WRITING PROCESS
Prewriting
Prewriting does not consist of a single method. In fact, prewriting involves several
techniques that can help you plan and write a far better paper than if you simply dove
right in. Most people find that some prewriting strategies work better for them than
others. Below you will find a variety of techniques, a couple of which are sure to work
wonderfully for you!
Freewriting
Do you have no idea where to begin and need to generate lots of great ideas? Try
freewriting! In this technique, the key is to start writing and keep writing. Don't stop to
correct mistakes. Don't stop to edit. This is "stream of consciousness" at its best, and it
does not have to be understood by anyone except you. Let's say you are writing a paper
on the topic of obesity in children. Here's a possible product of freewriting:
I was at the mall the other day trying to pick out a dress for my brother's wedding
and everywhere I looked there were all these really overweight kids. It was scary
to think that kids so young could have a weight problem like this and I started to
wonder if it was just the mall or just a weird day and maybe not so many kids out
in society were really obese. So I looked it up and found out that a third of
children are obese and obese doesn't mean a little overweight it means a lot
overweight. I heard something on the news about the state of Georgia canceling
recess because the kids need more time to study for the placement tests required
by the "No Child Left Behind" Act, but I have to say it seems like if we don't let
kids exercise and play, we are leaving a lot of children behind! I guess lack of
exercise is a big cause of all this, and it doesn't help that instead of playing
outside after school kids play video games, but I also think the "Super Size" fast
food explosion hasn't helped. One super size fast food meal has more fat and
calories than anyone needs in an entire day and it's just one meal! I wonder how
we can encourage kids to eat healthier and this seems like a really important
thing to do because child obesity has to have health risks like diabetes, maybe
even heart trouble. We have to educate kids and their parents, but how? Maybe
we need to start in our school cafeterias where they serve cheeseburgers and
pizza everyday! What kind of message is that sending! Kids need to develop a
taste for healthier foods and we all now that sugar and fat are really tasty so we
need to limit kids' exposure to them. We need to educate parents, maybe through
the schools, about the health risks their kids face. We need to encourage good
grocery stores to come into neighborhoods that don't have them now. When I
use to live in the city, the produce at the local Safeway was always unripe or
rotten and the only meat was fish sticks. What options are those? So we need to
educate people but we also need to give them better options so they can eat
healthy.
While the results of this freewriting cannot be used as the basis of a formal college essay
because it is too informal and it does not back up any of its claims with outside support,
it is a great start. The goal of freewriting is to generate ideas; notice how many ideas
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came out of the example. Starting with the general topic of "obesity in children," this
freewrite generated ideas about its causes and its health risks, as well as possible ways to
help reduce the problem.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a lot like freewriting, except it does not use complete sentences and is
often written as a list. Using our obesity in children example above, a possible
brainstorm might look like this:
Obesity in kids
See it everywhere
Pretty big percentage of kids are obese
Cause: lack of exercise (no recess in Georgia; playing outside has been lost to
video games)
Cause: poor diet (fast food, Super Size)
Health risk: diabetes
Health risk: heart conditions
How do we fix this?
Educate kids and parents
Make school cafeterias food healthier
Encourage grocers in all areas to carry healthier and fresher produce and meats
Bubbling
Bubbling, like freewriting above, is a great technique when you have not yet developed a
clear idea of where you are going with your topic. This is also a great technique for
people who are visual learners. Here's how it works: pick a word or phrase related to
your topic. For example, let's look at how the topic of obesity in children could be
explored in bubbling. You might start with that phrase: obesity in children. Draw a
circle and put that phrase in it:
Now think about some things relating to this. For example, you might want to look into
the causes of childhood obesity and the effect it has on health. Add circles radiating from
your main circle.
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Continue by adding on to these new circles:
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And so on. Bubbling "maps" can grow quite large and complicated (imagine if
everything from the freewrite and brainstorm were added here), but they are a great way
to generate ideas. They are also helpful for organizing your ideas later on, because things
that should be linked together in the paper will be linked on the bubble map.
Clustering
This prewriting technique is very similar to bubbling: you take a main idea, in this
example “horror movies,” and write it in the center of the page, screen, or board. You
then branch out sub-ideas (and sub-sub ideas) until you’ve filled up the area with a huge
web of ideas. Here’s an example of clustering, which is basically bubbling without
drawing the circles:
Studios
1970’s Hammer films
Current profitable studios
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audiences
who watches?
differences among
Age? Gender?
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Horror movies
Past/classic movies
1930s
Frankenstein
Dracula
Wolfman
1950s
The Blob
The Thing
Them!
Other creature flicks
newer movies
Nightmare on Elm
Street
Halloween sequels
Friday 13th sequels
Texas Chainsaw
types of threats
creature
criminal
supernatural
1970s
Halloween
Friday the 13th
Evil Dead
Listing
As you can see from our bubbling and clustering examples, we’re starting to generate
some organization while we prewrite. Listing is another great way to organize as you
prewrite. If you like creating lists for everyday tasks, you’ll want to try listing when you
prepare to write a paper. Here’s an example using the horror movie topic:
Audiences
Male
(what percentage of
total audience?)
Female
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Why do they watch? Favorites
To be scared
Creepy creatures:
Aliens
Dislikes
Texas chainsaw
To relax and escape
stress
Classics: Dracula,
Frankenstein,
Wolfman
Candyman
To compare written
horror books w/
movie adaptations
To see how special
effects look
Psycho antagonist:
Silence of the
Lambs, Halloween
Supernatural:
Nightmare on Elm
Street, The Ring
Blade
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Informal Outlining
This is a terrific prewriting strategy to try, but don’t stress out about whether to use
roman numerals (I, II, III) or Arabic (1, 2, 3) – this isn’t the kind of outlining you’ve used
before! Focus on generating ideas and getting a notion of structure instead of worrying
about the finer points of how the outline looks. You can choose to write full sentences or
simple phrases, and you should move ideas around as the structure becomes apparent.
Here’s an example with using the horror movie topic:
I.
Who watches horror movies?
A. Adult males?
B. Adult females?
C. Couples?
D. Certain age demographics?
II.
Why do we watch horror movies?
A. to be scared, thrilled
B. to relax
C. to be first to see and tell friends
D. to enjoy special effects
III.
What types are popular?
A. series
1. Nightmare on Elm Street (Freddy)
2. Halloween (Michael Meyers)
3. Friday the 13th (Jason)
B. supernatural
C. creepy creatures
D. psychotic criminal
Armed with these prewriting techniques, you’ll be ready to tackle any writing project.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. It usually takes a few tries to figure out what prewriting
strategy works best for you, plus some writing strategies might work better than others in
different writing situations.
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