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Creating an outline for the final essay can be beneficial for some individuals, but it does not work for everyone, and its effectiveness is not guaranteed. Suppose you already have a great deal of knowledge about your topic. In that case, this approach is more likely to succeed. However, if you are in the process of learning about your subject, outlining and structuring your ideas can be much more difficult, or even impossible, as a way to begin writing.
Teaching materials often encourage this practice. However, experienced writers are more likely to wait and write the introduction last, when they know exactly what they are introducing. And if they do begin with the introduction, they do not labour over it, because they know it is just a way to get started and that it will be revised later in light of the essay’s body and conclusion.
It is important to develop a clear understanding of the purpose of your essay and a clear focus, but this development usually takes place and changes throughout the process of writing the paper. Many writers draft a tentative working thesis as they begin writing, but review and modify it as they continue.
Look at your weekly schedule and identify the times available for working on your major assignments and essays. Try to make sure you have at least an hour at a time to work on your essay, though smaller amounts of time can be productive for some people.
You can begin by writing in a general way about very simple things such as what you already know about the topic of the assignment, or why you love it, or hate it, or what you don’t understand and think you need to learn more about.
There are many useful starting techniques; for example, some find it useful to write sentences to complete phrases such as the following:
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