With an awesome title like that, I’m sure you’re all expecting some amazing, well-thought out, top-tier writing strategies. Well, I’m sorry to say, I have deceived you. The truth is, I really don’t have any concrete writing strategies to speak of. Usually, I just wait until I really feel like I need to get an assignment done, and then I do it. While I’m sure it would definitely be helpful for me to have a more organized, consistent writing technique, I’ve just never used one that has made me want to keep coming back to it.
If I have to pick a strategy to talk about though, I would probably say that it is easiest for me to make sure that the first things I know are what my argument is (or what my purpose is) and how I can support that argument. So, starting with the question I’m trying to answer, I will outline the main points I need to cover and make sure there is enough to talk about under each point to fulfill any specific length requirement there is. After I have the general structure of the essay or article or whatever laid out for me, I just start writing. I will usually start with the intro and end with the conclusion (I know a some people start with body paragraphs and I don’t know why but I just can’t do that), then if I see that my intro sounds odd compared to the points that my conclusion brings up, I will do my best to change it so it makes more sense.
I guess my usual strategy uses a bit of both outlining and free-writing, but there has never been a specific way that I have been taught to write a paper that I use often. I don’t outline all my thoughts beforehand, nor do I always write a thesis and go from there. However, there is usually some structure to what I do in that I like to have all my ideas laid out before I start to write.