Prewriting Strategies

1. Brainstorming. Make a long list of ideas or content you could potentially use in your
paper. Write in phrases and resist the urge to make any corrections or changes. You can
also use Post-it notes to record single ideas. Later, you can sort the Post-its into
categories or groups of related ideas.
2. Idea Trees. This method appeals to visual thinkers. Start with an idea. Draw a line and
add the related idea. As one idea leads to another, record the connections with simple
lines. Before long, you will begin to see how various groupings of ideas relate, and
eventually you should be able to use the groupings to devise a thesis statement and create
an outline.

3. Freewriting. Set a timer to ten minutes and start writing without stopping to correct or
change what you type. Don't consider this your rough draft; instead, consider it a way to
generate and connect ideas. You're your freewrites for gems of ideas, and use them to
start writing again. Continue until you have enough content to draft a purpose statement
and begin an outline.
4. Questions. Close your eyes until you conjure up the face(s) of your audience. Then, put
yourself into their place. Ask all the questions they might have about your argument.
Examples: What is your point? , Do you know that for a fact? Prove it. , Who in the field
agrees with you? , Who in the field disagrees with you? Who does this affect and how?
Have others done similar research or replicated yours? , What theoretical approach are
you applying here? Why? Why is this a new idea, model, theory, or tool? What does this
viewpoint add to a general understanding of your topic?

5. Paragraph outlines. Write down the first sentence of every paragraph you think you
might write. Then you can add the evidence for each statement in the drafting phrase.

6. Mapping. A map begins with an initial idea and builds an argument, step by step. In
many ways it resembles outlining because it describes the function of each step of a
paper. Example:
My initial idea is
The problem that I want to address is
The extent of the problem is
Bibliography

Broward College (2015). Readiness Game-Based Writing, The Writing Process. Recovered of:
https://bconline.broward.edu/shared/CollegeReadiness/Writing/U04_L13_WritProc/U04_L13_
WritProc_print.html

Capella University: WritingCenter - Interactive media Recovered of:

http://www.capella.edu/interactivemedia/onlineWritingCenter/downloads/TheWritingProcess.pd
f