One of things that makes the university such a vibrant intellectual space is the variety of pedagogical styles represented on campus; as students, we can attest that this diversity makes for more flexible and creative thinkers. That said, we know that it can be difficult to develop a consistent way to interpret and approach writing assignments when those assignments vary by professor and even by course.

It’s important to get started on your essay as early as you can to allow yourself the most time to develop and revise your ideas. To this end, read through your assignment as soon as you receive it! The rest of this section is dedicated to showing you a useful framework for breaking down a writing prompt.

Step 1. Read the prompt, then read it again.

Consider the purpose of the assignment. When approaching an assignment, it’s useful to identify the purpose of the assignment. Asking yourself, “Why did Professor _______ assign this essay?” can help you understand what your professor wants you to get out of the assignment. Often, professors assign written work to clarify your thinking on a topic or concept, sharpen some relevant academic skill, or both. Thus, your English professor might ask you to write an essay about Gertrude Stein to give you practice deciphering ambiguous poetry, or your sociology professor might ask you to write an autoethnography to personalize the connection between, for instance, dorm life and capitalism. Knowing why you’re writing a paper—that is, knowing that your professor is not sadistically assigning work—actually makes writing the paper easier.

Consider your perspective on the topic. Ask yourself: “How do I feel about this topic?” This may seem like brainstorming or prewriting, and it is– just think of it as “connection brainstorming.” If we just don’t know much about a topic, it’s difficult to feel any investment in it. So, jot down what you know and feel, even if it’s not much. Then ask yourself “What do I want to know?” or “How could this topic affect me in my personal life?” These questions can help direct your focus later on. On the other hand, you may be heavily invested in a topic and have lots of feelings on the matter. Now, ask yourself, “Why am I heavily invested?” Here, it’s helpful to organize those feelings and knowledge bits because that can also direct your focus and help you see strengths, holes, or biases.

Step 2. Find the verbs and action items

Now that you’ve spent some time with the assignment prompt, it’s time to identify what the assignment is asking you to do. To do so, pay attention to the active verbs of the prompt. If your prompt asks you to “Analyze Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” make sure your essay is founded on textual analysis. If your prompt asks you to “Compare the timelines of the Korean War and the Vietnam War,” make sure your paper compares. Identifying these active verbs can give you a basic sense of how your professor will evaluate your essay—Does it analyze the novel? Does it compare the wars?—and can guide your writing to meet those expectations.

Step 3: Identify the deliverables

In project management, “deliverables” are the specific items that must be delivered to consider the project or project phase completed. In the case of an assignment, the deliverable would be whatever it is you’re supposed to hand in. Is the deliverable a five-page paper? A paper plus bibliography? Just handwritten notes? It’s probably obvious why this information is important, but it can be all too easy to skip this step and end up doing too much work, or too little, or the wrong thing altogether.

Key Information. Once you know what you should be handing in, identify any stipulations regarding length, citation format, the number of required sources (both primary and secondary), and, of course, the due date. Knowing this information will help you to plan your approach and allocate your time: You probably shouldn’t wait until Thursday night to begin outlining the six-page paper due in class on Friday. Having this information will also give you a sense of the extent and scope of your response: If you’re limited to three pages, you probably won’t be able to argue about the evolution of Los Angeles’s urban landscape from 1980 to the present; perhaps you could focus on a single aspect—building height—and hold off on the rest until your 12-page final. Identifying key information can also help you to plan your essay: The tone you adopt (Is it professional or conversational?) and the background that you provide are largely determined by your audience: Are you writing for your professor, your peers, or the general population? Your grasp of key information can help you to contour your approach.

Suggestions Versus Requirements. There are things you must do for an assignment, and there are also things you might do. Professors sincerely want you to succeed. They might provide some suggestions for writing or constructing an argument in response to the prompt. These suggestions can be helpful points of departure, especially if you’re having difficulty formulating a response. They’re also good examples of responses that your professor would accept. If it seems like there are a lot of questions, chances are, you aren’t required to answer all of them (professors don’t want to read essays full of a bunch of disjointed ideas). If you’re not sure whether something is required or just suggested, ask your professor.

Evidence. Also, identify what type of evidence that you’ll need to substantiate your argument: If your professor explicitly asks for a “statistical analysis of American automobile consumption in the past decade,” make sure you draw on statistics. (Often, this information is implied in the language of the prompt: When a prompt asks you to analyze Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you know you’ll be working with passages from the novel.) If you don’t know what type of evidence your professor expects you to use, ask.

Step 4: Make a plan

Now that we know what we have to turn in and when it’s due, we can plan out how to complete the assignment. Is it a multi-week project with multiple stages, or a 10-minute freewrite? This is a good time to pull out your calendar and decide when you’re going to complete the work for the assignment.