2. What is Pre-Writing? Preparatory work for a piece of writing It is an idea formulation Research Used as an outline
3. The Goal of Pre-Writing First step in writing process Calms down nerves Don’t panic about the topic of the paper To get ideas of what to write about
4. Getting Started Carefully think about the topic Think about what the purpose of the paper is How can you achieve that purpose Start thinking of topics and ideas
5. Types of Pre-Writing Brainstorming Clustering Free Writing Looping Asking the six journalists’ questions (Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?)
6. Brainstorming Also called “listing” Grouping items that relate to the topic Jacob Botter, Brainstorms, October 5, 2005 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution
7. Clustering Allows you to relate ideas together Also called “Mind mapping” Alan Cleaver, March 24 2010 via Canon EOS 400D Digital, Creative Commons Attribution
8. Steps for Clustering Put topic in the center of the page When you have ideas, branch them off the topic Add to those ideas the same way In the end there will be clusters all over the page.
9. Free-writing A process of writing for a certain amount of time Focus on a specific topic Time for 5-10 minutes Force yourself to continue writing
10. Free-writing continued… When finished, look over the paper Pick out the most interesting idea Then begin over again with related ideas
11. Looping A type of free writing Don’t edit what is written Do it for 5-10 minutes Felix Trinh, July 19, 2008 via Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS, Creative Commons Attribution
12. Looping Continued… After the time is up, circle the best ideas, sentences, and phrases Have your classmates circle ideas on your paper also Then write again for 5-10 minutes Continue for 4 or 5 times
13. The Journalists’ Questions Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Mai Le, April 20, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution
14. The Journalists’ Questions continued… Who?-Who are you talking about? What?-What is the topic? What are the issues? Where? Where does it take place?
15. The Journalists’ Questions Continued… When?-When did the topic take place? Why?-Why is the topic an issue? How?-How is the topic significant?
16. The End! For more information: "Prewriting Strategies." KU Writing Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. <http://www.writing.ku.edu/~writing/guides/pre writing.shtml>. Brizee, Allen. "Purdue OWL: Prewriting (Invention)." Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). Web. 26 Feb. 2011. <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/67 3/01/>.
