How To Start Your Paper Script: Hello everyone! As a tutor, most of the students I help are either rushing to finish a paper, or struggling to even get started. So, today I’m going to give you some tips for getting started. If you’re feeling nervous, take a deep breath, I’m going to try to help you by guiding you through a series of steps. You can pause this video at any point to follow along with each step or to answer any of the questions I give you on a piece of paper (or Word document, whatever’s best for you).

Step 1: Understand Your Assignment Script: Before you can begin to even think about writing, make sure that you completely understand what you’re being asked to do. There have been a few times when students have come to me and asked me to help them with an essay they have already begun or sometimes even finished writing, only to find that they would have to partially or completely redo their work because they weren’t doing what their teacher asked them to do.

Step 1: Understand Your Assignment Have your assignment/prompt with you Highlight/underline the main points If unclear, speak to a classmate or your teacher ASAP Specific topic or open topic? Script: To avoid this happening to you, make sure you have your assignment or prompt close at hand. If you have it written or printed out, highlight or underline the main things that you are asked to complete. You can do a similar thing on the computer by highlighting the key points of the assignment on a word processing document. If any directions are unclear, reach out to a classmate or to your instructor to see if they can clarify what the assignment asks for. Check to see if you are asked to write about a specific topic or if you need to come up with your own. If you were asked to come up with your own topic go to step two, if not, you can skip ahead.

Step 2: Coming Up With Your Own Topic Script: For some students, it can be exciting to have the chance to come up with their own topic for an essay. For others, this can seem pretty overwhelming.

Step 2: Coming Up With Your Own Topic Think of a subject that interests you What is something you already know about? Or, is there something you’re not familiar with but would like to know more about? Respond to a text or film: Use active reading/viewing to come up with ideas Annotate text: highlight/underline important things, write questions Take notes while watching film/video, include timestamps Can you come up with a topic or question to answer based on what you took note of? If you have to come up with your own topic, here are a few things you can do. First of all, what you choose to write about should be something that you find interesting. If you choose a topic that is completely boring to you, writing about it will probably be challenging and not very fun. So think of a subject that you like. Of course, keep in mind any limitations that your teacher might have. Also, you can consider writing about something you already know about, or about something you don’t know too much about. If you have to write a response to a specific text (like a short story, novel, article, movie etc.), practice active reading or viewing. You can practice active reading by annotating the text that you will be responding to. Highlight or underline whatever seems important to you and write questions or comments in the margin. I like to underline and put a star next to the things that I think are most important or that seem especially interesting to me. Sometimes, I even circle the page where I noted something important so that I can go back to it later. If you’re watching a video, take notes as you go including a timestamp for important things. Now, look at those important or interesting things that you found; can you choose a topic from one of those things that you took note of? See if you can come up with questions to answer about the topic in your essay.

Step 3: Freewrite and/or Create a Mind Map Script: Now that you have your topic, you can freewrite or create a mind map to come up with and start to organize the main points related to your topic.

Step 3: Freewrite To come up with main points Time yourself 10 min Write without stopping, don’t think about spelling or grammar Can write questions Underline important things your wrote Could you use these as main points? Script: Freewriting can be a way for you to come up with the main points you will discuss in your essay relating to your main topic. To freewrite, time yourself for 10 minutes and write everything you know or don’t know about your topic   without stopping.  You can choose to type or write on paper, the important thing is that you should keep writing without worrying about your spelling or grammar. If you get stuck, you can even write “I don’t know what to write.” Just keep going. Maybe write down some questions that you have. The purpose of this is for you to get your thoughts out on paper. This also gets you comfortable with writing. It might surprise you how much you end up writing after doing this for 10 minutes. After you finish, look at what you wrote and underline any important things. Could these be the main points that you’ll develop in your essay? You can even use freewriting to warm up and get yourself focused on your assignment before a session of writing. You don’t necessarily have to write about your assignment, you can write about anything that’s on your mind. Maybe you’re finding it hard to focus on your assignment because of something going on in your life. Freewriting can help you get these thoughts “out of your system.”

Step 3: Mind Map Topic Visual tool Write down your topic in the center and create branches with ideas that relate to it Helps you develop subpoints and organize ideas Topic Script: You can also use a mind map to develop ideas. A mindmap is a visual tool to further explore your topic.  What you do is you write down your topic in the center and create branches with ideas that relate to it. This step is helpful for when you don’t know yet what subpoints you will write about in your essay or in what order you will discuss them. Visit the site in the description box for more in-depth instructions on how to create a mind map: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm

Step 4: Create A Tentative Thesis Statement Script: Now that you have a topic and main points in mind, you can put them together to write your “tentative” thesis statement.

Step 4: Create a Tentative Thesis Statement Ok for you to change it later Thesis to get you going The main argument/claim you make in your paper What is your paper about? Its purpose? What are you arguing? Why is it important? A contract with your reader Depends on the type of essay you’re writing Script: I say “tentative” because it’s okay for you to change your thesis at any point during the process of writing your essay. The important thing is to get you writing. In simple terms, your thesis is the main argument/claim you make in your paper. What is your paper about? What is the purpose of your paper? What are you arguing? Why is this important?  Think of your thesis as a contract you make with your reader. Maybe in your thesis, you are promising to prove or explain something to your reader, so your essay should follow through with this promise. The way your thesis statement is structured depends on the type of essay you are writing. Look at your assignment or talk to your teacher to see how your thesis should look. You can also do an online search to find suggestions for how to write a thesis for your type of paper.

Step 4: Create An Outline Script: Once you have your working thesis, you can create an outline.

Step 4: Create An Outline Arrange your major points in a logical order Think of it as a roadmap or skeleton Good for visual learners Structure depends on the kind of essay you’re writing Script: The purpose of an outline is for you to arrange your major points in a logical order. You can think of it as a roadmap that you will follow as you write your essay. Or, you can look at it as the skeleton of your essay, one that you will fill out and add the meat to as you write. Some students don’t feel the need to create an outline, but especially if you are more of a visual learner, give this step a try. The way your outline looks also depends on the kind of essay you are writing. So I suggest doing a search on the internet to find an outline that suits your type of essay.

Step 5: Start Writing! Script: Now that you’ve done all the other steps and you are feeling prepared, go ahead and start writing!

Step 5: Start Writing Consider skipping the intro Start with the body- any section! Unless your paper requires you to write in a chronological order It’s your first draft, doesn’t have to be perfect Script: I typically suggest for students to leave writing their introduction until later and begin writing the body of their essays instead. I have seen many students get stuck on their introduction because they try to get it just right. Remember, you can come back to it later and dedicate more time to it, but after you have dedicated some time to the rest of what you have to write. For this reason, consider working first on the body of your essay, any section of it will do. Well, unless you’re writing an essay that involves steps or must go in chronological order, then you’ll probably want to start with your first point). Also, write a first draft. It doesn’t have to be perfect!

Final Thoughts Script: I hope the steps I have given you have helped you get started on your paper. As a last piece of advice, remember to take full advantage of all the resources available to you, whether these be your peers, teacher, tutors, textbook, and online resources. You can also visit my blog for more information and resources. Link is in the description box. Finally, know that, whoever you are, I believe in you!

Thank You For Watching! Script: Thank you for watching!