This document provides tips for finding and focusing ideas for prewriting. It suggests choosing a topic by focusing on questions rather than broad topics, discussing options with others, and consulting course materials for ideas. Topics can be narrowed through branching into subtopics and asking focused questions. Writers should determine their purpose (to express, inform, or persuade) and consider their audience. Choosing a point of view such as first, second, or third person is also important. Various techniques for discovering ideas are outlined, including freewriting, mapping, brainstorming, questioning, writing assertions, using patterns of development, visualizing, and researching the topic.

1. PREWRITING: HOW TO FIND AND FOCUS
IDEAS

2. CHOOSING A TOPIC
 Invest time in making a choice
 Focus on questions and ideas rather on
topics
 Use your journal as a source of ideas
 Discuss possible topic with a friend
 Consult your course materials for posible
ideas

3. NARROWING A TOPIC
 Branching
Wild-game
hunting
Sport
hunting
As a source
of food
Hunting
accidents

4.  Asking questions
 Use who, what, where, when, why and how to
narrow your topic.
Question- Why divorce occur?
Narrowed topics- lifestyle differences
infidelity

5. DETERMINING YOU PURPOSE
 A well written essay should have a specific
purpose or goal.
 To express yourself
 To inform
 To persuade

6. CONSIDERING YOUR AUDIENCE
 Your readers are not present and cannot
observe or participate in what you are writing
about.
 Your readers may not know everything that
you do about your topic.
 Your readers may not share your opinions
and values.
 Your readers may not respond the same way
that you do to situations or issues.

7.  For academic papers you should provide
enough information to demonstrate your
knowledge of the subject. Include
background information, definitions of
technical terms, and relevant details to make
your essay clear and understandable.

8. CHOOSING A POINT OF VIEW
 Perspective in which you write your essay.
 First person- i, me, we, ours
 Second person- you, your, yours
 Third person- he she they
In academic writing, the third person point of view
is prevalent. The third person point of view is
more formal than both the first and second
person.

9. DISCOVERING IDEAS TO WRITE ABOUT
 Freewriting
 You write nonstop for a specific period of time,
usually five to ten minutes.
 Explore ideas, make associations, jump from
one idea to another.

10.  Mapping or clustering
 Is a visual way to discover ideas and
relationships.

11.  Brainstorming
 List everything that comes to your mind when
you think about your topic- impressions,
emotions, and reactions, as well as facts.
 Record phrases rather than sentences.
 Give yourself a time limit.
 More structured than freewriting because the
writer focuses only on the topic at hand instead
of writing whatever comes to mind.

12.  Questioning
 Write down every question you can think about your
topic.
 Writing assertions
 Forces you to look at your topic from a number of
different perspectives.
 Begin by writing five to ten statements that take a
position on or make an assertion about your topic.
 Review your list of assertions, choose one
statement, and try brainstorming, freewriting or
mapping to generate more ideas.

13.  Using patterns of development
 There are nine ways to develop an essay
 Narration
 Description
 Illustration
 Process analysis
 Comparison and contrast
 Classification and division
 Definition
 Cause and effect
 argument

14.  Visualizing or sketching
 If you are writing a description of a person, for
example, close your eyes and visualize that
person in your mind.

15.  Researching your topic
 Do some preliminary research on your topic in
the library or on the internet.
 Reading what others have written about your
topic may suggest new approaches, reveal
issues or controversies, and help you determine
what you do and do not already know about the
topic.