Good writers do a lot of writing before they begin to write the actual text they are working on. Prewriting strategies are a series of different methods good writers use to generate ideas for their text. You may be familiar with some of the strategies, but some of them may be new to you. Try the different strategies as you generate ideas for your papers this semester. When you find one that helps you generate a lot of good, in-depth ideas, use that strategy to your advantage.

Listing

Jot down ideas as they occur to you, rejecting nothing. Write quickly, using words or phrases. The aim here is to write down as much as possible.

Revisit your list, looking for similarities or opposites or ideas that seem attractive to you. Then either list again on your chosen topic, listing details this time, or write a scratch outline from the list.

See A Writer’s Reference  p. 5 for an explanation of listing.

Clustering

Make a mental map of your ideas. When you find similarities, group them together. When you come upon opposites, create a new branch on your web.

See A Writer’s Reference p. 6 for an explanation of clustering.

Sketching

This is another way of trying to visualize abstract ideas. A sketch can be an actual drawing or a chart, a diagram, a floor plan, a street plan, etc. Use a sketch to think on paper and to generate ideas and details. Your drawing does not have to be professional; crude is okay.

Collaborating

Talk with someone else about your topic. When you sit down with friends to discuss writing ideas, the give and take of conversation stimulates your mind. You may at first only have vague ideas but talking about these ideas with others can help you focus and sharpen your thinking. It becomes a way of verbalizing ideas you didn’t know you had.

There are a few rules:

• Do not criticize anyone else’s ideas as dumb. That will only stifle the conversation. Instead, ask for elaboration or why they think that way. If your discussion partner says your ideas are dumb, find a new partner or go over this rule with them.
• Each person engaged in the discussion should feel responsible for the success of the conversation.
• No one person should dominate the conversation.
• Be explicit about the kind of help you need to develop your ideas better. Tell your collaborator what kind of help you need.
• Thank your collaborators for their help.

See A Writer’s Reference p. 8 for an explanation of collaborating.

Questioning

Use a heuristic to question yourself about the topic. Probably the best known heuristic is the list of questions for journalists, the 5W’s and an H:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

See A Writer’s Reference p. 7 for an explanation of questioning.

Assignment-based questions

Asking yourself questions about the assignments is a good strategy to use for generating ideas for your essay. Use the following questions as a guideline:

• What is the assignment?
• What is the objective of the assignment?
• What was your first reaction to the assignment? Does that reaction match the objectives of the assignment?
• What readings is the assignment based on? What was your reaction to these readings? Can your reactions become part of the assignment?
• What issues relating to the assignment were discussed in class?

For more questions to assess the writing situation, see A Writer's Handbook pp. 4 - 5.

Outlining

Oh, that dreaded concept, outlining. Your outline does not have to be a formal outline with roman numerals, periods in the right place, correct spacing, etc. It can be an informal scratch outline that lays out for you the main ideas you will be covering and the details that support those ideas.

Outlines are especially important for long projects. If you have trouble organizing ideas, outlines are a big help. Try beginning with 2 x 5 caapreview cards or small pieces of paper. Write one idea on each card, then arrange the cards into an appropriate order.

See A Writer’s Reference pp. 10 - 13 for an explanation of outlining.

Freewriting

Just start writing. Start with where ever you are in the thinking process and just write what comes to you. Do not censor any ideas; there are no dumb ideas at this stage. Computers are especially good for this as they allow you to just type in what you think when it occurs to you. However you do it, you will need to revise later – to put like ideas together, to eliminate ideas that don’t belong, to expand on ideas that you have only touched on.

One variation of freewriting is called loop writing. Freewrite for a period of time – say 10 minutes. At the end of that time, read back through what you have written and choose an idea or topic that seem to be what you want to work more on. Use that topic to do more freewriting. As you do this sort of an exercise, you discover more information for yourself.

See A Writer’s Reference p. 7 for an explanation of freewriting.

“On the run and in the tub”

Think about what you have to write whenever you have a few minutes. It might be while you are commuting or in that few minutes between classes or whenever you have some down time in your day. Just thinking about your topic will help you to discover more information. Some people are even able to completely outline and develop a short paper by just thinking it through. Don't let this be your only prewriting strategy, though.