Chapter 4 Prewrite Generate Ideas for Writing

The Purpose of Prewriting

At the prewriting stage, the writer has only one goal: to generate ideas. Ideas are the most important part of any piece of writing, so at this stage, the writer deliberately refuses to be distracted by things like format, grammar, and paragraphing. Instead, the writer focuses only on what to write about.

To understand how to approach prewriting, it’s helpful to first consider what not to do at this stage. At the prewriting stage,

• • don’t think ahead to the final form of the writing, such as an essay structure or the layout of a poem
• • don’t bother writing in complete sentences or complete paragraphs—words and phrases are fine
• • don’t pay attention to grammar, spelling, or punctuation, and don’t go back to correct errors
• • don’t think about research, even if it will be required later

When writing an essay, a student who skips over the prewriting stage and focuses prematurely on aspects like organization, punctuation, research, and documentation often doesn’t realize that the ideas themselves have not been sufficiently developed. The student may find it hard to write an essay that is long enough to meet the assignment requirements or might write an essay that appears to be long enough but doesn’t say much of significance.

Because prewriting focuses on what you have to say in your writing, it is probably the most important step in the writing process.

There are many prewriting techniques available to writers, but in this chapter, we will focus on seven:

1. 1. Using experience and observations
2. 2. Reading and viewing
3. 3. Freewriting
4. 4. Asking questions
5. 5. Brainstorming
6. 6. Idea mapping
7. 7. Searching the Internet

You will probably not use all seven prewriting techniques for each writing task. Sometimes, you might use only one of them; other times, you might use three or four. Each prewriting technique is useful for a particular purpose, so it’s a good idea to practice them all now so that you will have them in your toolbox, ready to use when you encounter your next writing assignment. Then you can choose the most effective prewriting technique(s) for your particular purpose. Personal preference also plays a part in which techniques a writer chooses to use.

The same prewriting strategies can be used for any genre of writing. For example, whether you are planning to write a poem about love, a personal essay about love, or a novel about love, at the prewriting stage, you will focus only on generating ideas about love. Perhaps you choose to freewrite about love to come up with ideas: the freewriting will look exactly the same regardless of what your plans for the genre are. You will not worry, for now, about whether those ideas will eventually be placed into something that looks like a poem or something that looks like an essay.

This first step in the writing process may seem time-consuming, but it will actually save you time later in the process of writing an essay. The more time you spend prewriting and planning now, the less time you may have to spend writing and editing later because your ideas will develop more swiftly—and you will not waste time following tangents that don’t make the final cut in your assignment.

Using Experience and Observations

For some university assignments, you will be encouraged to create your own topic. When selecting a topic, you may want to consider writing about a topic that interests you or one based on your own life and experiences. Even everyday observations can lead to interesting topics. To come up with a potential topic, you might start by making a list. Here are some effective starters:

• “Ten Things I Know a Lot About”
• “The Five Most Significant Experiences in My Life”
• “Four Things I Want to Learn More About”
• “Three Issues That Matter Deeply to Me”
• “Problems I’ve Observed in My Community”

Then reflect on the list and choose a topic you’d like to pursue. Jot down ideas, using the freewriting or brainstorming techniques that we’ll explore later in this chapter and focusing on your experiences and your observations about the topic. Under Ten Things I Know a Lot About are some ideas you could consider as areas of direct and personal knowledge. Obviously, your list may be very different.

For other assignments, you will be required to choose from a list of assigned topics. Sometimes, you may think that you don’t have much to say about a topic. However, you may find that you have more of a connection to the topic than you thought. Write the topic on a piece of paper, and jot notes in response to these questions:

• Do I have any experience with this topic?
• What do I already know about this topic?
• Have I made any observations that relate to this topic?
• What would I like to learn about this topic?

After writers think about—and jot down ideas about—their experiences and observations, they often discover what they have to say about their topic. The notes help them begin to develop their thoughts.

Reading and Viewing

Reading plays a vital role in all the stages of the writing process, but it first figures in the development of ideas and topics. Different kinds of documents can help you choose a topic and also develop that topic. For example, a magazine advertising the latest research on the threat of global warming may catch your eye in the supermarket. The cover may interest you, and you may consider global warming as a topic. Or maybe a novel’s courtroom drama sparks your curiosity about a particular lawsuit or legal controversy.

Likewise, you might watch a documentary film or see a segment on the evening news that piques your interest about a topic. Perhaps you then search YouTube to find a TED Talk so that you can learn more about that topic and the subtopics associated with it.

After you choose a topic, critical reading and, when applicable, critical viewing are essential to the development of a topic. While reading almost any text, you evaluate the author’s point of view by thinking about the main idea and the support. When you judge the author’s argument, you discover more about not only the author’s opinion but also your own.

Most important, you must also assess whether the text itself is a reputable source and whether the ideas presented are valid. We live in a time in which misinformation and disinformation are rampant, and it can take dedication and effort to sort reliable information from unreliable information. Ask yourself who created the text and why—for what purpose? If the creator made the text in order to gain power, popularity, or profit, it is likely not a reliable source. Consider, too, whether the same information is presented in other reputable places. If not, be suspicious.

Freewriting

Freewriting is an exercise in which you write freely about a topic for a set amount of time (usually five to ten minutes). During the time period, jot down any thoughts that come to mind. Quickly recording your thoughts on paper will help you discover what you have to say about a topic.

When freewriting, don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Instead, write as quickly as you can without stopping. Try not to doubt or question your ideas. Allow yourself to write freely and unselfconsciously. If you get stuck, copy the same word or phrase over and over until you come up with a new thought.

Once you start writing with few limitations, you may find you have more to say than you first realized. Your flow of thoughts can lead you to discover even more ideas about the topic. Freewriting may even lead you to discover another topic that excites you most.

Writing often comes more easily when you have a personal connection with the topic. To generate ideas in your freewriting, you may also think about experiences you’ve had that relate to the topic or reading that you have enjoyed or that has challenged your thinking on the topic. This may lead your thoughts in interesting directions.

Look at the following student example. In a communications class, the instructor allowed the students to choose their own topics. One student, Mariah, thought about her experiences with media. She used this freewriting exercise to help generate more concrete ideas from experience:

Last semester my favourite class was about mass media. We got to study radio and television. People say we watch too much television, and even though I tried not to, I end up watching a few reality shows just to relax. Everyone has to relax! It’s too hard to relax when something like the news (my husband watches all the time) is on because it’s too scary now. Too much bad news, not enough good news. News. Newspapers I don’t read as much anymore. I can get the headlines on my home page when I check my email. Email could be considered mass media too these days. I used to go to the video store a few times a week before I started school, but now the only way I know what movies are current is to listen for the Oscar nominations. We have cable but we can’t afford the movie channels, so I sometimes look at older movies late at night. UGH. A few of them get played again and again until you’re sick of them. My husband thinks I’m crazy, but sometimes there are old black-and-whites from the 1930s and ’40s. I could never live my life in black and white. I like the home decorating shows and love how people use colours on their walls. Makes rooms look so bright. When we buy a home, if we ever can, I’ll use lots of colour. Some of those shows even show you how to do major renovations by yourself. Knock down walls and everything. Not for me—or my husband. I’m handier than he is. I wonder if they could make a reality show about us.

Notice that the student began with the general topic of mass media. As she wrote, she mentioned several subtopics related to mass media: radio, television, newspapers, websites, email, movies, cable, and reality television.

Notice, too, that the student’s writing also went on tangents that were unrelated to mass media, such as home decor. At the prewriting stage, these digressions are fine, and they can even lead your thinking in interesting ways.

The student certainly won’t be able to use all of these topics in the essay—there are too many diverse topics to address in a short essay, and some of them aren’t even related to mass media. Later, the student will decide which topics to use and which to ignore. At this stage, though, the focus is on generating as many ideas as possible, so the student used freewriting effectively.

We’ll follow Mariah’s progress on her essay throughout this section of the textbook.

Freewriting is a powerful and effective form of prewriting. If you haven’t tried it before, we encourage you to practice now.

Asking Questions

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? These are questions that reporters and journalists use to gather information for their stories. The questions are called the 6WH questions, after their initial letters.

In everyday situations, you pose these kinds of questions to get information: Who will be my partner for the project? What does this assignment require? When is the next meeting? Why is my car making that odd noise? How do nurses qualify to become nurse practitioners?

You seek the answers to these questions to gain knowledge, to better understand your daily experiences, and to plan for the future. Asking these types of questions will also help you with the writing process. As you explore your topic, asking and answering questions can help you revisit the ideas you already have and generate new ways to think about your topic. You may also discover aspects of the topic that are unfamiliar to you and that you would like to learn more about. All these idea-gathering techniques will help you plan for future work on your assignment.

Reread the sample of Mariah’s freewriting paragraph, and note the rambling and disjointed thoughts. Yet the topic that remained of most interest to the student was the one the sample started with: the media. To further explore that topic, the student asks questions about it with the purpose of refining the topic. To see how asking questions can help in choosing a topic, look at the chart that Mariah completed to record questions and answers based on her freewriting.

These questions will help the student find direction for the essay and guide them in gathering information when it is time to conduct research.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is similar to list making. Start with a blank sheet of paper (or a blank computer document) and write your general topic across the top. Underneath the topic, make a list of more specific ideas. Think of your general topic as a broad category and the list items as things that fit into that category. Often you will find that one item can lead to the next, creating a flow of ideas that can help you narrow your focus to a more specific paper topic.

Below is Mariah’s brainstorming list based on the topic of mass media:

• Mass Media
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Broadcasting
• Radio
• Television
• DVD
• Gaming / video games
• Internet
• Cell phones
• Smartphones
• Text messages
• Tiny cameras
• GPS

From this list, Mariah can narrow the focus to one particular technology under the broad category of mass media.

Idea Mapping

In an idea map, you represent your ideas on paper using circles, lines, and arrows. This technique is also known as clustering because ideas are broken down and clustered, or grouped, together. Many writers like this method because the shapes show how the ideas relate or connect, and writers can find a focused topic from the connections mapped. Using idea mapping, you might discover interesting connections between topics that you had not thought of before. This method is also helpful in establishing a structure for an essay and deciding how to organize the body paragraphs.

To create an idea map, start with the general topic in a circle in the centre of a sheet of paper. Then write more specific related ideas around it and use lines or arrows to connect them. Add and cluster as many ideas as you can think of. Ideas will become increasingly specific as you move out from the centre.

Figure 4.1 shows Mariah’s idea map on the topic of mass media.

Notice that the largest circle contains the general topic: mass media. Then the general topic branches into three subtopics written in smaller circles: Internet, television, and radio. The subtopic of television branches into even more specific topics: cable and DVDs. From cable, there are more circles with more specific ideas: high definition and digital recording. The radio topic leads to connections between music, streaming, and piracy. The Internet topic leads to news, YouTube, and social media. Some branches go further than others.

With this idea map, the student can now consider narrowing the focus of the general topic, mass media (which is too big a topic to be managed in a short essay), to a more specific topic (such as music piracy, for example) that is much more suitable for a short essay.

Searching the Internet

Using Internet search engines is a good way to see what kind of information is available on your topic. Writers use search engines not only to understand more about the topic’s specific issues but also to get better acquainted with their audience.

Look back at the questions you generated in Practice 4.3. Searching the Internet may help you find answers to your questions.

When you search the Internet, type a question or keyword from your broad topic or words from your narrowed focus into your browser’s search engine. Then look over the results for relevant and interesting articles.

Results from an Internet search show writers the following information:

• Who is talking about the topic
• How the topic is being discussed
• What specific points are currently being discussed about the topic

It’s very important to be choosy about the websites you use. Not all the search results will be useful or reliable. Carefully consider the reliability of online sources before selecting them. Make sure they are reliable, reputable sources for the kind of information you seek. Remember that factual information can be verified in other sources, both online and in print. If you have doubts about any information you find, either do not use it or identify it as potentially unreliable.

Piracy is one of the subtopics that came up in Mariah’s idea map. This subtopic piques her interest, so she conducts a Google search for “music piracy.” The results are in Figure 4.2.

Mariah reviews the results of the Internet search. First, she skims the Wikipedia article to get an overview of the topic, even though she knows that the Wikipedia article will not be an acceptable source for her final essay. She jots down Wikipedia’s definition of music piracy: “Music piracy is the copying and distributing of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners . . . did not give consent” (Wikipedia). She makes sure to enclose the definition in quotation marks so she doesn’t accidentally plagiarize later, and she writes “Wikipedia” after the definition. She knows this is likely not an accurate legal definition of music piracy, but it will help her generate ideas now—and it will guide her when she conducts research later. She also notes the headings in the Wikipedia article, and she adds “history,” “arguments,” “enforcement,” and “economics” to her idea map.

Next, Mariah skims the other sources. She sees that the second result is from the Recording Industry Association of America. That will be a good place to get another definition of music piracy—from the perspective of musicians and record companies. She clicks on the Resource tab to get a sense of the subtopics that might be found on this site, such as copyright infringement. She also notices that there is a section called “For Students” and one called “Facts and Research”—she notes this and plans to come back to it later when she begins to conduct research.

Mariah also notices some scholarly articles listed—one from the University of Chicago and others listed above. These might make good research sources later. She looks only at the titles for now. One title indicates that the article discusses the moral arguments regarding antipiracy laws. Another mentions that music piracy is related to supply and demand. She jots these ideas on her idea map, but she doesn’t read the articles yet. She knows they will be heavy reading, and she hasn’t quite chosen a topic yet, so she won’t spend time on them now. For now, in the prewriting stage, she is focusing on generating ideas to write about.

Next, Mariah notices an article from Forbes magazine. She’s not very interested in the economics of music piracy, and she’s already added “economics” to her idea map, so she moves on without reading the article.

Mariah takes a moment to review her idea maps, which she has updated based on the Google search (see Figure 4.3).

On second thought, Mariah decides she’s actually not that excited about writing an essay on music piracy. Based on recent experiences purchasing technology, she’s actually more interested in customers’ experiences.

Luckily, she only spent about fifteen minutes looking at the results of her Google search and recording them on her idea map. Because she knew she was prewriting, she avoided getting distracted by doing in-depth reading of articles that she wouldn’t end up using anyway.

Mariah decides to look into consumer aspects of mass media and then conducts a refocused Internet search of media technology and the sometimes-confusing array of expensive products that fill electronics stores. Now she can refocus the topic on the products that have fed the mass media boom in everyday lives.

***

Prewriting strategies are vital first steps in the writing process. First, they help you choose a broad topic, and then they help you narrow the focus of the topic to a more specific idea. Finally, they help you generate content—ideas about the topic—that you can use in your writing.

You may find that you need to adjust your topic as you move through the stages of the writing process. If the topic you have chosen is not working, you can repeat the prewriting activities until you find a better one.

With several prewriting strategies in your toolbox, you may feel less anxious about starting an essay. With some ideas down on paper (or saved on a computer), writers are often more confident about tackling a writing task. After generating ideas about your topic, you are ready to continue the process by planning how to organize your essay.

• • To begin the writing process, effective writers rely on steps and strategies to generate ideas.
• • Prewriting is the transfer of ideas from abstract thoughts into words, phrases, and sentences.
• • Prewriting allows a writer to focus on ideas first before becoming distracted by organization, grammar, research, and documentation.
• • Effective techniques for finding topics include reflecting on experiences, making observations, reading, freewriting, and brainstorming.
• • Effective techniques for generating ideas about a topic include reading, freewriting, brainstorming, asking questions, idea mapping, and searching the Internet.
• • Idea mapping is an effective technique for the early stages of organizing an essay.
• • Prewriting may be the most important step in the writing process.