The Process of Invention

By now, you should be getting started on a draft of you ad analysis, but it might not be easy! If you're having trouble getting started, staying focused on what to write, figuring out what terms to use to address your audience, or maybe you feel like you have nothing to say, here are some tips based on the Purdue OWL article on prewriting and the process of invention (the original post can be found online at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/673/01/).

Introduction to Prewriting

When you sit down to write...

• Does your mind turn blank?
• Are you sure you have nothing to say?

If so, you're not alone. Many writers experience this at some time or another, but some people have strategies or techniques to get them started. When you are planning to write something, try some of the following suggestions.

You can try the textbook formula:

1. State your thesis.
2. Write an outline.
3. Write the first draft.
4. Revise and polish.

. . . but that often doesn't work.

Instead, you can try one or more of these strategies:

Explore the problem — not the topic

1. Who is your reader? (a generally informed and educated audience)
2. What is your purpose? (to analyze an argument that a vintage TV ad makes)
3. Who are you, the writer? (an informed, educated academic writer)
4. With these problems in mind, how would you adjust what you write to fit your audience? Would you write an essay using the same tone as you would when writing a text message or a tweet? How should you alter your writing to fit this scenario?

Make your goals operational

1. How can you achieve your purpose?
2. Can you make a plan?

Generate some ideas by Brainstorming

• Keep writing
• Don't censor or evaluate, just write freely
• Keep returning to the problem
• Return to the heuristic methods from Writing Analytically (Notice and Focus+ Ranking, The Method, Paraphrase x3)

Talk to your reader

• What questions would they ask?
• What different kinds of readers might you have?

Ask yourself what your purpose is for writing about the subject.

There are many "correct" things to write about for any subject, but you need to narrow down your choices. For example, your topic might be "dorm food." At this point, you and your potential reader are asking the same question, "So what?" Why should you write about this, and why should anyone read it?

Do you want the reader to pity you because of the intolerable food you have to eat there (attempting to sway a reader through emotion is a pathos approach).

Do you want to analyze large-scale institutional cooking from your personal experience as a cafeteria food eater? (using your persona and your credibility to sway an author is a ethos approach).

Do you want to compare Auburn's dorm food to that served at The University of Alabama (using an analytical approach of comparison and contrast of statistics or concrete fact is an logos approach that appeals to the logic of your reader).

As you write about your advertisement for your essay, think about HOW the advertisement appeals to its audience!!

Ask yourself how you are going to achieve this purpose.

How, for example, would you achieve your purpose if you wanted to describe some movie as the best you've ever seen? Would you define for yourself a specific means of doing so? Would your comments on the movie go beyond merely telling the reader that you really liked it?

Start the ideas flowing

Brainstorm. Gather as many good and bad ideas, suggestions, examples, sentences, false starts, etc. as you can. Perhaps some friends can join in. Jot down everything that comes to mind, including material you are sure you will throw out. Be ready to keep adding to the list at odd moments as ideas continue to come to mind.

Talk to your audience, or pretend that you are being interviewed by someone — or by several people, if possible (to give yourself the opportunity of considering a subject from several different points of view). What questions would the other person ask? You might also try to teach the subject to a group or class.

See if you can find a fresh analogy that opens up a new set of ideas. Build your analogy by using the word like. For example, if you are writing about violence on television, is that violence like clowns fighting in a carnival act (that is, we know that no one is really getting hurt)?

Take a rest and let it all percolate.

Summarize your whole idea.

Tell it to someone in three or four sentences.

Diagram your major points somehow.

Make a tree, outline, or whatever helps you to see a schematic representation of what you have. You may discover the need for more material in some places. Write a first draft.

Then, if possible, put it away. Later, read it aloud or to yourself as if you were someone else. Watch especially for the need to clarify or add more information.

You may find yourself jumping back and forth among these various strategies.

You may find that one works better than another. You may find yourself trying several strategies at once. If so, then you are probably doing something right.

(adapted from Purdue OWL's article on Prewriting and Invention. Original article written by Allen Brizee).