Ideally, you should start with a little background on the topic, at least the stuff you know. Then put that into context with the modern day, and finish up with your view of where writing will go from here in the future.

Be messy. Writing is a process. Thinking too hard about the perfect word and sentence and phrase will only stall your mind. Just get something down and you can juggle it and add and delete and fix it later. It is always easier to look at some words on paper and fix them than to start from scratch.

The timed “write for the next five minutes” sorts of exercises can be helpful for someone like you. Start writing and keep going no matter what, even if you have to write “this is stupid and I don’t have any idea what to put on this paper” a few times. It trains you to let the writing flow and not to edit and pre-judge in your head which shuts the writing down.

Any topic can be great for a good writer. You apparently think that topic was dumb, but I have read some beautiful writing about the process of writing and about the words that writers use.

Write about why the topic sentence you wrote was dumb or trite or overly ambitious or uninspiring.

Or be contrarian. Write about how writing destroys the beauty of a pristine page of paper. Or about how hard it is to start. Or about all the great ways of procrastinating so you don’t have to start. Or about the relief of being finished. Or about how you imagined you’d be asked to write about “what I did last summer.”

The best way to improve your writing skills is to do lots of writing. And to read good writers.

Good luck.