Creative Prewriting Techniques The textbook English for Business Success explains that the prewriting techniques of free-writing and asking questions can help you think more about your topic; however, you have more strategies available to you, some less linear and more creative, to help you begin your writing journey. These include brainstorming, idea mapping, and searching the Internet. Brainstorming Brainstorming is similar to list-making. You can make a list on your own or in a group with your classmates. Start with a blank sheet of paper (or a blank computer document) and write your general topic across the top. Underneath your topic, make a list of more specific ideas. Think of your general topic as a broad category and then list items that fit in 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. Idea Mapping Idea mapping allows you to visualize 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.

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How

Free-writing is an exercise in which you write freely about any topic for a set amount of time (usually three to five minutes). During the time limit, you may jot down any thoughts that come to your mind. Try not to worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Instead, write as quickly as you can without stopping. If you get stuck, just copy the same word or phrase over and over until you come up with a new thought. Writing often comes easier when you have a personal connection with the topic you have chosen. Remember, to generate ideas in your free-writing, you may also think about readings that you have enjoyed or that have challenged your thinking. Doing this may lead your thoughts in interesting directions. Quickly recording your thoughts on paper will help you discover your position on a topic. When writing quickly, try not to doubt or question your ideas. Allow yourself to write freely and unselfconsciously. Once you start writing with few limitations, you may find you have a clearer position than you first realized. Your flow of thoughts can lead you to discover even more ideas about the topic. Free-writing may even lead you to discover another topic that excites you even more.

Prewriting strategies depend on your critical reading skills and your level of effort. You can use prewriting exercises (and outlines and drafts later in the writing process) to further develop your topic and ideas.

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.

When selecting a topic, you may also want to consider something that interests you or something based on your own life and personal experiences

To create an idea map, start with your general topic in a circle in the center of a blank sheet of paper. Then write specific ideas around it and use lines or arrows to connect them together. Add and cluster as many ideas as you can.

Using search engines on the internet is a good way to see what kinds of websites are available regarding 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. When you search the internet, type some keywords from your broad topic or words from your narrowed focus into your browser’s search engine (many good general and specialized search engines are available for you to try). Then look over the results for relevant and interesting articles. Not all online search engines’ results will be useful or reliable. CNM Libraries offer additional information on evaluating online sources. Give careful consideration to the reliability of an online source before selecting a topic based on it. 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.

CNM Libraries offer additional information on evaluating online sources.

Narrowing the focus means breaking up the topic into subtopics or more specific points

When you begin prewriting consider why you are writing (to inform, to explain, or some other purpose) and for whom you are writing.

In addition to understanding that writing is a process, writers also understand that choosing a good general topic for an assignment is an essential step.

Prewriting is the stage of the writing process where you transfer your abstract thoughts into more concrete ideas in ink on paper (or in type on a computer screen).

Effective writing can be simply described as good ideas that are expressed well and arranged in the proper order.

These are the five most common steps in the writing process: Prewriting Outlining the structure of ideas Writing a rough draft Revising Editing

writing is a process that requires following steps and using strategies to accomplish your goals

The textbook English for Business Success states that many writers, students, and employees find that beginning to write can be intimidating.

if you have questions about the purpose of an assignment, raise your hand in class and ask. Chances are someone else is thinking the same question.

You may be asked to use these different modes of writing–evaluation, synthesis, analysis, and summary–for any given assignment. Begin by searching for the purpose of an assignment. Your teacher will give you keywords–verbs–that will let you know what the purpose of an assignment is. In an assignment prompt that involves writing, look for the active verbs or tasks that your teacher would like you to perform.

An evaluation judges the value of something and determines its worth. Evaluations in everyday experiences are often dictated by both set standards but are also influenced by opinion and prior knowledge.

The purpose of an academic synthesis is to blend individual documents into a new document. An academic synthesis paragraph considers the main points from one or more pieces of writing and links the main points together to create a new point, one not replicated in either document.

A synthesis combines two or more items to create an entirely new item.

An analysis separates complex materials in their different parts and studies how the parts relate to one another.

Summaries don’t need to included specific facts and figures in the original document; instead, they provide an overview of the essential information.

A summary of the report should present all the main points and supporting details in brief.

the purpose of an academic summary paragraph is to maintain all the essential information from a longer document.

A summary shrinks a large amount of information into only the essentials and is commonly 10% or less of the original text.

In academic settings, the reasons for writing often fulfill four main purposes: to summarize, to analyze, to synthesize, and to evaluate

One paragraph focuses on only one main idea and presents coherent sentences to support that one point.

Summary is often important in high school, where the purpose of writing assignments might be for the teacher to know you comprehend the material. For that reason, they may ask you to explain what happened in a story. In college, your instructors are under the impression that you understand the material, and they would like you to deal critically with the material. For that reason, figuring out the academic purpose of an assignment is important.

Set due dates for the stage of your writing process, for example when you would like to pick a topic and complete your rough draft. Procrastination rarely results in a good paper.

Tutors can also review your final draft before its submission to your professor. Details about CNM’s The Learning and Computer Center (TLCc) are located in chapter two.

Discuss any and all questions with the person who assigned the work, either in person or via email. Visit him or her during office hours or stay after class. Do not wait until the last minute

An assignment sheet may be lengthy, but resist the temptation to skim it. Observe and interpret every detail of the text. Moreover, it is essential to focus on the keywords of the subject matter being discussed.

The first step to developing a writing process is considering why you need to write and what you need to write.

your job as a college writer is to determine which process works best for you

Her current writing process is different and reflects years of experience. Now she reads over the expectations of her writing situation, considers her audience, develops her tone to match her audience’s expectations, writes in multiple sittings, asks a friend or colleague to read what she has written, and then makes her writing public. That process works for her; however, that process might not work for you. We are all different. Our brains respond differently to the task of writing. Some people like to outline, some people like to create idea maps, and some people like to write all their ideas down and organize later.

waiting until the night before the due date

An important part of developing academic writing skills includes developing your own writing process.

Tip 1: Use Precise Diction After you’ve finished writing a draft of your essay, go back and underline all the vague and general terms to see if you can replace them with more precise diction, words that are clear and specific. Especially look out for the “s” word, and no, I do not mean the one that comes to almost everyone’s lips when they look in the rear view mirror and see flashing police lights. I mean “society.” By itself it can mean anything—the entire world, the specific part of the country you live in, the people who make the rules, the counter culture that resists the people who make the rules, to name just a few. If you can specify which “society” you are referring to, you will not only clarify your analysis but also discover new insights concerning the significance of your perspective to a specific group. And also try to avoid all the variations of society that do not provide additional clarity, such as: “in today’s society” or “in today’s modern complex industrial society.” Tip 2: Avoid Vague Terms Consider also looking out for these vague terms and phrases: “The Government.” Try to specify if this term refers to state, local, or federal representatives, the people who vote them in, or to those who are paid through tax dollars, such as public school teachers, policeman, and armed service personnel. Another vague phrase is, “Since the beginning of time.” Try to specify when something actually begins. Personal computers, for instance, have not been around since the beginning of time, as one of my students wrote, but only since the late 1970’s. Avoid broad generalizations like, “All people want to have…” No matter how you finish that sentence, you probably won’t discover something that all people want to have. Again, specify which group of people and why they want to have it. You should also be on the lookout for words like, “stuff,” “things,” or “items,” if you can replace them with more concrete terms like, “scattered papers,” “empty oil cans,” or “half finished plates of food.” Tip 3: Vary Your Verbs Give the same care and attention to your choice of verbs. You should especially avoid overusing the passive voice, in which the subject of the sentence does not perform the action as in “Tina was asked to go to the prom by Jake.” Usually the active voice sounds more vivid and more compelling, “Jake asked Tina to go to the prom.” And this sentence would be even better if you could replace the verb “asked” with one that gives a more specific account of the action: “Jake begged Tina to go to the Prom.” But don’t feel the need to eliminate the passive voice entirely. Sometimes you may not know who performed the action implied in the sentence, “my car was scratched” or you don’t want to admit responsibility for your own actions, “mistakes were made.” Just make certain that when you use a form of the verb “to be,” you do so for a reason and not in place of a verb that suggests a more vivid account. Ultimately, you want to avoid repetitively using any one verb in your writing. Vary your verb choices to create descriptive and engaging writing. Tip 4: Avoid Wordiness In advising you to find more precise and compelling words, I do not mean that you should search your thesaurus to find the longest and most complicated terms. Nothing makes students sound like they are trying too hard to impress their teachers than when they use words that appear unnecessarily complicated, dated, or pretentious to make the analysis seem more sophisticated. Though students often think that they impress their teachers by using the most complex term, it usually leaves the opposite impression that you are spending too much time with the thesaurus and not enough with the actual substance of the essay. Bonus Video The power of simple words – Terin Izil Along these lines, avoid the other common trick of adding unnecessary words just to lengthen the essay out to the required number of pages. Instead always look for ways to state your point of view more succinctly. You can do this by using a term that implies several others. For instance, you do not need to write, “Sue is like those people who always put off doing what they are supposed to do until much later than they should have done it in the first place,” when you can simply say, “Sue procrastinates.” Tip 5: Write Compelling Sentences Once your essay has a precise, natural diction, you can jazz it up even further by creating sentence variety. A series of sentences of the same length and type tends to become hypnotic (in fact, hypnotists use rhythmical tones and repetitious phrases to put people into trances). Your essay should “flow” in the sense that the ideas connect to each other, but not in the sense that the style seems like listening to the waves of a lake lapping against the shore at steady intervals. A style that commands attention seems more like a river that changes at every bend. To achieve this effect, try to juxtapose sentences of various lengths and types. If you have a long sentence that is full of subordination and coordination, moving through the complexities of a section of your analysis, then try to follow it up with a short one. Like this.

The writing process requires many steps, and in order to ensure you have created a style that meets the needs of both the assignment and your reader, spend some time enhancing your word choices, developing your descriptions, and clarifying your sentence constructions.

Your writing style, especially your word choice (diction), should reflect the audience you are writing to. Always imagine who your hypothetical audience is (what type of publication would the content of your essay fit into?) and that will help you determine the specifics of your writing style. Academic essays usually require a formal style of writing. That means you should avoid unnecessary informality like first and second person usage, use of slang, and the temptation to write like you are texting, tweeting, emailing, blogging, or engaging in any other genre that is typically characterized by a less formal style.

To stimulate these connections, writers portray their attitudes and feelings with useful devices, such as sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, and formal or informal language

Tone identifies a speaker’s attitude toward a subject or another person

syntax

You can — and should — develop an authorial voice no matter what subject you choose to write about.

Content is also shaped by tone. When the tone matches the content, the audience will be more engaged, and you will build a stronger relationship with your readers.

Content refers to all the written substance within a document.

Although the audience for writing assignments—your readers—may not appear in person, they play a vital role in the development of your writing. Even in everyday writing activities, you identify your readers’ characteristics, interests, and expectations before making decisions about what you write.

the main point gives you a framework to organize the details presented in the reading and relate the reading to concepts you learned in class

you need to be an active reader.

research shows that cramming and procrastinating have to do with emotional dysregulation that can be helped with good time management skills

Even when you do understand the reading, it can be hard to write about it if you do not feel personally engaged with the ideas discussed.

reading and writing work together