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Write it Right Wednesdays

Prewriting

August 5, 2020

Prewriting is organizing your thoughts into diagrams or outlines before writing it out. It is most beneficial when writing longer pieces such as a research paper, report, short story, novel, and etc. To begin prewriting, first ask yourself what is the purpose of the document you want to write? Try to answer that question in a thesis format and use it as your focal point when writing to help you stay on topic. 

You can prewrite in various formats, but the two most common are diagrams and outlines. A diagram format would start with you writing your thesis sentence and circling it. Then draw lines from that main circle to make smaller circles with ideas related to the thesis that you want to discuss. This is a great format to use if you’re a visual person or if ideas come at you fast. The other option is outlines and you can use complete sentences, bullet points, or a combination of them both. I use the combination by using roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.) to write complete sentences, letters for main ideas sentences (A, B, C, etc.), and finally bullets for examples connected to main ideas.

The next step is to identify the audience. The writing piece should be written for that particular audience. For example, if you’re a supervisor writing a report to the CEO about your team’s completed projects you would explain the projects in detail. Now, if you were to write a report about the projects to your team, you wouldn’t explain it in detail like you would with the CEO because they’re already familiar with it. Basically, don’t waste your audience time by telling them something they already know. The third step is to determine the tone of the piece. Will the writing piece be serious, playful, business, dramatic? If you’re not sure which tone to use try to research writing samples on the topic. It will give you an idea of the various tones that could be used.

Once you’ve completed prewriting you can begin the writing phase. Prewriting definitely helps writers stay organized and on topic. If you have to change a few things along the way don’t worry. Your brain is putting together the pieces and you might need to rework a few things. It’s all part of the process, trust me. Try prewriting the next time you have to write something and see if it makes a difference in your writing.

As always, if you have any questions about this blog post or comments feel free to email me at [email protected].

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