Prewriting
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The writing process consists of three stages: Prewriting –
Writing – Revising
Prewriting stage is the most creative stage of the writing
process, the stage where you explore your ideas and
the connection among them.
Even experienced writers use a series of specific
prewriting techniques before they get to their final
draft.
Prewriting Techniques
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• Free writing
• Brainstorming
Clustering/Branching
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Asking questions
Free writing
Freewriting is a prewriting technique in which you write
freely without a care for spelling or grammar and where you
write all the ideas that come to your mind within a given
time, even if they may not be properly sequenced.
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free writing might seem at first a bit of a struggle.
your ideas might initially look disorganized, but you will
eventually be able to connect them with other ideas
that will contribute to the final written output.
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the trick is to get out of the way, and let your
subconscious take over. Most writing exercises ask you to
think. This one requires you do anything but that.
Exercise:
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If you could create a mobile application for an iPhone
or iPad, what would it be? (Time: 5 minutes)
Brainstorming
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is best done with a group who provide individual ideas
about the subject matter
the top priority of brainstorming is quantity over quality.
the most important thing to remember about this
process is that there are no bad ideas in brainstorming.
Exercise:
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Form two groups and start listing all of your ideas about
one of the following prompts:
- I believe animals exist to…
- Social media & Narcissism
- Fake news
- Health
Clustering/mind mapping
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allows you to explore how ideas fit together
begin by writing the main idea/ topic in the middle of
the page and circle it
as you think of related ideas write them down and circle
them, too.
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draw lines to connect the new ideas to the ones from
which they came from.
repeat the process until you feel the subject is
completely covered.
Branching
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Allows you to connect related ideas
Begin by writing the main idea/topic on the left side of
your paper and then enumerate the related ideas to the
right of it
The new related ideas may branch out into other ideas
Draw lines to connect the ideas
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Exercise:
Use either mind mapping or branching techniques to
connect ideas about one of the following concepts:
-Academic writing
-Prewriting techniques
Asking questions
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
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In everyday situations, you pose these kinds of questions
to get more information. Asking these types of questions
will also help you with the writing process. As you choose
your topic, answering these questions can help you
revisit the ideas you already have and generate new
ways to think about your topic.