Writing Quick Start: Prewriting

5

Prewriting

How to Find and Focus Ideas

IN THIS CHAPTER YOU WILL LEARN TO

  • choose and narrow a topic,
  • consider audience, purpose, point of view, genre, and medium, and
  • discover ideas to write about.

WRITING QUICK START

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tudy the photo on this page. What is happening? What do you think the man could be reacting to? Write whatever comes to mind. You might write about times when you’ve felt the same emotions you think the man is expressing, or about times when you’ve seen others express strong emotions in public. Try to write nonstop for at least five minutes. Don’t stop to evaluate your writing or worry about grammar. Just record your thoughts.

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©Caro/Alamy

You have just used freewriting, a method of discovering ideas about a topic by writing without stopping for a set period of time. Read over what you wrote. Suppose you are now asked to write an essay about joy or exuberance. Do you see some starting points and usable ideas in your freewriting?

Generating ideas, considering your writing situation (your purpose, audience, point of view, and genre), and choosing and narrowing a topic are all part of the writing process, as illustrated in Figure 5.1. Although writing is often described as a step-by-step process, writers often move back and forth between the steps and return to an earlier step to cut and paste material they previously developed. This movement is designated by arrows pointing in both directions in the figure.

Figure 5.1: FIGURE 5.1 An Overview of the Writing Process