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Prewriting is a way to come up with ideas for your essay. |
Step
2: Prewrite for Ideas
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Once you understand the writing assignment, you need to figure out what to write about. A good way to do that is to prewrite for ideas.
Four useful prewriting techniques are
brainstorming,
clustering,
free writing
and image
mapping. Each method can
help you get all your ideas about a topic out of your brain
and onto paper. Then you can check your ideas and
decide which ones to keep and which to throw out.
It's important not to judge your ideas as you write
them. Let the ideas flow out of your head as fast as
you can. Even if an idea seems crazy or weird, write
it down.
Imagine you've been given the writing prompt about pets. You spent a few minutes marking up the prompt. Now you have to think about what to write.
Let's look at how you can use the
different prewriting methods to come up with a
topic.
Brainstorm
/ List
When brainstorming or
listing, you simply write your ideas down the page as
fast as they come to you. You might use bullets or
hyphens to set off each one.
Cluster
/ Map / Web
Clustering or
mapping is a way of drawing your ideas out like a
spider web. The main idea goes in the middle, and you
expand your thoughts out from there.
Freewrite
With free writing, you put
your ideas onto paper in the form of sentences as quickly as
possible. Unlike the final essay, in free writing you
don't worry about spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Get your ideas on the page while they're buzzing around in
your brain. Imagine that you're talking to yourself on
paper. If you hit a rough patch, just keep writing
whatever comes into your head. Soon some more topic
ideas will come, and you can add them.
Image
Map
If you like to draw or doodle,
image mapping might just be for you. Instead of
writing your ideas down with words, draw quick sketches to
represent your thoughts. After you've drawn some
ideas, label them with words if you like.
For example, I made the following brainstorm list for the
writing prompt about pets:
Now I have to look over my list and pick a topic to write about. Here are some questions you might ask yourself as you try to choose your topic:
- About which topic do you feel most strongly?
- Which topic would be the easiest for you to write?
- For which topic do you have the most strong ideas or background knowledge?
Try
using several different prewriting techniques. Find the one
that feels the most comfortable to you, and use it whenever
you need to generate ideas about an assignment.
Look
over your prewrite and circle the topic you want to write
about. For my essay, I've chosen the topic
"dogs."
Prewriting
Strategies Getting
Started Developing
Ideas for Writing
(Prewriting) Prewriting
Strategies Prewriting
Essays Prewriting
Strategies Prewriting Strategies Clustering On
Using Computers as a Writing
Tool Prewriting
with Computers
Related
Links
http://www.humboldt.edu/~tdd2/PrewritingStrategies.htm
http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/maplewoods/writeplace/gettingstarted.html
http://www.esc.edu/htmlpages/writer/cwprewri.htm#freewriting
http://mie.eng.wayne.edu/faculty/lockledge/Eng102/mod11.htm
http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/tips/essay/prewrite.htm
http://www.ukans.edu/~writing/docs/prewriting.html
http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~paltan/Love/Material/writing/prewriting.htm
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tcluster.htm
http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/engl_101/computer.htm
http://www.wwnorton.com/we/ch1/2c.htm
Step
3: List and Develop Major Points
