Sometimes you know you have paper to write, and you want to write it but you just can’t seem to get started actually writing that first draft. If you have a paper prompt with an assignment based on reading and suggestions to about what to use as a paper topic, that’s a good start. Make sure you’ve done the reading well in advance of starting to write the paper. Did you annotate the reading assignment, making note of important passages, concepts that seem important and definitions? If you haven’t, you should do that first. Then think about what ideas particularly interested you or caught your attention. Did anything you read make you think of something similar in class lecture or discussion?

Take another look at the prompt or paper assignment. What about the suggestions for topics looks like you might have something to say in response? What topic or question makes you think of some of the concepts and passages you annotated in your reading? Now start simply writing about the general idea; at this point don’t worry about a thesis or argument or points to disprove or prove. Just start writing ideas about the general topic or question from the assignment. Start by making a statement that you think is true about the topic:

I think that ——————————————————.

Now try to write at least two more “true” statement about the topic, or even as many as seven.

On a separate sheet of paper (or a new page in your word processor) make a statement that you think is not true about the topic:

I don’t think that —————————————————— .

See if you can come up with at least two more statements that you don’t think are true, but once again, stop at seven.

Look at your first page of “true” statements. Which three do you feel most strongly about ? Try to pick three that you think you are provable based on your reading. Now for each of them, try writing a paragraph about why you think they are true. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just start with I think that ---------------- is true because --------------. See how many ideas you can use before starting a new paragraph about the second idea.

Now do the same with three statements that you don’t agree with; trying to write a paragraph about each that explains why you don’t agree or think that they are true statements, drawing on the ideas and information in the assigned reading.

When you have your six paragraphs, you don’t quite have a draft, but you have something that you can use to help you create your rough draft. You can look at your paragraphs and determine which you think has the potential for the central argument (and counter argument) for your rough draft.

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