of fabric all over the living room floor. For a lot of people, it’s liberating to be messy and not worry about logic, pattern, or final form. That’s the purpose of prewriting, to be as free-ranging as possible in generating ideas. If you’re aggravated by mess, then prewriting can be thought of as pre-planning, as a means of generating the ideas and data that will help you create the essay draft. Either way, prewriting is a stage of idea incubation, a way to generate ideas and capture your thoughts through writing.

Ideas for writing develop in many ways, and prewriting techniques reflect the different ways in which ideas can develop. Some forms of prewriting are intended to help you bring subconscious ideas and interests into consciousness (some forms help if you tend to draw a blank when you’re asked to “write about what interests you”):

• Freewriting
• Brainstorming
• Clustering/mapping
• Maintaining a personal journal

Other forms of prewriting are intended to help you generate your own ideas in response to others’ ideas:

• Responding to a text
• Maintaining a response journal

Still other forms of prewriting are intended to help you both generate and focus ideas about a subject that you’ve already chosen:

• Asking questions about a subject
• Making a list
• Idea Matrix for College Writing
• Working with Prewriting

The following videos explain different strategies for prewriting. Although you’ll read about these strategies and more in the upcoming pages, these videos provide a good introduction to some basic approaches to prewriting.

[1] Nordquist, Richard. “Prewriting (Composition).” Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms , ThoughtCo., 6 Mar. 2017, www.thoughtco.com/prewriting-composition-1691676.

• Developing Ideas for Writing. Text under Prewriting Definition. Authored by : Susan Oaks. Provided by : Empire State College, SUNY OER Services. Project : College Writing. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• image of student at computer, biting a pencil. Authored by : JESHOOTScom. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/laptop-woman-education-study-young-3087585/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• image of lightbulb inside of an idea bubble drawn on a blackboard. Authored by : TeroVesalainen. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/thought-idea-innovation-imagination-2123970/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• image of quilting fabric and tools. Authored by : adonyig. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/quilting-mood-sewing-thread-2482472/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• video Prewriting Strategies. Authored by : Leslie Cox. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQJSrQT9loI . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• video Prewriting Techniques. Authored by : Tamara Harvell. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pSfRAB2ABU . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• Text under Prewriting Processes. Authored by : Susan Oaks, Elaine Handley. Provided by : Empire State College. Located at : https://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/resources/academic-writing/process/prewriting-developing-ideas/ . Project : Writing Resources. License : All Rights Reserved . License Terms : Copyright, Empire State College. Used with permission.

Developing Your Ideas

Details bring our ideas to life. A conversation without details is like a blank canvas, plain and lacking color until the painter arrives. When we talk with others, the details we provide help our listeners better understand our ideas. Providing details and support for our ideas is called development.Writers who develop their ideas usually do a better job of keeping their readers' attention and gaining their readers' trust. To develop your ideas, you'll need to know what types of development you should use with your particular audience and focus. With this information, you can then present convincing details to your readers.

A Definition of Development

Development is how writers choose to elaborate their main ideas. Typically, we associate development with details because specifics help make generalizations (the main idea, claim or thesis) more concrete.

Reasons for Developing Your Writing

Kate Kiefer, English Department Students need to be concerned with development for two main reasons:

• Details tend to be more persuasive and engaging than generalities. Most readers tend to get tired of reading texts that require them to fill in the gaps. (Obviously, those texts leave more room for readers to fill in what they want to and not necessarily what the writer intended, and so general texts also tend to be less successful in communicating ideas.) Details are more memorable than generalities and keep readers' attention more fully engaged on the text.
• Details tend to show what we know. In an academic setting in our culture, grasp of details sets apart the "C" student from the "A" student. Academic survival often depends on being able to prove control of a subject matter, and that control gets communicated through effective use of detail.

Types of Development

Steve Reid, English Department We think about development as being a variety of different things. It can be a specific example from the writer's experience. It could be statistics that the writers have. It could be quotations from authorities that the writers have found. It could be first hand observations. It could be an interview.

All writing uses various devices to develop ideas. Some are more appropriate than others, depending on the writing task. As a writer, you need to know what counts as development in the discipline you are writing for. Writing about the same topic for different assignments often requires you to adjust what details you use. For example, one essay on OJ Simpson might require your personal reaction to the verdict, while another essay might require researched statistics. Often, you will combine different types of evidence to develop your writing.

Amplification

Amplifications expand previous ideas. Writers use this form of development to clarify and further explain the points they make. This helps readers gain a complete understanding of the topic being discussed. The previous three sentences are good examples of amplification. Each sentence elaborates the first idea, "Amplifications expand previous ideas."

Appeal to Emotions

An appeal to emotions can make your claim more effective in some situations. It is often used, for example, by anti-abortion groups. They use emotionally charged words to support their position on the issue. This is often quite effective and is used more and more on both sides of the abortion issue. Appeals to emotions can be used in various arguments. You can use one in an article about computers, in which you suggest that computers are the soulless creations of a godless world. You can use them in an article about kitchen utensils, in which you say the type of pots and pans you recommend would harken back the good old days of homemade soups slowly simmering on the stove, of bacon and eggs prepared with the care and concern of those who cook for the ones they love. The important thing to consider in an appeal to emotion is the type of emotion you want to arouse in your reader, the effect you want this emotion to have, and the way that you can instill the emotion into your main idea.

Cite Authority

To cite authority means to quote or use information from a respected person in the field in which you are writing. If you are writing an article on the space program, it might be useful to quote Werner Von Braun. If you are writing an article on religion, you could quote one or more theologians. If you are writing on psychology, you might want to look at books or articles written by people who are doing important work in that field.

Cite Common Assumptions

People find it easy to agree with things that "everybody knows." If you can cite commonly held assumptions to back up your claims, your reader will often be more receptive to your claims. To use a common assumption, you need to understand the background of your readers. What are their prejudices? What are their concerns? How do they differ from other groups of people? This strategy is similar to citing authority. It has limitations, and it runs the risk of backfiring if you later discover the assumption you've cited is not one your readers share. But it can be effective and, if done subtlety, can strengthen your argument considerably.

Provide your readers with a definition if you need to specify exactly what you intend by your topic. Giving a definition of your topic does not mean looking it up in a dictionary. Different words hold different meanings depending on the context in which they are used. For instance, the word "drug" to a pharmacist means prescription medicine while to law enforcement officers visiting school children, the word "drug" refers to illegal narcotics.

Qualification

If you have taken an unusual position on your topic, you might qualify your ideas. This means you will limit the number of interpretations readers may have by stating exactly what your stance includes. For example, just because I support filterware for the Internet does not mean I support government censorship.

Use Analogy

You can often make a claim based on the similarity of one thing to another. You might argue, for instance, that buying a home computer is like buying a new car: Before you buy it, you want to take it out for a test drive. The purchase is likely to be a major one -- you may want to get a loan. Once you take it home, it will take a little while to get used to it. Analogies are convincing because they can make something unfamiliar or complex easier to understand. If the reader can see how something is like something they are familiar with, then the claim is likely to be more effective.

Use Analysis

In your paper, you can present an analysis of the data you've assembled to support your claims. The analysis itself becomes an important claim in your paper -- in a sense, you put yourself in the position of being an expert. If your analysis is sound, it is likely to be convincing.

Use Association

Association is an effective strategy. General Mills uses it all the time for Wheaties cereal. By placing a famous athlete on the box, they associate Wheaties with excellence. The message is, if you want to be like the famous athlete on our cereal box, you should eat our cereal. You can use association in a number of ways. If you are arguing that one type of aspirin is better than another, you can say that four out of five doctors recommend the type you like. If you are arguing that one type of literary analysis is better than another, you can say that an authority in the field uses your method. You have to understand that association doesn't necessarily mean what you say is true, simply that someone else endorses or uses it. Association can also be a dangerous strategy. If you are associating your main idea with a controversial figure, you may find that you convince some people, while you turn others off. Picking the people you associate your main idea with is extremely important.

How Audience and Focus Affect Development

All readers have expectations. They assume certain details should be included within certain texts. For instance, readers would be shocked to read NFL statistics in Vogue magazine. Biology students wouldn't expect a paragraph on the artistic value of a pond in an article discussing pond algae.

How you develop your ideas depends on your audience and focus. While it may seem obvious to include certain details, some forms of development work better with particular audiences. Further, your details should work together to support the overall idea of your writing.

Development and Audience

Michael Palmquist, English Department Most writers want their readers to understand what they write. Unfortunately, many writers present their ideas so poorly that readers sometimes feel as if they had walked in on the middle of a conversation. In a sense, the writer has abandoned readers--leaving them to figure out what the writer intends through hints and inferences.

Your audience is who will read what you write. Different audiences expect particular details from texts. For instance, suppose you are writing about the representation of women in a particular novel. You will need to provide background details about the characters if your audience has not read the work. Or, suppose you are writing to an organization to propose a new facility. Your audience might expect financial details, design details, or a mixture of both. Knowing who your audience is will help you determine what details to provide.

Development and Focus

Kate Kiefer, English Department Development and focus go hand in hand. Writers find it extremely difficult to include lots of specific detail if they haven't focused narrowly, mainly because it's hard to move a reader quickly from a very wide view to a very detailed support. Having established a narrow focus, however, writers need to provide detailed support for that focus, and so these are the skills most college writing assignments stress.

The focus of your writing is the main idea you convey. Focus is what guides how you develop your ideas. For instance, perhaps your focus is proving a scientific concept incorrect through an experiment you conducted. You would then develop your report by describing what you did, your results, and how your experiment disproves the concept. Or, perhaps you're writing to disagree with a philosophical concept. You would then develop your essay by presenting the concept and the reasons why you disagree with it. These reasons might be your opinions, criticisms from another philosopher, or perhaps even interviews with instructors.

Strategies for Developing Your Ideas

Donna Lecourt, English Department What counts as evidence is disciplinary specific. A quote from a novel is evidence, is development. A research study is evidence. Observational research is evidence. So, yes, we always develop our arguments, but the ways in which we develop in various disciplines are going to be radically different.

Developing your ideas requires fine tuning. Whether you are reciting your personal experience or interviewing multiple people, you should always consider how your readers will receive your ideas.

Cause/Effect

Consider this strategy if you need to show your readers why something happened or the consequences of a decision or event. For example, company executives decide to use electronic mail because employees are not communicating job tasks with one another (cause). As a result, employees not only increase work production, but they also use the mail system to advertise social events (effects). Depending on your focus, you may need to present only the causes or only the effects of your topic.

Compare/Contrast

If you are writing about a complex topic, you might consider using a comparison or a contrast. This will help your readers understand your topic by reminding them of something they already know. For instance, electronic mail is similar to hand delivered mail in that both require an address to deliver a message. However, they are different because one is delivered more quickly than the other, one may seem more personal than the other, etc. This type of strategy is also known as an analogy.

Interviews allow you to quote information from a respected person in the field in which you are writing. This makes your ideas more believable since someone else also agrees with what you have to say. This strategy is also known as citing an authority.

Use the library to locate books and articles on your topic. Using outside resources in your writing conveys to readers you have researched your topic. This makes your ideas more believable. This strategy is also known as citing authority.

Visual Representations

Consider using visual representations if you need to depict data to your readers. Charts, graphs, figures, and drawings help readers envision your ideas. For example, with readers who have never used electronic mail, you might draw a picture of what the screen actually looks like. This type of strategy is also known as analysis. You become an expert on your topic. Be careful not to bombard your readers with too many visual representations.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web offers many resources about every topic. By surfing the Web, you can find organizations, archives, and many other types of documentation. Be critical of the sources you locate on the Web. Since anyone, anywhere can create their own Web pages, make sure you quote from reliable sources.

Your Experiences

Using your personal experience shows your readers you have first hand experience with your topic. For instance, recipients often misread emotions in electronic mail. One time, I sent a sarcastic message to a friend who took me seriously and then refused to talk to me for two months. Consider the circumstances in which you are writing. Be sure that using personal experience is appropriate for your audience and subject matter. Ask yourself whether or not your readers will accept personal experiences as evidence.

Citation Information

Stephen Reid and Dawn Kowalski. (1994-2024). Developing Your Ideas. The WAC Clearinghouse. Colorado State University. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/writing/guides/.

Copyright Information

Copyright © 1994-2024 Colorado State University and/or this site's authors, developers, and contributors . Some material displayed on this site is used with permission.

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Prewriting: Developing Ideas

How do writers develop ideas for writing? Writers use many techniques, and it's a bet that most of the techniques involve writing itself. Think of a composer creating ideas for a song by playing notes on a piano keyboard. Think of a sculptor creating ideas for a statue by shaping and reshaping pieces of clay. Think of a quilter creating ideas for a quilt pattern by arranging and rearranging different snippets of fabric. All creative endeavors go through preliminary stages in which creators generate ideas, discard some, and play with others that capture their imaginations or that seem to "fit the bill." Each creator develops ideas by getting immersed and "doodling" in the particular medium. And writing is no different. In writer's terms, that preliminary stage of idea development is called "prewriting."

Prewriting usually is messy in terms of having ideas scattered all over the place--think of the quilter with pieces of fabric all over the living room floor. For a lot of people, it's liberating to be messy and not worry about logic, pattern, or final form. That's the purpose of prewriting, to be as free-ranging as possible in generating ideas. If you're aggravated by mess, then prewriting can be thought of as pre-planning, as a means of generating the ideas and data that will help you create the essay draft. Either way, prewriting is a stage of idea incubation, a way to generate ideas and capture your thoughts through writing.

Ideas for writing develop in many ways, and prewriting techniques try to reflect the different ways in which ideas can develop. Some forms of prewriting are intended to help you bring subconscious ideas and interests into consciousness (some forms help if you tend to draw a blank when you're asked to "write about what interests you"):

• Freewriting
• Brainstorming
• Clustering/mapping
• Maintaining a personal journal

Other forms of prewriting are intended to help you generate your own ideas in response to others' ideas:

• Responding to a text
• Maintaining a response journal

Still other forms of prewriting are intended to help you both generate and focus ideas about a subject that you've already chosen:

• Asking questions about a subject
• Making a list
• Working with prewriting

Need Assistance?

If you would like assistance with any type of writing assignment, learning coaches are available to assist you. Please contact Academic Support by emailing [email protected].

Questions or feedback about SUNY Empire's Writing Support?

Contact us at [email protected] .

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How to Develop Your Writing Ideas

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Aug 31, 2021 • 3 min read

Even the most seasoned writers can struggle to organize all of their story ideas into a coherent whole. Use these tips to learn how to develop a story idea.

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Developing a Paper Using Strategies

Each writing strategy we have covered is an essay writing strategy. A synthesis essay, an evaluative essay, a comparative essay, a cause-and-effect essay-- each requires an introduction, a thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, some parts of an essay will look different depending on which strategy you employ. The most obvious differences will appear in your thesis statement. However, these differences also filter into your body paragraphs. 

Comparative Analysis (with Evaluation)

• Assignment Prompt
• Thesis Statement Options
• Body Paragraph Organization

Imagine you receive an assignment requiring you to compare the benefits of one cost-analysis system with another and show how system A is superior to system B.

What will your thesis statement need to contain in order to satisfy this prompt?

Your thesis might look like this:

Systems A and B are both efficient; however, System A involves less computational time and is easier to understand, and these qualities make training, in particular, more efficient.

First, notice how the comparative analysis in the statement starts immediately. Also, notice how the statement both compares and contrasts. It finds a quality that the two systems have in common and proceeds to sort out the differences within that common quality.

Evaluation is also taking place. The thesis statement sets up a criterion - training efficiency - and assigns value to both systems based on the established criterion.

The statement employs two persuasive strategies. It appeals to logos by implying that the paper will evaluate between parts and a whole, and the statement appeals to pathos by assuming the reader’s preference for understandability and ease of use. 

For your body paragraphs, you have two main options for developing and supporting your thesis.

Address systems A and B separately. For each system, you would address each aspect of your established criteria. Additionally, in this case, because system A is the superior system, you would address system B first and system A last. 

Organize based on your established criteria. Provide sections on efficiency in general, computational time, and understanding. Then compare and contrast systems A and B within each section.

Cause and Effect Analysis (with Synthesis)

Imagine you receive an assignment requiring you to discuss the conditions associated with repeat offenses among criminal offenders.

What will your thesis statement need to contain in order to satisfy the prompt?

Your thesis could be something like the following:

Policymakers tend to focus their attention on one cause or another for why criminal offenders repeat offenses, but as scholarship has shown, institutional, legal, familial, and behavioral conditions all contribute, suggesting that a multipronged approach to the issue may be most effective.

Notice how the thesis signals the question of causation right away, followed by the application of scholarship to the issue. This mention of scholarship signals to the reader that a synthesis will follow. Then, an inference from the synthesized scholarship provides the claim made within the thesis.

The statement also employs two persuasive strategies: logos, by associating causes with an effect and drawing an inference from scholarly sources. The statement appeals to ethos by demonstrating knowledge of scholarly authority and the implication that scholarship will be used to support the central claim of the paper.

The thesis of your cause-and-effect analysis has outlined the body paragraphs for you. You should discuss each of the causes in the order listed. Using the sources to which your thesis alludes, you should define the causes, show their effects, and support the paper’s thesis with statistics and examples.

Key Takeaways

• Every writing assignment you write will have specific strategies to employ depending on the type of assignment and details in the prompt.
• It's important to highlight keywords in your assignment prompt in order to know how to approach your thesis and organize your body paragraphs.

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Table of Contents: Online Guide to Writing

Chapter 1: College Writing

How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?

What Is College Writing?

Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?

Chapter 2: The Writing Process

Doing Exploratory Research

Getting from Notes to Your Draft

Introduction

Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition

Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience

Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started

Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment

Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic

Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy

Rewriting: Getting Feedback

Rewriting: The Final Draft

Techniques to Get Started - Outlining

Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques

Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas

Writing: Outlining What You Will Write

Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction

Critical Strategies and Writing

Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis

Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation

Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion

Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Patterns for Presenting Information

Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques

Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data

Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts

Supporting with Research and Examples

Writing Essay Examinations

Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete

Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing

Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question

Chapter 4: The Research Process

Planning and Writing a Research Paper

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources

Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources

Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure

Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure

The Nature of Research

The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?

The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?

The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?

Chapter 5: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Giving Credit to Sources

Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws

Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation

Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides

Integrating Sources

Practicing Academic Integrity

Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources

Types of Documentation

Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists

Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style

Types of Documentation: Note Citations

Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Finding Library Resources

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

How Is Writing Graded?

How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool

The Draft Stage

The Draft Stage: The First Draft

The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft

The Draft Stage: Using Feedback

The Research Stage

Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing

Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure

Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument

Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion

Writing Arguments: Types of Argument

Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing

Dictionaries

General Style Manuals

Researching on the Internet

Special Style Manuals

Writing Handbooks

Appendix B: Collaborative Writing and Peer Reviewing

Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project

Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report

Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve

Collaborative Writing: Methodology

Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation

Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members

Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan

General Introduction

Peer Reviewing

Appendix C: Developing an Improvement Plan

Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades

Appendix D: Writing Plan and Project Schedule

Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule

Reviewing Your Plan with Others

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Introduction

Goals and Goal Setting

Goals Common to All RST Writers

Other Goals to Consider

Defining My Own Goals

Advice about Assignments

Getting Started: Listing Topics to Write about in the Tutorial

Narrative One: Personal Piece on a Significant Experience

Narrative Two: Academic Piece on a Significant Experience

Summary/Response One

Summary/Response Two

Tutorial Evaluation Postscript

On Using the Resources for Writers

Generating and Developing Ideas

Finding/Expressing Main Ideas

Showing v. Telling Sentences

Focusing Topic Sentences

Thesis Statements

Reading Strategies

Assessing Your Reading Strategies

Summarizing

Writing Effective Summary and Response Essays

Discourse Analysis Worksheet

Trade Magazines

Selecting Readings

Listing: Brainstorm a list of possible topics. If the assignment deals with your own experience, try a list of important events in your life related to the topic. If the assignment deals with material from a class, brainstorm all of the things you've talked about in the class that you remember or that interest you. The important thing is not to censor yourself at this point - write down anything that comes to mind.

Freewriting: Freewriting simply means writing without stopping for a set amount of time. Start with shorter amounts of time (2-5 minutes) and build up "stamina" slowly. Again, as in listing, it's important not to censor ideas at this point; simply write down anything that comes to mind. Sometimes, if you keep your hand moving, you'll come up with details and connections that never occurred to you until you wrote them down!

Looping: Looping is a variation on freewriting. Pick one aspect of your topic to begin writing on. Freewrite for five minutes. Then, read over what you have written and underline the most important or interesting idea or sentence. Start with this idea or sentence and freewrite for another five minutes. Find your "center of gravity" sentence again. If you continue this process, you'll often find you've started a rough draft of the assignment.

Clustering: Write the topic in the middle of the page and put a circle around it. Then, branch out from the circle with associations and details about the topic. Write down anything you can think of, making connections as you see fit (see "Guidelines for Selecting a Subject," next page, for an example).

Cubing: This is another way to look at one topic from many angles (like the pentad exercise). Write for one to three minutes on each of the six "sides": Describe, Compare/Contrast (How is it like something else? How is it different from something else?), Analyze (What parts does it have?), Evaluate, Apply (What can you do with it? How can you use it?), Argue (for or against). All sides will not work equally well for all topics.

Answering WH-questions: Write the five "Wh" questions (who, what, where, when, why) across your paper. List as many questions as you can think of that a reader might ask about your topic in those categories. Write down answers or features of your topic that might address those concerns.

Story Board: This is ideal for narrative assignments. In each "screen," sketch the stages of a story (like a comic strip). Under the sketch, briefly define the action. In a large box below, list at least three descriptive phrases or adjectives which clarify the action.

Invisible Writing: If you have trouble writing without constantly re-reading and editing what you've said, this may work for you. Using a computer, turn the contrast down on your monitor so the screen is blank. Type for at least 20-30 minutes without looking at what you've written. Then, turn the contrast up and, ignoring typos, find out what you have to say!

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• Knowledge Base
• Academic writing
• A step-by-step guide to the writing process

The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips

Published on April 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on December 8, 2023.

Good academic writing requires effective planning, drafting, and revision.

The writing process looks different for everyone, but there are five basic steps that will help you structure your time when writing any kind of text.

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

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Table of contents

Step 1: prewriting, step 2: planning and outlining, step 3: writing a first draft, step 4: redrafting and revising, step 5: editing and proofreading, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the writing process.

Before you start writing, you need to decide exactly what you’ll write about and do the necessary research.

Coming up with a topic

If you have to come up with your own topic for an assignment, think of what you’ve covered in class— is there a particular area that intrigued, interested, or even confused you? Topics that left you with additional questions are perfect, as these are questions you can explore in your writing.

The scope depends on what type of text you’re writing—for example, an essay or a research paper will be less in-depth than a dissertation topic . Don’t pick anything too ambitious to cover within the word count, or too limited for you to find much to say.

Narrow down your idea to a specific argument or question. For example, an appropriate topic for an essay might be narrowed down like this:

Doing the research

Once you know your topic, it’s time to search for relevant sources and gather the information you need. This process varies according to your field of study and the scope of the assignment. It might involve:

• Searching for primary and secondary sources .
• Reading the relevant texts closely (e.g. for literary analysis ).
• Collecting data using relevant research methods (e.g. experiments , interviews or surveys )

From a writing perspective, the important thing is to take plenty of notes while you do the research. Keep track of the titles, authors, publication dates, and relevant quotations from your sources; the data you gathered; and your initial analysis or interpretation of the questions you’re addressing.

Especially in academic writing , it’s important to use a logical structure to convey information effectively. It’s far better to plan this out in advance than to try to work out your structure once you’ve already begun writing.

Creating an essay outline is a useful way to plan out your structure before you start writing. This should help you work out the main ideas you want to focus on and how you’ll organize them. The outline doesn’t have to be final—it’s okay if your structure changes throughout the writing process.

Use bullet points or numbering to make your structure clear at a glance. Even for a short text that won’t use headings, it’s useful to summarize what you’ll discuss in each paragraph.

An outline for a literary analysis essay might look something like this:

• Describe the theatricality of Austen’s works
• Outline the role theater plays in Mansfield Park
• Introduce the research question: How does Austen use theater to express the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park ?
• Discuss Austen’s depiction of the performance at the end of the first volume
• Discuss how Sir Bertram reacts to the acting scheme
• Introduce Austen’s use of stage direction–like details during dialogue
• Explore how these are deployed to show the characters’ self-absorption
• Discuss Austen’s description of Maria and Julia’s relationship as polite but affectionless
• Compare Mrs. Norris’s self-conceit as charitable despite her idleness
• Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and the performance of morals
• Answer the research question
• Indicate areas for further study

Once you have a clear idea of your structure, it’s time to produce a full first draft.

This process can be quite non-linear. For example, it’s reasonable to begin writing with the main body of the text, saving the introduction for later once you have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing.

To give structure to your writing, use your outline as a framework. Make sure that each paragraph has a clear central focus that relates to your overall argument.

Hover over the parts of the example, from a literary analysis essay on Mansfield Park , to see how a paragraph is constructed.

The character of Mrs. Norris provides another example of the performance of morals in Mansfield Park . Early in the novel, she is described in scathing terms as one who knows “how to dictate liberality to others: but her love of money was equal to her love of directing” (p. 7). This hypocrisy does not interfere with her self-conceit as “the most liberal-minded sister and aunt in the world” (p. 7). Mrs. Norris is strongly concerned with appearing charitable, but unwilling to make any personal sacrifices to accomplish this. Instead, she stage-manages the charitable actions of others, never acknowledging that her schemes do not put her own time or money on the line. In this way, Austen again shows us a character whose morally upright behavior is fundamentally a performance—for whom the goal of doing good is less important than the goal of seeming good.

When you move onto a different topic, start a new paragraph. Use appropriate transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas.

The goal at this stage is to get a draft completed, not to make everything perfect as you go along. Once you have a full draft in front of you, you’ll have a clearer idea of where improvement is needed.

Give yourself a first draft deadline that leaves you a reasonable length of time to revise, edit, and proofread before the final deadline. For a longer text like a dissertation, you and your supervisor might agree on deadlines for individual chapters.

Now it’s time to look critically at your first draft and find potential areas for improvement. Redrafting means substantially adding or removing content, while revising involves making changes to structure and reformulating arguments.

Evaluating the first draft

It can be difficult to look objectively at your own writing. Your perspective might be positively or negatively biased—especially if you try to assess your work shortly after finishing it.

It’s best to leave your work alone for at least a day or two after completing the first draft. Come back after a break to evaluate it with fresh eyes; you’ll spot things you wouldn’t have otherwise.

When evaluating your writing at this stage, you’re mainly looking for larger issues such as changes to your arguments or structure. Starting with bigger concerns saves you time—there’s no point perfecting the grammar of something you end up cutting out anyway.

Right now, you’re looking for:

• Arguments that are unclear or illogical.
• Areas where information would be better presented in a different order.
• Passages where additional information or explanation is needed.
• Passages that are irrelevant to your overall argument.

For example, in our paper on Mansfield Park , we might realize the argument would be stronger with more direct consideration of the protagonist Fanny Price, and decide to try to find space for this in paragraph IV.

For some assignments, you’ll receive feedback on your first draft from a supervisor or peer. Be sure to pay close attention to what they tell you, as their advice will usually give you a clearer sense of which aspects of your text need improvement.

Redrafting and revising

Once you’ve decided where changes are needed, make the big changes first, as these are likely to have knock-on effects on the rest. Depending on what your text needs, this step might involve:

• Making changes to your overall argument.
• Reordering the text.
• Cutting parts of the text.
• Adding new text.

You can go back and forth between writing, redrafting and revising several times until you have a final draft that you’re happy with.

Think about what changes you can realistically accomplish in the time you have. If you are running low on time, you don’t want to leave your text in a messy state halfway through redrafting, so make sure to prioritize the most important changes.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Editing focuses on local concerns like clarity and sentence structure. Proofreading involves reading the text closely to remove typos and ensure stylistic consistency. You can check all your drafts and texts in minutes with an AI proofreader .

Editing for grammar and clarity

When editing, you want to ensure your text is clear, concise, and grammatically correct. You’re looking out for:

• Grammatical errors.
• Ambiguous phrasings.
• Redundancy and repetition .

In your initial draft, it’s common to end up with a lot of sentences that are poorly formulated. Look critically at where your meaning could be conveyed in a more effective way or in fewer words, and watch out for common sentence structure mistakes like run-on sentences and sentence fragments:

• Austen’s style is frequently humorous, her characters are often described as “witty.” Although this is less true of Mansfield Park .
• Austen’s style is frequently humorous. Her characters are often described as “witty,” although this is less true of Mansfield Park .

To make your sentences run smoothly, you can always use a paraphrasing tool to rewrite them in a clearer way.

Proofreading for small mistakes and typos

When proofreading, first look out for typos in your text:

• Spelling errors.
• Missing words.
• Confused word choices .
• Punctuation errors .
• Missing or excess spaces.

Use a grammar checker , but be sure to do another manual check after. Read through your text line by line, watching out for problem areas highlighted by the software but also for any other issues it might have missed.

For example, in the following phrase we notice several errors:

• Mary Crawfords character is a complicate one and her relationships with Fanny and Edmund undergoes several transformations through out the novel.
• Mary Crawford’s character is a complicated one, and her relationships with both Fanny and Edmund undergo several transformations throughout the novel.

Proofreading for stylistic consistency

There are several issues in academic writing where you can choose between multiple different standards. For example:

• Whether you use the serial comma .
• Whether you use American or British spellings and punctuation (you can use a punctuation checker for this).
• Where you use numerals vs. words for numbers.
• How you capitalize your titles and headings.

Unless you’re given specific guidance on these issues, it’s your choice which standards you follow. The important thing is to consistently follow one standard for each issue. For example, don’t use a mixture of American and British spellings in your paper.

Additionally, you will probably be provided with specific guidelines for issues related to format (how your text is presented on the page) and citations (how you acknowledge your sources). Always follow these instructions carefully.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy
• Deep learning
• Generative AI
• Machine learning
• Reinforcement learning
• Supervised vs. unsupervised learning

 (AI) Tools

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Text Summarizer
• AI Detector
• Plagiarism Checker
• Citation Generator

Revising, proofreading, and editing are different stages of the writing process .

• Revising is making structural and logical changes to your text—reformulating arguments and reordering information.
• Editing refers to making more local changes to things like sentence structure and phrasing to make sure your meaning is conveyed clearly and concisely.
• Proofreading involves looking at the text closely, line by line, to spot any typos and issues with consistency and correct them.

Whether you’re publishing a blog, submitting a research paper , or even just writing an important email, there are a few techniques you can use to make sure it’s error-free:

• Take a break : Set your work aside for at least a few hours so that you can look at it with fresh eyes.
• Proofread a printout : Staring at a screen for too long can cause fatigue – sit down with a pen and paper to check the final version.
• Use digital shortcuts : Take note of any recurring mistakes (for example, misspelling a particular word, switching between US and UK English , or inconsistently capitalizing a term), and use Find and Replace to fix it throughout the document.

If you want to be confident that an important text is error-free, it might be worth choosing a professional proofreading service instead.

If you’ve gone over the word limit set for your assignment, shorten your sentences and cut repetition and redundancy during the editing process. If you use a lot of long quotes , consider shortening them to just the essentials.

If you need to remove a lot of words, you may have to cut certain passages. Remember that everything in the text should be there to support your argument; look for any information that’s not essential to your point and remove it.

To make this process easier and faster, you can use a paraphrasing tool . With this tool, you can rewrite your text to make it simpler and shorter. If that’s not enough, you can copy-paste your paraphrased text into the summarizer . This tool will distill your text to its core message.

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Essay Papers Writing Online

Tips and tricks for crafting engaging and effective essays.

Writing essays can be a challenging task, but with the right approach and strategies, you can create compelling and impactful pieces that captivate your audience. Whether you’re a student working on an academic paper or a professional honing your writing skills, these tips will help you craft essays that stand out.

Effective essays are not just about conveying information; they are about persuading, engaging, and inspiring readers. To achieve this, it’s essential to pay attention to various elements of the essay-writing process, from brainstorming ideas to polishing your final draft. By following these tips, you can elevate your writing and produce essays that leave a lasting impression.

Understanding the Essay Prompt

Before you start writing your essay, it is crucial to thoroughly understand the essay prompt or question provided by your instructor. The essay prompt serves as a roadmap for your essay and outlines the specific requirements or expectations.

Here are a few key things to consider when analyzing the essay prompt:

• Read the prompt carefully and identify the main topic or question being asked.
• Pay attention to any specific instructions or guidelines provided, such as word count, formatting requirements, or sources to be used.
• Identify key terms or phrases in the prompt that can help you determine the focus of your essay.

By understanding the essay prompt thoroughly, you can ensure that your essay addresses the topic effectively and meets the requirements set forth by your instructor.

Researching Your Topic Thoroughly

One of the key elements of writing an effective essay is conducting thorough research on your chosen topic. Research helps you gather the necessary information, facts, and examples to support your arguments and make your essay more convincing.

Here are some tips for researching your topic thoroughly:

By following these tips and conducting thorough research on your topic, you will be able to write a well-informed and persuasive essay that effectively communicates your ideas and arguments.

Creating a Strong Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a crucial element of any well-crafted essay. It serves as the main point or idea that you will be discussing and supporting throughout your paper. A strong thesis statement should be clear, specific, and arguable.

To create a strong thesis statement, follow these tips:

• Be specific: Your thesis statement should clearly state the main idea of your essay. Avoid vague or general statements.
• Be concise: Keep your thesis statement concise and to the point. Avoid unnecessary details or lengthy explanations.
• Be argumentative: Your thesis statement should present an argument or perspective that can be debated or discussed in your essay.
• Be relevant: Make sure your thesis statement is relevant to the topic of your essay and reflects the main point you want to make.
• Revise as needed: Don’t be afraid to revise your thesis statement as you work on your essay. It may change as you develop your ideas.

Remember, a strong thesis statement sets the tone for your entire essay and provides a roadmap for your readers to follow. Put time and effort into crafting a clear and compelling thesis statement to ensure your essay is effective and persuasive.

Developing a Clear Essay Structure

One of the key elements of writing an effective essay is developing a clear and logical structure. A well-structured essay helps the reader follow your argument and enhances the overall readability of your work. Here are some tips to help you develop a clear essay structure:

1. Start with a strong introduction: Begin your essay with an engaging introduction that introduces the topic and clearly states your thesis or main argument.

2. Organize your ideas: Before you start writing, outline the main points you want to cover in your essay. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure a logical flow of ideas.

3. Use topic sentences: Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence that introduces the main idea of the paragraph. This helps the reader understand the purpose of each paragraph.

4. Provide evidence and analysis: Support your arguments with evidence and analysis to back up your main points. Make sure your evidence is relevant and directly supports your thesis.

5. Transition between paragraphs: Use transitional words and phrases to create flow between paragraphs and help the reader move smoothly from one idea to the next.

6. Conclude effectively: End your essay with a strong conclusion that summarizes your main points and reinforces your thesis. Avoid introducing new ideas in the conclusion.

By following these tips, you can develop a clear essay structure that will help you effectively communicate your ideas and engage your reader from start to finish.

Using Relevant Examples and Evidence

When writing an essay, it’s crucial to support your arguments and assertions with relevant examples and evidence. This not only adds credibility to your writing but also helps your readers better understand your points. Here are some tips on how to effectively use examples and evidence in your essays:

• Choose examples that are specific and relevant to the topic you’re discussing. Avoid using generic examples that may not directly support your argument.
• Provide concrete evidence to back up your claims. This could include statistics, research findings, or quotes from reliable sources.
• Interpret the examples and evidence you provide, explaining how they support your thesis or main argument. Don’t assume that the connection is obvious to your readers.
• Use a variety of examples to make your points more persuasive. Mixing personal anecdotes with scholarly evidence can make your essay more engaging and convincing.
• Cite your sources properly to give credit to the original authors and avoid plagiarism. Follow the citation style required by your instructor or the publication you’re submitting to.

By integrating relevant examples and evidence into your essays, you can craft a more convincing and well-rounded piece of writing that resonates with your audience.

Editing and Proofreading Your Essay Carefully

Once you have finished writing your essay, the next crucial step is to edit and proofread it carefully. Editing and proofreading are essential parts of the writing process that help ensure your essay is polished and error-free. Here are some tips to help you effectively edit and proofread your essay:

1. Take a Break: Before you start editing, take a short break from your essay. This will help you approach the editing process with a fresh perspective.

2. Read Aloud: Reading your essay aloud can help you catch any awkward phrasing or grammatical errors that you may have missed while writing. It also helps you check the flow of your essay.

3. Check for Consistency: Make sure that your essay has a consistent style, tone, and voice throughout. Check for inconsistencies in formatting, punctuation, and language usage.

4. Remove Unnecessary Words: Look for any unnecessary words or phrases in your essay and remove them to make your writing more concise and clear.

5. Proofread for Errors: Carefully proofread your essay for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Pay attention to commonly misused words and homophones.

6. Get Feedback: It’s always a good idea to get feedback from someone else. Ask a friend, classmate, or teacher to review your essay and provide constructive feedback.

By following these tips and taking the time to edit and proofread your essay carefully, you can improve the overall quality of your writing and make sure your ideas are effectively communicated to your readers.

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5 Proven Methods for Developing Ideas in Writing

• September 4, 2022

Developing ideas in writing does not come naturally to middle school students, but it is a skill that can be taught. I know this because of the books I’ve read and the fifty million essays I’ve graded during my teaching career. At the beginning of the school year, idea development is a common weakness I see, so I teach students how to develop their ideas, and I’m proud of the results.

Here are five strategies I use. The first two come from Joyce Armstrong Carroll’s Dr. JAC’s Guide to Writing with Depth ; the final three are from Barry Lane’s After THE END . (I’ve read several books by these teacher writers, and they both offer fabulous resources.)

Developing Ideas in Writing with Prove Its

This activity is fun, easy to implement, and can be completed in one forty-five-minute period, so give it a try!

For this lesson, the students and I write together, with me projecting my writing onto the screen while students tell me what to write and copy our example in their writers’ notebooks . Sounds boring, but it isn’t!

What makes it engaging for students is the sentence we use: The witch is ugly. (It’s one of five Dr. JAC notes in her book, and students do have fun with it.) Our goal is to prove the witch is ugly by developing that idea, by showing instead of telling. 

We begin by writing “The witch is ugly.” Students then offer sentences to prove the witch is ugly, working on transitioning from one sentence to the next by connecting their sentences to the ones that came before. This continues until we have a well-developed idea, until we prove it. When we have time, I follow this by having students draw what we wrote.

Student Examples of Developing Ideas in Writing with Prove Its

Here’s an example from a seventh-grade Pre-AP group:

The witch was ugly. She had a long, hollow face filled with warts. Her eyes were as big as baseballs but consisted only of pupils. However, one eye was missing, and a putrid green liquid was leaking through the hole where it had once been. She had long, black tangled hair, and in that mess were small bones from little children. She had a feeble body and all of her bones were sticking out, piercing through her yellowed skin. Even though she seemed menacing, there was no mistaking that she was only two foot four. But size didn’t matter, for she could eat a person alive in five seconds as seen by the bits of human flesh stuck in her teeth.

And here’s one from a regular-ed class: 

The witch is ugly. She walks into the room with her big nose and smelly toes. Her green nose is as big as an elephant, and her toes smell like sour milk. Her face is old and saggy like a grandma’s stomach. She speaks, and her voice sounds like a cat choking on a dying bird. She looks like a deformed T-Rex with short, stubby arms. Also, she has a tail like a human centipede. Luckily, she doesn’t spot me hiding, and she turns, flaps her bat wings, and flies into the dark, stormy night. 

Pretty good, huh? Of course, these are first drafts and still need a little revising, but you’ll notice the strong voices seen in both examples. This is what idea development can do to a piece of writing: move it from telling to showing, from humdrum to intriguing.

After completing this activity, students will understand prove-its and be ready to write one of their own.

Apply to Writing

Next, we’ll review declarative sentences (sentences that make statements). Students scan their drafts for these and highlight or underline ones similar to our witch-is-ugly example, ones that need proving. We then have a quick share to check their sentences and to give examples to those who may be having difficulties finding them.

Here are some from one of my classes:

• I was nervous.–Andrew 
• It felt like forever.–Taylor
• The room had lots of decorations.–Courtney
• Paintball is dangerous.–Brian
• I saw a hermit crab.–Leah
• The water is cold.–German
• I was so excited.–Kaelani
• My grandma makes good food.–Ariel

They’ll then select one of those sentences to prove. They should choose one that is important to the story, one that would benefit from idea development. I like to have students write on large sticky notes (love the lined ones) so that they can attach these to their drafts at the spot they’ll add them. 

I always allow students a few minutes to read their writings to elbow partners, small groups, and/or the entire class, depending on how much time we have. This builds community, and most students like to share what they write.

If students don’t have a draft to work with yet, then they can practice writing Prove Its with a declarative sentence that tells (e.g., my friend is rude). 

Developing Ideas in Writing with CAFE SQuIDD

When I first started teaching, I came up with feed the cat , an acronym to help students remember various ways to develop their ideas. But Dr. JAC has a better one, CAFE SQuIDD, so I switched. 

CAFE SQuIDD provides students with several ways to develop ideas (e.g., comparisons, anecdotes, facts, etc.). Plus, Carroll uses an excellent analogy, one that kids understand, that compares using these strategies to choosing items from a menu. When perusing a menu at a restaurant, we choose foods we like; we don’t order everything on the menu. CAFEE SQuIDD works the same. Students will use the strategies they prefer; they won’t use all of them in their writing.

I introduce this by creating menus. 

We fold a piece of colored paper in half hamburger style. (I use 8 ½ x 11” sheets so that they’ll fit into our writers’ notebooks.) On the front cover, we write “CAFEE SQuIDD: Idea Development Strategies by (student name) .” (When our state added informational essays to our tests, I added an E for explaining .) They then illustrate the cover. 

Next, we write C-A-F-E-E in large letters vertically next to the left side of the page and S-Qu-I-D-D vertically on the right side of the fold. 

In smaller letters, we note what each letter stands for: 

• C for comparison (comparison made with similes or metaphors, for example), 
• A for anecdote (brief story that supports idea), 
• F for fact (statement that can be verified), 
• E for example (can begin with for example or for instance ), 
• E for explanation (when a topic is explained), 
• S for Statistic (fact with numbers), 
• Qu for quotation (quote from someone knowledgeable), 
• I for imagery (language that appeals to the senses), 
• D for detail (specifics), and 
• D for description (general characteristic) or definition (a topic is defined). (I changed this to definition because the Common Core Standards specifically mention this.)

We then work together to find examples of these in fiction or nonfiction texts we’re studying. (When particular strategies are not used, we’ll write an X under that strategy.)

Here are a couple of examples from “Fish Cheeks” and “SuperCroc.” 

If I need to reteach, we use chocolate and write original examples for each strategy.

After students have a good understanding of the idea development strategies from CAFEE SQuIDD, students reenter their writings, looking for places they need to develop their ideas and using some of these strategies to develop them. (I model this for them with my writing, moving through the acronym to see which strategy will work best.)

As usual, I allow a few minutes for sharing what they wrote.

Developing Ideas in Writing with Snapshots

A snapshot is Lane’s word for visual imagery, a common literary device used in writing that students will benefit from learning. When teaching this concept, I use the words snapshot and imagery , snapshot because it’s like a photo (easy to remember) and imagery because I want students to know the academic word.

To introduce snapshots, I begin by asking students to draw a passage while I read it, and we use the example from James and the Giant Peach that Barry Lane provides in his book. Students then compare their drawings, noticing similarities, and we discuss how writers use visual imagery to create pictures with words.

I follow this by showing a few examples of snapshots from literature we read in class, like this one from “Dirk the Protector” by Gary Paulsen : 

But when I rolled over I saw the dog.

It was the one that had been beneath the stairs. Brindled, patches of hair gone, one ear folded over and the other standing straight and      notched from fighting. He didn’t seem to be any particular breed. Just big and rangy, right on the edge of ugly, though I would come to think of him as beautiful. He was Airedale crossed with hound crossed with alligator.

(I love the “hound crossed with alligator.” What a great combination!)

Next, I have students find places in their writing where they can describe someone or something important and help readers see what they see. They’ll write their snapshots on bright sticky notes and attach them to the part of their writing that they will add it to later. They can also appeal to other senses as they write. 

Sometimes, for a little writing practice, I’ll project a piece of art (or another interesting image onto the screen) and ask students to write a snapshot for it. 

I then allow students to read their writings to their peers or the class.

Developing Ideas in Writing with Thoughtshots

Another technique writers use is telling readers what their characters are thinking. Lane calls these thoughtshots, and they pair excellently with snapshots.

To teach thoughtshots, I begin with a gallery walk or a game of scoot where students look at historical pictures and write what the person may be thinking. (This can be done with snapshots too.)

For a gallery walk, I take students on a field trip into the hallway where I’ve taped the pictures a few feet apart. Working in small groups, students move through the stations and write what the character may have been thinking at the time. 

I do the same thing with scoot, but for this activity, the pictures are taped to student desks and they work individually, moving every few minutes when I say, “Scoot.”

I also provide them with examples of thoughtshots from literature, like this one from Lois Lowry’s The Giver : 

It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong, word, Jonas thought. Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to happen. . .

But there was a shudder of nervousness when he thought about it, about what might happen.

Apprehensive , Jonas decided. That’s what I am.

Again, with students writing on sticky notes or printed thought bubbles, I have them revisit their drafts and decide what the person or character was thinking at a particular moment in the story. They stick or tape these to that part of their composition and we read our thoughtshots to class members. (I found the pictured thought-bubble at Walmart.) 

Developing Ideas with Explode a Moment

For this activity, I want students to find an important moment in the story and develop that idea fully, and one way to get that idea across is to show them a clip from a movie that is in slow motion. 

I used to use a clip from Last of the Mohicans , but I recently noticed one that will grab students’ attention even more when I was watching the final battle in Season 4 of Stranger Things . We watch and discuss the clip, noting why slow motion was used for this particular scene. (Both clips are violent, so I do not use these with sixth graders.) I’ve also used these clips from Spiderman and Zootopia and had Barry Lane explain with his video .

Just as producers found a perfect time to use slow motion, students need to find a part of their writing where they need to slow down and explode the moment. 

To help them find that moment, students can conference in small groups. After reading their drafts, group members can tell readers what they’d like to know more about. That will be a moment to explode. 

Again, these can be written on sticky notes and stuck to the part of the story they developed. 

Related Links

As always is my plan, I write so that you can implement these lessons without buying anything, but if you’d like my handouts, visit my TPT store for these developing ideas in writing activities .

For lesson ideas on revising for word choice, visit Blog #7: “Fun Activities for Synonyms to Inspire Students.”

“Developing Your Ideas” (college level)

Share Your Students’ Developed Ideas

Introduce your students to all of these revision strategies, so they can choose the one that works best for them. 

I know you and your students will like Lane and Carroll’s strategies, but I still want to hear from you. Let me know which developing-ideas-in-writing activities you used and post a couple of student examples!

Start teaching students how to use the comma with my free lessons, including anchor charts, warm-ups, and a slideshow with a corresponding booklet.

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