Priya Visavadia – 15 February 2021

Whether you’re writing a master’s thesis or a cover letter, the approach to writing is always the same. What it all boils down to is planning. Before you even begin to write the content, it’s important to make sure you have the outline of your writing piece set out.

Here are a few things that you should consider before you start your writing venture. 

1. Brainstorm

Write down a list of your topics and points or things you want to include in your writing piece. This list may initially be quite broad, but that’s okay; it’s not supposed to be the final version. Having all your ideas written down in front of you will help shape your writing piece because the points you want to make will be on paper and in one place. As part of this step, make a list of the main topic and sub-topics you want to discuss.

2. Create a template

This does not need to include full sentences or ideas; it just requires you to imagine how your writing piece will look on paper. Regarding the paragraphs, consider the following: how many will you need, what will their lengths be, and which will go where. Once you are able to somewhat visualise how your final piece on paper might look, it will help you a lot when it comes to actually writing.

Depending on the writing piece, the general rule of thumb is to include an introduction, main body (consisting of the paragraphs in which you make your main points), and a conclusion.

3. Group your points

After the first two steps, you should have a very rough and basic idea of what your writing piece will become. The next thing to do is to group the points by combining steps 1 and 2. Think about which parts go together and which parts logically follow one another. At this point, you will most likely discard a few points or sub-topics because they do not fit, or no longer seem relevant, but that’s good because you want to make sure you writing piece is focussed and not too broad. Try to put these points into the template you have created and see whether the points are well placed or whether they need to be moved around.