Identifying an Issue
One of the most challenging aspects of writing is figuring out how to begin. The first thing you will want to do is consider what your assignment is and what your professor is expecting. Your paper, first and foremost, must address these issues.
Once you have a clear understanding of the expectations of the paper, a useful first step is to brainstorm. One approach is to use concept maps to visually represent different aspects of an issue and help you to draw connections between these aspects.
Figure 1 — Example of brainstorming considerations
Other useful brainstorming approaches can be found in this Writing Center handout (PDF), and this site from Purdue's OWL.