{"id":3139,"date":"2016-01-25T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kibin.com\/blog\/?post_type=essay-writing-blog&p=3139"},"modified":"2019-01-23T16:04:35","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T00:04:35","slug":"6-prewriting-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kibin.com\/essay-writing-blog\/6-prewriting-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Prewriting Strategies to Get Your Essay Rolling"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a traveler. During my journeys, I have met myriad travelers, each with different ways of traveling.<\/p>\n

One of the most interesting differences I\u2019ve noticed has been the various ways in which travelers prepare for a trip. Interestingly, it mirrors the different prewriting strategies writers use to prepare for an essay.<\/p>\n

On one end of the spectrum, there is what I call \u201cThe Hippie.\u201d This traveler doesn\u2019t plan anything<\/i>. He shows up at the bus station and asks for the next bus out, regardless of where it is heading.<\/p>\n

There are many people who do the same thing when writing an essay, jumping in without any plan.<\/p>\n

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Jumping into an essay without a plan is like jumping on a bus with no planned destination.<\/a><\/div>\n

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On the other end of the spectrum, there is what I affectionately call \u201cMy Mom.\u201d Now, when \u201cMy Mom\u201d travels, everything is planned downed to the minute. This traveler knows where she will eat, sleep, and pee before the wheels have even begun rolling in the direction of her destination.<\/p>\n

Similarly, there are writers who plan every dotted \u201ci\u201d and crossed \u201ct,\u201d to use an old expression, before actually sitting down to write their essays.<\/p>\n

Obviously, these travelers\/writers are quite different in regards to their planning habits. Just as there are many ways to prepare for a trip, there are many strategies for preparing for your next essay that fall somewhere between the above extremes.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at 6 prewriting strategies to get your essay rolling.<\/p>\n

What Is Prewriting and Why Do I Need to Do It?<\/h2>\n

First, what is prewriting exactly? In this handout from Duke<\/a>, prewriting is defined as \u201ca blanket term for a wide range of techniques to start thinking about your paper before you begin the formal process of writing a draft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretty standard, self-explanatory stuff there. Prewriting is all the work you do on your essay before actually writing it. Essentially, the prewriting process begins the moment you read your assignment. <\/b><\/p>\n

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The prewriting process begins the moment you read your assignment.<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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All of the thought and work you put into your subject–including your research<\/a>, your outlining<\/a>, and your notes on napkins–are part of the prewriting process. This process takes time, but it is worthwhile.<\/p>\n

Although traveling like \u201cThe Hippie\u201d can be exciting and freeing, any veteran traveler will tell you it isn\u2019t the best way to travel. If you travel without any plan whatsoever, you will end up looking back at the end of your trip and realizing you missed out on something exciting that was nearby, because you didn\u2019t even know it was there.<\/p>\n

Similarly, writing like \u201cThe Hippie\u201d is less than ideal. Without any prewriting, there\u2019s a good chance you will look back at your finished draft and realize you missed something important. Think of it like traveling without a map. You might get to your destination eventually, but you\u2019re probably going to take an unconventional and inefficient path.<\/p>\n

Just jumping right in can be overwhelming, too. The idea with prewriting is to get your essay rolling in the right direction in a manageable way. If done correctly, it can give you the chance to get your ideas straight and think about what style, strategy, and form your essay will follow. This takes a lot of stress off of you when it comes time to actually sit down to write.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not arguing for writing like \u201cMy Mom\u201d either,  but a small amount of structured prewriting time can go a long way towards making your essay more well-rounded and complete.<\/p>\n

Our goal will be to identify some healthy and productive prewriting strategies that can help to get your essay rolling in the right direction, toward a finished product that you can be proud of.<\/p>\n

Note that just as there are varied types of travelers, all writers are different too. The prewriting strategy that works best for you might not work so well for another writer. Identifying the best prewriting strategy for your learning and writing styles takes time and practice.<\/p>\n

Below is a list of some of the most common approaches.<\/p>\n

Prewriting Strategy 1: Brainstorming or Listing<\/h2>\n

There is a good chance that your brain is swimming with thoughts, ideas, questions, and answers related to your topic. Brainstorming gives you the chance to extract as many of these ideas as possible.<\/p>\n

Take a few blank pieces of paper. At the top of one, write down your focus. This could be the writing prompt, a sentence, an idea, or simply a word related to your essay.<\/p>\n

Once you have this in front of you, start jotting down all of the words and phrases that pop into your head. Don\u2019t write in complete sentences. Don\u2019t worry about grammar or spelling. Keep going for ten minutes.<\/p>\n

When you are finished, take a look at your list and see which ideas stand out to you. Which ones grab your attention? Which ones are worth focusing and expanding upon?<\/p>\n

The KU Writing Center<\/a> suggests that you group your items in a way that makes sense to you and then label each group. This gives you points of interest to focus on in your paper. Keep these points of interest handy, because we can use them with the next strategy.<\/p>\n

Prewriting Strategy 2: Freewriting<\/h2>\n

Freewriting takes the general idea behind brainstorming a step further. Instead of just writing words or phrases, with freewriting, you will write full sentences.<\/p>\n

Again, take a blank piece of paper and set a timer for 10 minutes. Start by writing down a sentence related to your paper, and then DON\u2019T STOP. Whatever comes to mind related to your subject, write it down, disregarding anything related to grammar.<\/p>\n

The idea is to keep your pen moving, writing sentences nonstop to see what comes out. If you get stuck, you can rewrite the previous sentence. Just keep writing. The point isn\u2019t to draft writing that will be turned in to your professor. Instead, you\u2019re hoping to find a few sentences buried in your freewriting that can help focus your ideas.<\/p>\n

Now, remember those points of interest that you came up with while brainstorming? You can use each one as the first sentence in separate freewriting activities, giving yourself a chance to expand them into sentences.<\/p>\n

Prewriting Strategy 3: Mapping or Clustering<\/h2>\n

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Are you a visual learner? Can you better understand a subject when you can see it? Then, why not draw a picture of your essay?<\/p>\n

\u201cMapping\u201d or \u201cClustering\u201d has long been one of the best prewriting strategies for making a paper more manageable. And, now that you have lots of keywords and phrases from the last two strategies, you are ready to give it a try.<\/p>\n

The idea is to take the most important word or phrase from you essay and write it in the middle of your paper with a circle around it. Then, think of the key points related to that subject. Write each of these in circles that surround the central topic and connect to it by lines.<\/p>\n

Check out this clustering example from Santa Barbara City College<\/a> to see what I mean.<\/p>\n

As you can see, the more you think about each connected point, the more your map will grow. Eventually, you will run out of related ideas. You can then take a step back and look at your web of ideas.<\/p>\n

Check out this online mind mapping tool<\/a>, if you prefer to work from your computer. Oh, and here is another cool free online mind mapping tool<\/a>. Mind mapping, in general, can be a great tool for finding the main ideas of your paper, which can then be developed in the next strategy.<\/p>\n

Prewriting Strategy 4: Journalist\u2019s Questions<\/h2>\n

You now have a better grasp of the main ideas in your paper. However, you need to make sure that you haven\u2019t missed something along the way.<\/p>\n

Journalists ask certain questions every time they write a story:<\/p>\n