1. Prewriting: Getting your ideas out
From The Longman Writer
Chapter 2, pages 12-35

2. Why Prewrite?
Prewriting techniques are like the warm-ups you do before going out to jog – they loosen you up, get you moving, and help you to develop a sense of well-being and confidence.
During prewriting, you deliberately ignore your internal critic.
Your purpose is simply to get ideas down on paper.

3. Determine your:
Purpose: what do you want your essay to accomplish (inform, explain, convince, persuade, entertain)
Audience: to write effectively , you need to identify who your readers are and consider their expectations and needs (age, gender, education, politics, religion, interests, prior knowledge)
Tone: use word choice and sentence structure to adapt your tone to fit the purpose and audience you have selected.

4. Focus on a limited subject
Too broad a subject can result in frustration and a long, rambling essay.
General Subject
Less General
Limited Subject
Education
Computers in education
Computers in elementary school arithmetic classes
High school education
High school electives
Transportation
Low-cost travel
Hitchhiking
Getting around a metropolitan area
The transit system in a nearby city
Work
Planning for a career
College internships
Women in the workforce
Women’s success as managers

5. Types of Prewriting
Brainstorm: quickly list everything about the general topic that comes to mind. Work vertically down a page, listing every thought, idea, fact, words or phrases; even the most fleeting, random, or seemingly outrageous thoughts can be productive. Don’t try to organize or censor your ideas.

6. Types of Prewriting
Freewrite: set a timer and jot down everything that comes to mind without worrying about spelling, grammar, or value of ideas. Don’t stop writing during that time; if you get stuck, just repeat a word or phrase until another thought comes. Feel free to get swept along and go wherever your thoughts take you.

7. Types of Prewriting
Bubble/Cluster chart: put your limited subject in the middle of a circle in the middle of the page and branch out with sub-points; feel free to branch out from those, and so on. There’s really no wrong way to do a bubble chart.

8. Types of Prewriting
Writer’s journal: many writers keep a journal in which they write ideas as they come to them; others make themselves just write for a specific amount of time each day Question the general subject (who, what, when, where, why, how)

9. Go back and star/highlight/circle ideas with potential (surprising, well-written, interesting) that may fit with your purpose, audience, and tone.
Cross out anything that will not work; add points that didn’t occur to you at the time.
Draw arrows between related items (so they can be grouped under a common heading in your outline).
It may help to then go ahead and write several phrases or sentences summarizing the most promising information.

10. Practice 1
Number the items in each set from 1 (broadest subject) to 5 (most limited subject):
Set A
Abortion
Controversial social issue
Cutting state abortion funds
Federal funding of abortions
Social issues
Set B
Business majors
Students’ majors
College students
Kinds of students on campus
Why students major in business

11. Practice 2
Which of the following topics are too broad for an essay of two to five typed pages:
Soap operas’ appeal to college students
Day care
Trying to “kick” junk food
Male and female relationships
International terrorism

12. Practice 3
Assume you’re writing essays on two of the topics below. For each one, how might you adapt your purpose, tone, and point of view to the audiences indicated in parenthesis?
Overcoming shyness (ten-year-olds; teachers of ten-year-olds; young singles living in a large apartment building)
Smoking (people who have quit; smokers; elementary school children)

13. Practice 4
Choose one of the following general topics for a roughly 500-word essay. Then use the prewriting technique indicated in parenthesis:
Friendship (freewriting)
Malls (mapping)
Television (brainstorming)
Manners (questioning)