
Welcome to the Purdue OWL
This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.
Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.
Invention: Starting the Writing Process
Summary:
Tips for how to start a writing assignment.
Writing takes time
Find out when is the assignment due and devise a plan of action. This may seem obvious and irrelevant to the writing process, but it's not. Writing is a process, not merely a product. Even the best professional writers don't just sit down at a computer, write, and call it a day. The quality of your writing will reflect the time and forethought you put into the assignment. Plan ahead for the assignment by doing pre-writing: this will allow you to be more productive and organized when you sit down to write. Also, schedule several blocks of time to devote to your writing; then, you can walk away from it for a while and come back later to make changes and revisions with a fresh mind.
Use the rhetorical elements as a guide to think through your writing
Thinking about your assignment in terms of the rhetorical situation can help guide you in the beginning of the writing process. Topic, audience, genre, style, opportunity, research, the writer, and purpose are just a few elements that make up the rhetorical situation.
Topic and audience are often very intertwined and work to inform each other. Start with a broad view of your topic such as skateboarding, pollution, or the novel Jane Eyre and then try to focus or refine your topic into a concise thesis statement by thinking about your audience. Here are some questions you can ask yourself about audience:
- Who is the audience for your writing?
- Do you think your audience is interested in the topic? Why or why not?
- Why should your audience be interested in this topic?
- What does your audience already know about this topic?
- What does your audience need to know about this topic?
- What experiences has your audience had that would influence them on this topic?
- What do you hope the audience will gain from your text?
For example, imagine that your broad topic is dorm food. Who is your audience? You could be writing to current students, prospective students, parents of students, university administrators, or nutrition experts among others. Each of these groups would have different experiences with and interests in the topic of dorm food. While students might be more concerned with the taste of the food or the hours food is available, parents might be more concerned with the price.
You can also think about opportunity as a way to refine or focus your topic by asking yourself what current events make your topic relevant at this moment. For example, you could connect the nutritional value of dorm food to the current debate about the obesity epidemic or you could connect the price value of dorm food to the rising cost of a college education overall.
Keep in mind the purpose of the writing assignment.
Writing can have many different purposes. Here are just a few examples:
- Summarizing: Presenting the main points or essence of another text in a condensed form
- Arguing/Persuading: Expressing a viewpoint on an issue or topic in an effort to convince others that your viewpoint is correct
- Narrating: Telling a story or giving an account of events
- Evaluating: Examining something in order to determine its value or worth based on a set of criteria.
- Analyzing: Breaking a topic down into its component parts in order to examine the relationships between the parts.
- Responding: Writing that is in a direct dialogue with another text.
- Examining/Investigating: Systematically questioning a topic to discover or uncover facts that are not widely known or accepted, in a way that strives to be as neutral and objective as possible.
- Observing: Helping the reader see and understand a person, place, object, image or event that you have directly watched or experienced through detailed sensory descriptions.
You could be observing your dorm cafeteria to see what types of food students are actually eating, you could be evaluating the quality of the food based on freshness and quantity, or you could be narrating a story about how you gained fifteen pounds your first year at college.
You may need to use several of these writing strategies within your paper. For example, you could summarize federal nutrition guidelines, evaluate whether the food being served at the dorm fits those guidelines, and then argue that changes should be made in the menus to better fit those guidelines.
Pre-writing strategies
Once you have thesis statement just start writing! Don't feel constrained by format issues. Don't worry about spelling, grammar, or writing in complete sentences. Brainstorm and write down everything you can think of that might relate to the thesis and then reread and evaluate the ideas you generated. It's easier to cut out bad ideas than to only think of good ones. Once you have a handful of useful ways to approach the thesis you can use a basic outline structure to begin to think about organization. Remember to be flexible; this is just a way to get you writing. If better ideas occur to you as you're writing, don't be afraid to refine your original ideas.
- Navigation
- Purdue OWL
- General Writing
- General Writing Introduction
- Writing Style
- The Writing Process
- The Writing Process Introduction
- Writing Task Resource List: What Do You Need To Write?
- Invention: Starting the Writing Process
- Prewriting (Invention)
- Organization & the CARS Model
- Writer's Block
- Stasis Theory
- Creating a Thesis Statement, Thesis Statement Tips
- Developing an Outline
- Reverse Outlining
- Proofreading
- Time Management: Conquering Long Assignments
- Academic Writing
- Academic Writing Introduction
- The Rhetorical Situation
- Establishing Arguments
- Logic in Argumentative Writing
- Historical Perspectives on Argumentation
- Paragraphs and Paragraphing
- Essay Writing
- Conciseness
- Paramedic Method
- Reverse Paramedic Method
- Adding Emphasis
- Sentence Variety
- Using Appropriate Language
- Active and Passive Voice
- Email Etiquette
- Email Etiquette for Students
- Using Foreign Languages in Academic Writing in English
- Public Speaking and Presentations
- Learning from Lectures
- Common Writing Assignments
- Common Writing Assignments Introduction
- Understanding Writing Assignments
- Argument Papers
- Research Papers
- Research Posters
- Exploratory Papers
- Annotated Bibliographies
- Book Reports
- Definitions
- Essays for Exams
- Book Reviews
- Mechanics
- Mechanics Introduction
- Higher, Lower Order Concerns
- Sentence Clarity
- Parts of Speech Overview
- Sentence Clarity Presentation
- Sentence Fragments
- Transitions and Transitional Devices
- Dangling Modifiers and How To Correct Them
- Parallel Structure
- Two-Part (Phrasal) Verbs (Idioms)
- Capitals: Help with Capitals
- Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
- Grammar
- Grammar Introduction
- Spelling: Common Words that Sound Alike
- Numbers: Writing Numbers
- Adjective or Adverb
- How to Use Adjectives and Adverbs
- Appositives
- Articles: A versus An
- How to Use Articles (a/an/the)
- Prepositions
- Pronouns
- Relative Pronouns
- Count and Noncount Nouns
- Subject/Verb Agreement
- Verb Tenses
- Active Verb Tenses
- Irregular Verbs
- That vs. Which
- Punctuation
- Punctuation Introduction
- Punctuation
- Sentence Punctuation Patterns
- Independent and Dependent Clauses
- Conquering the Comma Presentation
- Commas
- Apostrophe Introduction
- Hyphen Use
- Quotation Marks
- Visual Rhetoric
- Visual Rhetoric Introduction
- Visual Rhetoric
- Analyzing Visual Documents
- Using Fonts with Purpose
- Color Theory Presentation
- Designing Effective PowerPoint Presentations
- Data Visualization
- Undergraduate Applications
- Undergraduate Applications Introduction
- Advice from Undergraduate Admissions Officers
- Undergraduate Application Timeline and Additional Resources
- Graduate School Applications
- Graduate School Applications Introduction
- Overview
- Researching Programs
- Statements of Purpose
- Requesting Recommendation Letters
- Writing a Research Statement
- Personal Correspondence
- Community Engaged Writing
- Media File Index
- General Writing FAQs
- Research and Citation
- Research and Citation Resources
- Conducting Research
- Conducting Research Introduction
- Research Overview
- Conducting Primary Research
- Evaluating Sources of Information
- Searching Online
- Internet References
- Archival Research
- Writing a Literature Review
- Using Research
- Using Research Introduction
- Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
- Paraphrase Exercises
- Writing with Statistics
- Strategies for Fair Use
- Citation Style Chart
- Writing Scientific Abstracts Presentation
- Resources for Documenting Sources in the Disciplines
- APA Style (7th Edition)
- APA Style Introduction
- APA Overview and Workshop
- APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition)
- General Format
- In-Text Citations: The Basics
- In-Text Citations: Author/Authors
- Footnotes and Endnotes
- Reference List: Basic Rules
- Reference List: Author/Authors
- Reference List: Articles in Periodicals
- Reference List: Books
- Reference List: Other Print Sources
- Reference List: Electronic Sources
- Reference List: Audiovisual Media
- Reference List: Other Non-Print Sources
- APA Legal References
- Additional Resources
- Numbers and Statistics
- APA Headings and Seriation
- APA PowerPoint Slide Presentation
- APA Sample Paper
- APA Tables and Figures
- APA Classroom Poster
- Changes in the 7th Edition
- General APA FAQs
- MLA Style
- MLA Style Introduction
- MLA Overview and Workshop
- MLA Formatting and Style Guide
- General Format
- MLA Formatting and Style Guide
- MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics
- MLA Formatting Quotations
- MLA Endnotes and Footnotes
- MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format
- MLA Works Cited Page: Books
- MLA Works Cited Page: Periodicals
- MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources
- MLA Works Cited: Other Common Sources
- MLA Additional Resources
- MLA Abbreviations
- MLA Sample Works Cited Page
- MLA Sample Paper
- MLA Tables, Figures, and Examples
- MLA PowerPoint Presentation
- MLA FAQs
- MLA Classroom Poster
- MLA 8th Edition Changes
- Chicago Style
- CMOS Introduction
- CMOS Overview and Workshop
- CMOS Formatting and Style Guide
- Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition
- General Format
- Books
- Periodicals
- Web Sources
- Audiovisual Recordings and Other Multimedia
- Interviews, Personal Communication
- Legal, Public and Unpublished Materials
- Bluebook Citation for Legal Materials
- Miscellaneous Sources
- CMOS Author Date Sample Paper
- CMOS NB Sample Paper
- CMOS NB PowerPoint Presentation
- CMOS Author Date PowerPoint Presentation
- CMOS Author Date Classroom Poster
- CMOS NB Classroom Poster
- IEEE Style
- AMA Style
- ASA Style
- APA Style (6th Edition)
- APA Style Introduction
- APA Overview and Workshop
- APA Formatting and Style Guide (6th Edition)
- General Format
- In-Text Citations: The Basics
- In-Text Citations: Author/Authors
- Footnotes and Endnotes
- Reference List: Basic Rules
- Reference List: Author/Authors
- Reference List: Articles in Periodicals
- Reference List: Books
- Reference List: Other Print Sources
- Reference List: Electronic Sources
- Reference List: Other Non-Print Sources
- Additional Resources
- Types of APA Papers
- APA Stylistics: Avoiding Bias
- APA Stylistics: Basics
- APA Headings and Seriation
- APA PowerPoint Slide Presentation
- APA Sample Paper
- APA Tables and Figures 1
- APA Tables and Figures 2
- APA Abbreviations
- Numbers in APA
- Statistics in APA
- APA Classroom Poster
- APA Changes 6th Edition
- General APA FAQs
- Using Citation Generators Responsibly
- Using Paper Checkers Responsibly
- Style Manual Glossary
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Teacher and Tutor Resources
- Writing Instructors
- Writing Instructors Introduction
- Parents
- Grades 7-12 Instructors and Students
- Non-Purdue Users
- Purdue Instructors and Students
- Adult Basic Education
- Writing Across the Curriculum: An Introduction
- Creative Nonfiction in Writing Courses
- Poetry in Writing Courses
- Teaching Detailed Writing and Procedural Transitions
- Teaching OSDDP: A Guide for Professional Writing Instructors
- Email Etiquette for Professors
- Writing Letters of Recommendation for Students
- Writing Tutors
- Writing Tutors Introduction
- Meeting One-on-One with Students
- Tutoring a Résumé
- Tutoring Cover Letters
- Tutoring Creative Writing Students
- Tutoring Lab Reports
- Tutoring Grammar
- Tutoring Deaf Clients
- Teaching Resources
- Teaching Resources
- Remote Teaching Resources
- Remote Teaching Resource Portal
- Technology in the Writing Classroom
- Adapting Projects to Online Classrooms
- Sharing and Presenting Work in Remote Classrooms
- Teleconferencing in the Writing Classroom
- Cloud-Based Platforms in the Writing Classroom
- Remote Peer Review Strategies
- Writing Prompts for Analyzing Nonfiction
- Nonfiction Analysis Framework
- Writing Prompts for Analyzing Fiction
- Activities for Remote Creative Writing Classrooms
- Discussion Forum Practices for Creative Writing Classes
- Conducting an Interview Presentation
- Writing Process Presentation
- Organizing Your Argument Presentation
- Peer Review Presentation
- Visual Rhetoric Slide Presentation
- Writing a Literary Analysis Presentation
- Effective Persuasion Presentation
- Teaching and Assessing Grammar
- Analytical Research Project Presentation
- OWL Video Offerings for Instructors
- Conducting an Interview Presentation
- Job Acceptance Letter Presentation
- Invention Presentation
- Preventing Plagiarism
- Preventing Plagiarism Introduction
- Contextualizing Plagiarism
- Contextualizing Plagiarism
- Truth or Consequences
- Handout: Truth or Consequences
- The Big Picture
- Authorship and Popular Plagiarism
- Copyright and Plagiarism
- Handout: Copyright and Plagiarism
- Collaborative Authorship
- Handout: Collaborative Authorship
- Defining Our Terms
- Class Plagiarism Policy
- Comparing Policies
- Handout: Comparing Policies
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting
- Peer Summarizing
- Anonymous Paraphrasing
- Paraphrasing from Media
- Handout: Paraphrasing from Media
- Using In-text Citations
- Handout: Using In-text Citations
- Quoting Others
- Handout: Quoting Others
- Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation in Context
- Handout: Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation in Context
- Translingual Writing
- Writing in the Engineering Classroom
- Why Include Writing in Engineering Courses?
- Using Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Types of Writing Assignments for Engineering Courses
- Conceptual Writing Prompts
- Explain-a-Problem Writing Prompts
- How Stuff Works Writing Prompts
- Real-World Example Writing Prompts
- Design-a-Problem Writing Prompts
- Open-Ended Design Writing Prompts
- Writing Tips for Students
- Assessment and Feedback of Engineering Writing
- Research Team
- OWL Presentation Mode
- Writing Instructors
- Graduate Writing
- Announcement
- Introduction to Graduate Writing
- Graduate Writing Topics
- Graduate Writing Genres
- Thesis & Dissertation
- Subject-Specific Writing
- Professional, Technical Writing
- Professional, Technical Writing Introduction
- Workplace Writers
- Effective Workplace Writing
- Audience Analysis
- Prioritizing Your Concerns for Effective Business Writing
- Parallel Structure
- Activity and Postmortem Reports
- Tone in Business Writing
- HATS: A Design Procedure for Routine Business Documents
- Basic Business Letters
- Accentuating the Positives
- Memos
- Four Point Action Closing
- Grant Writing
- Donation Request Letters
- Technical Reports & Report Abstracts
- White Papers
- Revision in Business Writing
- Business Writing for Administrative and Clerical Staff
- Writing in Literature
- Writing in Literature Introduction
- Writing About Film
- Literary Terms
- Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism
- Introduction to Literary Theory
- Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction
- Formalism
- Psychoanalytic Criticism
- Marxist Criticism
- Reader-Response Criticism
- Structuralism and Semiotics
- Postmodern Criticism
- New Historicism, Cultural Studies
- Post-Colonial Criticism
- Feminist Criticism
- Gender Studies and Queer Theory
- Ecocriticism
- Critical Race Theory
- Critical Disability Studies
- Writing About Fiction
- Writing About Literature
- Writing in Literature (Detailed Discussion)
- Writing About Poetry
- Image in Poetry
- Professional, Technical Writing