Organize Your Prompt

Are you tired of staring at a blank screen, struggling to come up with a coherent essay? Do you feel overwhelmed by the countless ideas floating around in your head? Well, fear not! The key to success is to organize your prompt. By breaking down your prompt into manageable pieces, you can create a roadmap to a winning essay for your exams.

Organize Your Prompt: Meaning

Writing prompts are the instructions given to write a formal essay. They provide information like the topic, format, and required citation style, such as MLA or APA. Reading the prompt in full and unpacking what it is asking is the key to writing a strong, relevant essay.

After reading the writing prompt, writers should begin to outline their thoughts. They can use the prompt to organize their essay.

Organize Your Prompt: Structure

A prompt structure is a framework for organizing and writing an essay in response to a specific question or prompt. The structure typically includes an introduction that contextualizes the topic, a Thesis Statement that presents the writer's Argument, body paragraphs that support the Thesis with Evidence and analysis, and a conclusion that summarizes the main points and reinforces the thesis. Following a prompt structure helps ensure that the essay is focused, well-organized, and effectively communicates the writer's ideas to the reader.

A writing prompt tells writers what they should write about and in what format. The structure of writing prompts varies, but in general, they typically follow the following structure:

Introduction of the Topic

A writing prompt usually opens with a discussion of the topic. Sometimes the prompt writer uses a quote or a statistic to pique the essay writer's interest in the topic. The prompt may also describe some Context for the topic. For instance, a prompt might start by saying:

Note how the prompt has yet to ask the writer what exactly to write about them. Instead, these first two lines ensure that the essay writer knows the definition of the term white lie, which will be the topic of the writing task.

Fig. 1 - A prompt jogs your memory.

Pre-Writing Instructions

Next, the prompt writer might encourage the essay writer to reflect on the topic they just introduced. For instance, they might state:

This line has yet to tell the essay writer what exactly to write about. However, it tells the reader to start reflecting on the topic and how they feel about both sides of it.

Description of the Task

Finally, the writer of the prompt will tell the essay writer what exactly to write about regarding the aforementioned topic. For example, the author of the above prompt might end by saying:

Here, the prompt writer explains what the essay writer should write their essay on. The essay writer can use their notes from the pre-writing task about the pros and cons of white lies and come up with a defensible claim regarding the debate.

Organize Your Prompt: Addressing a Prompt

For writers to ensure they address all aspects of a prompt, they need to read the entire prompt a few times. This helps them avoid overlooking important details, such as the required word count or citation style.

Writers should also do pre-writing activities, even if the prompt does not specify any. Pre-writing is the stage before writing, and includes the following actions:

• Dissecting the prompt

• Brainstorming the writing topic

• Outlining the order of topics in an essay.

Organize Your Prompt: Dissecting the Prompt

After reading the entire prompt, the first step writers should take is breaking the prompt into small pieces to confirm what it asks them to do.

Writers should look for the following elements of the prompt:

Writing Task

Writes should first determine what exactly the prompt is asking them to do. To go about this, writers should look for keywords that describe actions, like the following:

• Analyze

• Argue

• Challenge

• Compare and contrast

• Defend

• Describe

• Evaluate

• Explain

Formatting Requirements

Writers should look closely to see if the prompt specifies what formatting guidelines to follow. For instance, if it's not a timed writing task, the prompt might indicate the word count, paragraph count, page limits, and due date. It might also specify how much Evidence to use, such as "at least four external sources," and how to cite those sources.

Brainstorming Your Prompt

Once a writer has determined what a prompt is asking for, they can begin to brainstorm how they will address the prompt. There are many techniques writers can use in brainstorming, such as listing the pros and cons of a topic, asking questions, and listing related ideas.

For instance, a writer responding to the prompt about white lies might ask themselves the following questions:

Crafting a Thesis Statement

Once writers have determined what they think about the topic, they should craft a thesis Statement on the topic. A thesis Statement is a defensible claim about a topic that can be supported with evidence.

To start the thesis, the writer should make a clear, straightforward claim about the topic. For instance, a writer might address the prompt about white lies by saying:

A strong thesis statement stands alone as a Summary of The Argument. It is an effective thesis if a reader understands all of the argument's basic components. To write such a thesis, readers should establish a Line of Reasoning for their claim by introducing an overview of their reasons. For example, the above writer can add to their claim in the following manner:

Collecting Evidence For Your Prompt

Once writers have fine-tuned their thesis statements, they should start collecting evidence for their claim. A writer might know the reasons they are taking a perspective, but they need to find credible pieces of evidence to support that point of view.

Credible evidence is evidence from a trustworthy source that has usually been vetted by experts. For instance, articles from academic journals and newspapers are generally credible sources. Writers should search in such places to find evidence for each supporting point. The prompt might specify how much evidence to use, but if it does not, it is typically beneficial to have at least two pieces of evidence per supporting point.

Organize Your Prompt's Outline

Once writers have their thesis statement and their supporting evidence, they can start to craft an outline of their essay. In writing, an outline is a structured list of ideas that are like blueprints for an essay.

If writers have substantial time to write an essay, like several weeks, they may benefit from a detailed outline. If they have limited time to craft an essay, like in an exam setting, they should still jot down a brief outline, so they stay on track while writing.

Writers usually use headings and subheadings in an outline to organize the order of their main ideas and then the order of their supporting ideas. For instance, an outline for a five-paragraph essay may follow this basic structure:

Introduction

• Hook

• Introduction of topic

• Thesis statement

Topic of Body Paragraph 1

• Topic sentence

• Supporting evidence 1

• Analysis

• Supporting evidence 2

• Analysis

Topic of Body Paragraph 2

• Topic sentence

• Supporting evidence 1

• Analysis

• Supporting evidence 2

• Analysis

Topic of Body Paragraph 3

• Topic sentence

• Supporting evidence 1

• Analysis

• Supporting evidence 2

• Analysis

Conclusion

• Rephrased thesis statement

• Overview of supporting evidence

• Concluding statement

Writers do not always have to add too much detail to an outline, especially in a timed Context, but outlining is an important step in the writing process because it organizes the writer's ideas logically and clearly. This allows them to swiftly write the essay without going on a tangent or losing their place. The outline also ensures the reader will easily follow the development of their ideas.