Prewriting

Prewriting is the first stage of the writing process, typically followed by drafting, revision, editing and publishing. ^{[1] [2] [3]} Prewriting can consist of a combination of outlining, diagramming, storyboarding, and clustering (for a technique similar to clustering, see mindmapping).

Contents

• Motivation and audience awareness
• Choosing a topic
• Discussing information
• Narrowing the topic
• Organizing content
• Developmental acquisition of organizing skills
• Writing trials
• Recursion
• Variables
• Technology
• Writing tests
• Collaborative prewriting
• Impact
• References
• External links

Motivation and audience awareness

Prewriting usually begins with motivation and audience awareness: what is the student or writer trying to communicate, why is it important to communicate it well and who is the audience for this communication. It helps you put your thought out onto the paper on what you want to write about. Writers usually begin with a clear idea of audience, content and the importance of their communication; sometimes, one of these needs to be clarified for the best communication. ^{[4] [5] [6]} Student writers find motivation especially difficult because they are writing for a teacher or for a grade, instead of a real audience. ^[7] Often teachers try to find a real audience for students by asking them to read to younger classes or to parents, by posting writing for others to read, by writing a blog, or by writing on real topics, such as a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.

Choosing a topic

One important task in prewriting is choosing a topic and then narrowing it to a length that can be covered in the space allowed. ^[8] Oral storytelling is an effective way to search for a good topic for a personal narrative. Writers can quickly tell a story and judge from the listeners' reactions whether it will be an interesting topic to write about.

Another way to find a topic is to freewrite, a method first popularized by Peter Elbow. When freewriting, you write any and every idea that comes to mind. This could also be a written exploration of your current knowledge of a broad topic, with the idea that you are looking for a narrow topic to write about. Often freewriting is timed. The writer is instructed to keep writing until the time period ends, which encourages him/her to keep writing past the pre-conceived ideas and hopefully find a more interesting topic.

Several other methods of choosing a topic overlap with another broad concern of prewriting, that of researching or gathering information. Reading ^[9] is effective in both choosing and narrowing a topic and in gathering information to include in the writing. As a writer reads other works, it expands ideas, opens possibilities and points toward options for topics and narrates specific content for the eventual writing. One traditional method of tracking the content read is to create annotated note cards with one chunk of information per card. Writers also need to document music, photos, web sites, interviews, and any other source used to prevent plagiarism.

Besides reading what others also make original observations relating to a topic. This requires on-site visits, experimentation with something, or finding original or primary historical documents. Writers interact with the setting or materials and make observations about their experience. For strong writing, particular attention should be given to sensory details (what the writer hears, tastes, touches, smells and feels). While gathering material, often writers pay particular attention to the vocabulary used in discussing the topic. This would include slang, specific terminology, translations of terms, and typical phrases used. The writer often looks up definitions, synonyms and finds ways that different people use the terminology. Lists, journals, teacher-student conference, drawing illustrations, using imagination, restating a problem in multiple ways, watching videos, inventorying interests ^[10] – these are some of the other methods for gathering information.

Discussing information

After reading and observing, often writers need to discuss material. They might brainstorm with a group on topics or how to narrow a topic. Or, they might discuss events, ideas, and interpretations with just one other person. Oral storytelling might enter again, as the writer turns it into a narrative, or just tries out ways of using the new terminology. Sometimes writers draw or use information as basis for artwork as a way to understand the material better. ^{[11] [12]}

Narrowing the topic

Narrowing a topic is an important step of prewriting. For example, a personal narrative of five pages could be narrowed to an incident that occurred in a thirty-minute time period. This restricted time period means the writer must slow down and tell the event moment by moment with many details. By contrast, a five-page essay about a three-day trip would only skim the surface of the experience. The writer must consider again the goals of communication – content, audience, importance of information – but add to this a consideration of the format for the writing. He or she should consider how much space is allowed for the communication and how What can be effectively communicated within that space? ^[13]

Organizing content

At this point, the writer needs to consider the organization of content. Outlining in a hierarchical structure is one of the typical strategies, and usually includes three or more levels in the hierarchy. Typical outlines are organized by chronology, spatial relationships, or by subtopics. Other outlines might include sequences along a continuum: big to little, old to new, etc. Clustering, a technique of creating a visual web that represents associations among ideas, is another help in creating structure, because it reveals relationships. Storyboarding is a method of drawing rough sketches to plan a picture book, a movie script, a graphic novel or other fiction. ^[14]

Developmental acquisition of organizing skills

While information on the developmental sequence of organizing skills is sketchy, anecdotal information suggests that children follow this rough sequence: 1) sort into categories, ^[15] 2) structure the categories into a specific order for best communication, using criteria such as which item will best work to catch readers attention in the opening, 3) within a category, sequence information into a specific order for best communication, using criteria such as what will best persuade an audience. At each level, it is important that student writers discuss their decisions; they should understand that categories for a certain topic could be structured in several different ways, all correct. A final skill acquired is the ability to omit information that is not needed in order to communicate effectively.

Even sketchier is information on what types of organization are acquired first, but anecdotal information and research ^[16] suggests that even young children understand chronological information, making narratives the easiest type of student writing. Persuasive writing usually requires logical thinking and studies in child development indicate that logical thinking is not present until a child is 10–12 years old, making it one of the later writing skills to acquire. Before this age, persuasive writing will rely mostly on emotional arguments.

Writing trials

Writers also use the prewriting phase to experiment with ways of expressing ideas. For oral storytelling, a writer could tell a story three times, but each time begin at a different time, include or exclude information, end at a different time or place. Writers often try writing the same information. but using different voices, in search of the best way to communicate this information or tell this story. ^[10]

Recursion

Prewriting is recursive, that is, it can occur at any time in the writing process and can return several times. For example, after a first draft, a writer may need to return to an information gathering stage, or may need to discuss the material with someone, or may need to adjust the outline. While the writing process is discussed as having distinct stages, in reality, they often overlap and circle back on one another.

Variables

Prewriting varies depending on the writing task or rhetorical mode. Fiction requires more imaginative thinking while informational essays or expository writing require more organizational thinking. Persuasive writing must consider not just the information to be communicated, but how best to change the reader’s ideas or convictions. Folktales will require extensive reading of the genre to learn common conventions. Each writing task will require a different selection of prewriting strategies, used in a different order.

Technology

Technological tools are often used in prewriting tasks, ^{[17] [18] [19]} including word processors, spreadsheets ^[20] and publishing programs; however, technology appears to be more useful in the revision, editing and publishing phases of prewriting.

Writing tests

Teaching writing as a process is accepted pedagogical practice, but there is increasing concern that writing tests do not allow for the full writing process, especially cutting short the time ^{[21] [22]} needed for prewriting tasks. ^[23]

Collaborative prewriting

Different prewriting strategies can be categorized into individual process and collaborative process. For example, planning is an individual process, and group brainstorming and reading contents are collaborative process. Different types of prewriting can impact the performance of writing in different ways. Individual prewriting can improve analytic ratings. ^[24] While collaborative prewriting is more complicated.

In general, collaborative prewriting can improve the accuracy of language especially with instruction from teachers. ^[24] Looking more carefully into collaborative prewriting, there are 3 important process: reading comprehension, ^[25] collaborative fill-in-the-blanks concept maps(CFCM), and collaborative construct concept maps (CCCM). ^[26]

Reading comprehension could be a predictor of the performance of writing. Reading, reflecting, and connecting the articles can make students understand content with more inspiration. ^[25] The two mapping strategies can also be strategies of improving reading comprehension ability and lead to better writing. ^[26] Both mapping strategies can help students to organize and sort key information. CCCM is more focused on comprehension, application, and analysis ability, while CFCM is more about understanding the content and align their writing with the original article. ^[26]

In order to understand and evaluate the effect of prewriting, further research on writing format, time factor, student's attitude towards different prewriting strategies should be done in the future. ^{[24] [25] [26]}

Impact

Despite the impact of prewriting, students still underrated the importance of prewriting. Research shows that student seldom asks help in the prewriting process, but rather to asks for help in reviewing process. ^[27]

Overall, prewriting has positive impact on writing performance, and a well functioned prewriting task gives the opportunity for students to reflect ideas and gain ideas from others, resulting in more significant outcomes. ^[28]

Related Research Articles

Collaborative writing is a procedure in which two or more persons work together on a text of some kind. Success in collaborative writing involves a division of labor that apportions particular tasks to those with particular strengths: drafting, providing feedback, editing, sourcing, (reorganizing), optimizing for tone or house style, etc. Collaborative writing is characteristic of professional as well as educational settings, utilizing the expertise of those involved in the collaboration process.

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Audience analysis is a task that is often performed by technical writers in a project's early stages. It consists of assessing the audience to make sure the information provided to them is at the appropriate level. The audience is often referred to as the end-user, and all communications need to be targeted towards the defined audience. Defining an audience requires the consideration of many factors, such as age, culture and knowledge of the subject. After considering all the known factors, a profile of the intended audience can be created, allowing writers to write in a manner that is understood by the intended audience.

Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development concerned with how media communicate with people. A communication design approach is concerned with developing the message and aesthetics in media. It also creates new media channels to ensure the message reaches the target audience. Due to overlapping skills, some designers use graphic design and communication design interchangeably.

Reading for special needs has become an area of interest as the understanding of reading has improved. Teaching children with special needs how to read was not historically pursued due to perspectives of a Reading Readiness model. This model assumes that a reader must learn to read in a hierarchical manner such that one skill must be mastered before learning the next skill. This approach often led to teaching sub-skills of reading in a decontextualized manner. This style of teaching made it difficult for children to master these early skills, and as a result, did not advance to more advanced literacy instruction and often continued to receive age-inappropriate instruction.

Reading comprehension is the ability to process written text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Reading comprehension relies on two abilities that are connected to each other: word reading and language comprehension. Comprehension specifically is a "creative, multifaceted process" that is dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

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Peter Elbow is a professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he also directed the Writing Program from 1996 until 2000. He writes about theory, practice, and pedagogy, and has authored several books and papers. He is one of the pioneers of freewriting.

An edublog is a blog created for educational purposes. Edublogs archive and support student and teacher learning by facilitating reflection, questioning by self and others, collaboration and by providing contexts for engaging in higher-order thinking. Edublogs proliferated when blogging architecture became more simplified and teachers perceived the instructional potential of blogs as an online resource. The use of blogs has become popular in education institutions including public schools and colleges. Blogs can be useful tools for sharing information and tips among co-workers, providing information for students, or keeping in contact with parents. Common examples include blogs written by or for teachers, blogs maintained for the purpose of classroom instruction, or blogs written about educational policy. Educators who blog are sometimes called edubloggers.

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The process theory of composition is a field of composition studies that focuses on writing as a process rather than a product. Based on Janet Emig's breakdown of the writing process, the process is centered on the idea that students determine the content of the course by exploring the craft of writing using their own interests, language, techniques, voice, and freedom, and where students learn what people respond to and what they don't. Classroom activities often include peer work where students themselves are teaching, reviewing, brainstorming, and editing.

Text annotation is the practice and the result of adding a note or gloss to a text, which may include highlights or underlining, comments, footnotes, tags, and links. Text annotations can include notes written for a reader's private purposes, as well as shared annotations written for the purposes of collaborative writing and editing, commentary, or social reading and sharing. In some fields, text annotation is comparable to metadata insofar as it is added post hoc and provides information about a text without fundamentally altering that original text. Text annotations are sometimes referred to as marginalia, though some reserve this term specifically for hand-written notes made in the margins of books or manuscripts. Annotations have been found to be useful and help to develop knowledge of English literature.

Revision is a process in writing of rearranging, adding, or removing paragraphs, sentences, or words. Writers may revise their writing after a draft is complete or during the composing process. Revision involves many of the strategies known generally as editing but also can entail larger conceptual shifts of purpose and audience as well as content. Within the writing process, revision comes once one has written a draft to work with, so that one can re-see and improve it, iteratively. Working at both deeper and more surface levels a writer can increase the power of the text.

A dialogue journal is an ongoing written interaction between two people to exchange experiences, ideas, knowledge or reflections. It is used most often in education as a means of sustained written interaction between students and teachers at all education levels. It can be used to promote second language learning and learning in all areas.

Form and Document Creation is one of the things that technical communicators do as part of creating deliverables for their companies or clients. Document design is: "the field of theory and practice aimed at creating comprehensible, persuasive and usable functional documents". These forms and documents can have many different purposes such as collecting or providing information.

The gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model is a structured method of pedagogy centred on devolving responsibility within the learning process from the teacher to the learner. This approach requires the teacher to initially take on all the responsibility for a task, transitioning in stages to the students assuming full independence in carrying it out. The goal is to cultivate confident learners and thinkers who are capable of handling tasks even in areas where they have not yet gained expertise.

References

External links

• Prewriting Lesson Plans
• Guide to Prewriting - Berkeley.edu