This document discusses pre-writing strategies, which are techniques used in the initial stage of the writing process to generate and organize ideas before writing a draft. It describes four common pre-writing strategies: freewriting, brainstorming/listing, clustering/mapping, and journalistic questions. Examples are provided to illustrate how each strategy can be applied to develop ideas for a paper about the environment.

1. Pre-Writing Strategies

2. Pre-Writing
• First stage of the writing process
• Helps us discover our initial ideas about a
subject and put them on paper, though not
usually in organized form

3. Common Pre-Writing Strategies
1. Freewriting
2. Brainstorming/Listing
3. Clustering/Mapping
4. Journalistic Questions

4. 1. Freewriting
• Jotting down all ideas on a particular topic on
paper even before researching about it
• Does not require complete sentences, proper
spelling, or correct punctuation and grammar
• About 10 to 15 minutes to write everything
that comes to mind even if it doesn’t
necessarily make sense yet.

5. Freewriting
Example (Freewriting of a student who needs to write a
paper about the environment):
I have to write a paper about the environment. I have no idea
where to start! I know there are many problems with the
environment, but I don’t know much about this topic. Maybe
I could take a look at my biology book to come up with some
ideas. I know my biology professor is also really into the
environment, so maybe I could ask for his help. I remember
he was talking about hybrid cars in class the other day and
how much better those are for the environment. What is a
hybrid car? I know it uses some sort of alternative fuel and
they are becoming very popular. Maybe that is something I
could write about…

6. 2. Brainstorming/Listing
• Capturing all thoughts, ideas, and fragments
in one’s head and writing them down on
paper
• Similar to freewriting, but:
 Freewriting = paragraph
 Brainstorming = list

7. Brainstorming/Listing
Example (Brainstorming of a student who needs to
write a paper about the environment):
Environment
Problems
Future
Cars
Alternative fuels
Hybrid cars
Costs
Benefits?

8. 3. Clustering/Mapping
a. Placing the general subject in a circle in the
middle of a blank sheet of paper
b. Draw other lines or circles that shoot out
from the original topic.
c. Grouping the ideas that seem to go together

9. Clustering/Mapping
Example (Clustering of a student who needs to write a
paper on the value of a college education)

10. 4. Journalistic Questions
• Asking and answering who, what, when,
where, why, and how questions about the
subject
• Especially useful when describing a event or
writing an information report/essay

11. Journalistic Questions
Example (Questions of a student who needs to write a report
on the political conflict in the Middle East):
• Who is involved in the conflict?
• What issues most clearly divide those engaged in this
dispute?
• When did the troubles in the Middle East begin, and how
have they developed over time?
• Where does the conflict seem most heated or violent?
• Why have those living in this area found it so difficult to
resolve the situation?
• How might this conflict be resolved?

12. REMEMBER!
• Save all of your prewriting work.
• Your prewriting will look very different from
your final work.