Prewriting

General Advice

The goal of prewriting is to help you develop ideas to use in your paper and, eventually, to lead you to a thesis (main idea). Remember that prewriting does not have to be formal. No matter which prewriting strategy you use, suspend judgement on what you write. Don’t hold back or censor any ideas: write everything down. Take risks and pursue what might seem like odd ideas; sometimes these ideas can provide a compelling angle on your topic. Try different methods of invention until you find those that work best for you, but be open to other options. Sometimes you may find your usual methods won’t work for a particular writing project, so be ready to be flexible. Always remember, even though it seems like prewriting is more work, it will make your paper better and will prevent you from having to rewrite large sections of your paper.

Think

Ask yourself the following questions before you begin writing.

1. Who would be interested in what I am going to write?

2. Why would they read my paper?

3. What knowledge of the topic would they already have?

4. What questions would they want me to answer?

Brainstorm

Work in 5 or 10 minute spurts. Reward yourself with breaks, but write continually while you are brainstorming. List words and phrases as they come to you. (Key words and short phrases are preferable so you are not worrying about putting sentences together. You can worry about sentences later.) Try to write down as many ideas as you can. Keep your mind and fingers moving. Some people even suggest writing the last phrase over and over to prod yourself if you can’t think of the next idea. Don’t censor anything while you write. You can decide later what to keep and what to leave behind.

Freewrite

Work in 5 or 10 minute spurts. Reward yourself with breaks, but write continually while you are freewriting. Write words, phrases, or sentences relating to your topic. Don’t censor anything while you write. You can decide later what to keep and what to leave behind.

Looping

Do some looping to push your ideas. After brainstorming or freewriting for a few minutes, find a promising idea. Do another round of rapid writing (brainstorming, freewriting, whatever) to push the idea further. You can keep looping in this manner until you develop a key idea or line of reasoning. Looping may even lead you towards a rough thesis statement.

Clustering, diagramming, charting, cubing

Map your ideas (clustering, diagramming, charting, cubing). If you like to think visually or want a way of seeing how your ideas fit together, try one of these methods. Mapping ideas can have the advantage of showing how one idea connects with others, and these connections can become the basis for a rough outline.

Clustering: Write a key word pertaining to your topic and circle the word. Then draw lines branching off from the main topic into ideas, examples, people, places, things, activities, attitudes, emotions, or anything else that come to mind about your topic.

Diagramming: Draw a picture related to your topic. Then start labeling parts of the picture with your ideas and observations.

Charting: Use rows and columns to group your ideas. Charting is especially useful if you are comparing (or contrasting) different things.

Cubing: Pick a topic and answer the following six questions.

·Decribe it

·Compare it

·Associate it

·Analyze it

·Apply it

·Argue for or against it

Common Problems to Avoid

Write your ideas down, and don’t rely on working through ideas in your head. Writing ideas will help you take a closer look at them and minimize the chance of forgetting ideas. Don’t be satisfied with a list of six or so words for a brainstorming session. The more brainstorming material you get, the easier it will be to draft the paper. At the same time, don’t feel that you have to get every single idea together before you can write the rough draft. You can always come back for a second round of brainstorming after writing your draft. Don’t become locked into one pattern of invention strategies. Experiment with different invention strategies—especially if you’re stuck for ideas.