Heuristics, The Act of Discovery
Following the five step pattern of developing an essay presented in another area of this OWL, step two of the process is to PLAN THE PAPER. Part of the planning process is discovering things to say about your topic. In spite of the fact that you may already have a good deal of knowledge about your topic, there may be some things that you can discover by 1.) Doing research in the library; 2.) Reading books and magazine articles on your topic; 3.) Talking to and taking notes during discussions with others who have more knowledge of the topic than you. In fact, an interview with a knowledgeable person is one source of information often overlooked by beginning writers in their attempt to develop information about a specific topic.
One of the more nifty ways of developing a pool of basic information about a topic is to use the 5 W's of journalism:
- Who?
- What?
- Where?
- Why?
- When?
And as an old journalism instructor, Claire Gurwell, a former faculty member at Taft College, used to point out, adding the question "How?" to this list is also a good idea. Naturally, some of these questions will not be pertinent to your writing task and can be eliminated or overlooked. But it is always a good idea to ask the questions and then determine whether or not the information the question engendered is of value to you as you write your essay.
The next step in discovering what to say about your topic is to brainstorm or outline the paper, placing the information in some sort of logical arrangement. I prefer to "brainstorm" shorter papers and "outline" longer, more formal presentations such as term papers. The brainstorm is simply a short, informal list, in order, of the ideas you wish to present in the essay. Each item in the list may require a sentence or two, or each may require a paragraph or two in order to fully explain the item.
Finally, you are ready to begin writing the first draft of the paper. You have settled on a topic; you have discovered information about your topic and arranged that information in some sort of logical fashion using a brainstorm and/or outline. Now comes the work: writing the paper, revising and editing, and fashioning a final draft.
Back to Help with Essays.
OWL