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Prewriting

Matt Sharkey-SmithWriting Instructor and Coordinator of Graduate Writing Initiatives

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Agenda

• Prewriting: Briefly defined• Stages of prewriting• Prewriting techniques• Techniques for other learning styles• Questions

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Poll questions

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The Writing Process

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Prewriting

• Researching, brainstorming, organizing, planning

• Everything that you do before you write your draft.

• Often the toughest part of writing because it’s so individualized.– Different people learn and think differently

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The Writing Process: An Overview

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Stages of Prewriting

Three broad, roughly defined phases• Researching• Generating• Planning

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Researching

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Researching

• Research is the first step of prewriting for academic purposes.

• You’re probably already doing this in your courses or as part of your capstone, though you may be able to tweak your research processes to make them more efficient.

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Critical Reading

• Read actively rather than passively.• Engage with the text by

– Asking questions as you read– Underlining, highlighting, etc.– Making notes in the margins

• See our critical reading page for more info.

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Critical Reading—Example

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Note Taking

• Goes hand-in-hand with critical reading• Many different methods; no “right” one

– Journaling• Pen-and-paper• Apps on your computer or tablet

– EverNote, OneNote, Zotero, etc.

• Include major ideas from sources, your reactions, etc.• Variety of organizational methods• All notes in one repository

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Note Taking—Example (Journal)

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Note Taking

– Note cards• One card for each source, includes major points, useful

evidence, disagreements with other sources, etc.• Built-in organization: you can group cards by category,

topic, etc.

– Writing annotations• Similar to using note cards, but more formalized• Often required for some projects• Includes summary, analysis, and synthesis

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Note Taking—Example (Note Cards)

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Generating

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Generating

• The next phase of prewriting• After you gather information, you need to

generate ideas about it for your writing.• Generating is usually considered the most

mysterious and frustrating part of prewriting.

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Freewriting

• Often, your ability to think critically can lead you to reject ideas before you develop them, preventing you from writing anything.

• Freewriting helps you bypass this by getting ideas on the page, even if they’re underdeveloped or unrelated to your topic.

• Often used to defeat writer’s block

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Freewriting

How it works:• On a blank piece of paper or in a blank document on

your computer, think about your topic and begin writing everything that comes to mind.

• Don’t worry about grammar, structure, or style—just keep writing. Whatever you do, don’t edit.

• If you can’t think of anything to write about your topic, write about whatever else is on your mind (e.g., “I can’t think of anything to write, this is really frustrating…”).

• Keep going for at least 5 minutes without stopping.

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Freewriting

• After your time is up, read through what you’ve written.

• Highlight anything related to your topic and, if you want, copy it to a new page/document (omitting any unrelated text).

• Now you can evaluate these ideas critically.– Did you discover any new thoughts?– Can you use these ideas as a topic, a thesis, or a

connection between other ideas?– Do any of these ideas interest you?

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Clustering

• Like freewriting, clustering is a way of getting past your critical faculties in order to generate ideas.

• Based on clusters of associations, takes advantage of chaotic nature of thoughts

• It relies on intuition and “feel” to bring subconscious thoughts and connections to your attention.

• You can use paper and pen or various apps (Bubbl.us, FreeMind, etc.).

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Clustering

• How it works:– If you have a topic in mind, write it down.

• If you don’t have a topic, write down an idea that seems related and significant (e.g., if you’ve been researching leadership styles, you might use “Kurt Lewin,” “stakeholders,” or “transformational”).

– Near that topic, write down ideas that come to mind.• Leave plenty of space between them.

– Repeat this with any additional ideas that you think of, moving further away from your original topic as you develop a line of thought.

– Don’t stop for at least 5 minutes.

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Clustering

– Draw lines, like spokes in a wheel or filaments in a spider web, between related ideas to help you visualize their relationships.

– Ask yourself questions:• Did you discover any new ideas?• Did you notice any new connections between ideas?• Could you write about any of these ideas further?• Do any of these new ideas interest you?

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Clustering—Example

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Other Learning Styles

Auditory learners• Try speaking aloud about your topic and

record your ideas with a microphone (use your computer or smartphone).

• Don’t worry about ordering your thoughts; just speak naturally and freely. Keep going for at least 5 minutes.

• Play the recording back and transcribe anything pertinent to your topic.

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Other Learning Styles

Kinesthetic learners• Get active. Go for a walk, pace around the

room, toss a ball against a wall—do something to move your body and activate your thought processes.

• Bring your topic to mind as you move.• Then, record your ideas by writing them down

or speaking aloud and recording audio.

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Planning

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Planning

• The final phase of prewriting• The goal: Create a clear, logical plan for the

document you’re constructing.• Throughout this phase, keep in mind the goals

and constraints of your project.– E.g., for a course paper, you’ll create the structure

of your paper from scratch, but for a dissertation you’ll need to follow the dissertation rubric.

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Concept Mapping

• Concept mapping is similar to (and often combined with) clustering, especially for smaller projects.

• Different from clustering because it takes critical thinking further.– Rather than generating ideas based on association,

you visually arrange and evaluate ideas to determine an overall structure.

• You can use pen and paper or various apps.– Bubbl.us, FreeMind, etc.

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Concept Mapping

• How it works:– On a blank page, write down the major ideas you’ve

generated. Put them wherever you want, leaving space between them.

• If you already know which one you’ll focus the most on, put this one in the middle.

– Draw lines (as in clustering) between related ideas. You can also make notes by these lines to clarify how these ideas are connected (e.g., “this is an example,” “these seem to contradict each other”).

– If you don’t yet have a thesis, now is a great time to determine one.

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Concept Mapping

– Evaluate these ideas, their relationships, and the ways they support your thesis.

– In an app: Rearrange the ideas into groups and subgroups and think about how you could use these groups as components of your text.

– On paper: Draw circles to group related ideas. – If you want, add notes to specify how you’ll use

these groups (e.g., “introduction,” “evidence for the efficacy of transformational leadership”).

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Concept Mapping—Example

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Outlining

• The most familiar organizational method, outlining is especially useful for academic writing.

• Can be used right after generation or as the next step after concept mapping to establish a clearer structure.

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Outlining

• How it works:– On a blank page/document, write the topic of your

paper’s first paragraph (usually the introduction).– On the next line, indent and add a supporting idea of

that topic (or subtopic). Repeat until you’ve written everything you want to include in this paragraph. (You can also use numbers and letters if you want to distinguish the importance of each idea.)

– Outdent on the next line and repeat the above steps for the rest of your paragraphs.

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Outlining

– Read through the entire outline and make sure that the ideas flow linearly.

• Ask yourself: “Does each idea logically follow the one that comes before it?”

– Revise as necessary for cohesion and flow.• On the page: cross things out/erase, then rewrite.• In a document: Cut and paste.

– When you’re done, you’ll have an easily readable blueprint for drafting your text.

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Outlining—Example

I. IntroductionA. People hold a wide range of opinions about coffee

consumption.B. Even when these opinions are informed by medical

research, they tend to vary.C. Though there is a wealth of information about coffee

consumption, the overwhelming majority of the research indicates that consumption in moderation is healthy (thesis).

II. Some negative opinions of coffee are based in fact.A. Coffee can cause irritability and sleeplessness (Johnson,

2012).B. …

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Prewriting—Not Done Yet

• Once you’ve established a clear plan for your document, write a rough draft.

• Evaluate this draft. • If you notice areas you could clarify, cut,

expand, or rearrange, use prewriting techniques again to research, generate, and plan ideas as necessary.

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Prewriting—Not Done Yet

• Prewriting, like all writing, is iterative.• It requires multiple uses of each phase of the

process, not always in order.• For example, you may freewrite at the beginning

of a project to generate the basic ideas you’ll cover. Later, you may freewrite again to expand upon just one portion of a major section of that project.

• Prewriting can happen at any time throughout a writing project.

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The Writing Process—In Theory

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The Writing Process—In Practice

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Reflection

• Will you change your writing and prewriting processes to include any of these techniques?

• If so, which ones will you use and why?

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Questions?

If you have any questions after the webinar, feel free to email us:writingsupport@waldenu.edu