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Pre-writing, outlining, & drafts

Premature editing doesn't make writing dull; 
it makes it dead.
Roger Garrison
How a Writer Works, American
  Study Guides index in English as home site

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A rough draft is "a late stage in the writing process".1  It assumes that you have adequate information and understanding, and are near or at the end of gathering research.  

What you need:  

  • Adequate time period for focus
  • Clear study area  
    to eliminate distractions, whether other school projects or friends' demands, 
    in order to concentrate on the task at hand
  • Notes on ideas 
    to include from your research
  • Target audience 
    or a clear idea for whom you are writing:
    your professor, an age group, a friend, a profession, etc.
  • Preparation and research
    with as much current and historical data and viewpoints as necessary
  • Review
    all the above.  Don't "study" it; just refresh yourself on the main concepts for now 

What you will not need:

  • Title or introduction:  
    derive these from your rough draft
  • Reference works, print-outs, quotes, etc.
    Rely on your notes, and don't overwhelm yourself with facts.  Details can be added; you now want to focus on developing your argument
  • Edits!
    Do not revise as you write, or correct spelling, punctuation, etc.  Just write, write, write.  This is the first draft, so what you put down will be revised and organized "after"

Prewriting:

Prewriting exercises provide key words, meaning, and structure to your research before you write, and may overcome "writers block."  They help you

  • Focus intellectually
    clearing distractions while opening your mind to ideas within your subject
  • Narrow and define topics for your paper
    beginning the process of translating research into your own words.    
  • Develop logical or architectural structure to topics you have identified.
    This provides a visual and verbal document for reaction, review, discussion, and/or further development in your rough draft.  However, these exercises are dynamic or subject to change in the actual writing process as you understand, develop, and build your argument.  Some topics will go, some will stay, some will be revised
  • Provide a context for "project managment" to further define the topic, set timelines, identify gaps in information,  etc.

Four exercises in prewriting:

Focused Freewriting

  1. Use a blank paper or computer screen and set a time limit of 5 - 15 minutes
  2. Summarize the topic in a phrase or sentence;
    generate a free flow of thought
  3. Write anything that comes to mind, whether on topic or off, for the period of time you chose, 
  4. Don't pause, don't stop. 
    don't rush; work quickly
  5. Don't review 
    what you have written until you have finished
  6. At the end of your time, refer back to the beginning:
    Rephrase the initial topic 
    Repeat a word, phrase, or important thought or emotion that makes sense.
  7. Review:  
    are there words or ideas you can grab onto for the topic?
    Is there a main idea to this sequence of ideas?

Brainstorming:  

  1. Use a blank paper or computer screen and set a time limit of 5 - 15 minutes
  2. Summarize the topic in a phrase or sentence;
    generate a free flow of thought
  3. Write down everything that comes to mind to generate a free flow of thought:
    • Think of ideas related to this topic, the crazier the better:   be wild and amuse yourself; eliminate nothing
    • Make up questions and answers about the topic, no matter how strange:  Why am I doing this?  What could be interesting about this to me? Why don't I like this?  What color is it?  What would my friend say about it?
  4. Review:  
    are there words or ideas you can grab onto for the topic?
    Is there a main idea within this sequence of ideas?
Mindmapping
  1. Think in terms of key words or symbols that represent ideas and words
  2. Take a pencil (you'll be erasing!) and a blank (non-lined) big piece of paper or use a blackboard and (colored) chalk
  3. Write down the most important word or short phrase or symbol in the center.
    Think about it; circle it.
  4. Write other important words outside the circle.
    Draw over-lapping circles to connect items, or use arrows to connect them
    (think of linking pages in a web site)
    Leave white space to grow your map for
    • further development
    • explanations
    • action items
  5. Work quickly
    without analyzing your work
  6. Edit this first phase
    Think about the relation of outside items to the center, 
    Erase and replace and shorten words for these key ideas
    Relocate important items closer to each other for better organization
    Use color to organize information
    Link concepts with words to clarify the relationship
  7. Continue working outward
    Freely and quickly add other key words and ideas (you can always erase!)
    Think weird:  tape pages together to expand your map; break boundaries
    Develop in directions the topic takes you--don't bet limited by the size of the paper
    As you expand your map, tend to become more specific or detailed
 Listing and outlines

This is a more structured and sequential overview of your reseach to date. You may also outline to organize topics built from freewriting, brainstorming, or mindmapping:  

  1. Arranges items or topics, usually wihtout without puctuation or complete sentences
  2. Lists topics and phrases them in a gramatically similar or parallel structure (subjects, verbs, etc.)
  3. Sequences topics in importance,
    defining what "level" of importance they are.  Items of equal importance are at the same level

Example (using this web site):

Study Guides & Strategies

I.  Preparing to learn

  1. Learning to learn
  2. Managing time
  3. Setting goals/making a schedule

II.  Studying

  1. Thinking critically
  2. Memorizing
  3. Organizing projects

III.  Writing Essays

  1. Basics of essays
    1. Prewriting
      1. Definitions
      2. Basics of prewriting
      3. Exercises
      4. ...
    2. Rough drafts
      1. definition
      2. basics of drafts
      3. exercises
      4. ...
    3. ...
  2. Types of essays
    1. The five paragraph essay
    2. Essays for a literature class
    3. Expository essays
    4. Persuasive essays

    5. ....
 

Take a break!
Refresh yourself

  • Review the ideas, topics, themes, questions 
    you have come up with in your prewriting exercise.  Try reading the prewriting text out loud ( a type of self-mediation).  Listen for patterns that seem most interesting and/or important.  Summarize them.  
  • Evaluate the ideas, topics, themes, questions 
    whether by scoring, prioritising, or whatever method seems best.  
    Keep this list in case your first choice(s) don't work
  • Sequence what you have prioritised as in outlining, above.

Continue to this link for writing the first draft

See also:   

Rough drafts:

Learning Skills Center, University of Texas - Austin, How to Write and Revise a Rough Draft, http://www.utexas.edu/student/lsc/handouts/1234.html, November 16, 2000.

Academic Resource Center, Sweet Briar College, Tips for Writing Rough Drafts http://www.arc.sbc.edu/roughdraft.html, November 15, 2000.

Freewriting:

Boelsche, David, Toward an Understanding of Freewriting, http://www.as.ttu.edu/Courses/5360/papers/boelsche1.html, November 15, 2000.

Learning Skills Centre, University of Northern British Columbia, Freewriting,  http://quarles.unbc.ca/lsc/freewrit.html, November 15, 2000

Elbow,  Peter, Writing Without Teachers, Oxford University Press, 1975 (on Freewriting)

Brainstorming:

JPB Creative, The Step-by-Step Guide to Brainstorming, http://www.jpb.com/creative/brainstorming.html, November 15, 2000.

Mindmapping: 

Landsberger, Joe, Concept- or mind-mapping for learning, http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/mapping.htm, November 16, 2000

Outlines:

Dr. Bruce R. Thompson, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Creating An Outline, http://www.msoe.edu/~thompson/outlines.htm, November 16, 2000.

Price, Jonathan, Outlining Goes Electronic,  Ablex, 1999, as seen at The Communication Circle, http://www.theprices.com/3bookOGE.htm, November 16, 2000.

Price, Jonathan, How Electronic Outlining Can Help You Create Online Materials, as seen at The Communication Circle,, http://www.theprices.com/4artTW5.htm, November 16, 2000.

Purdue University Online Writing Lab, Developing an Outline, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_outlin.html, November 16, 2000.

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The Study Guides and Strategies web site was created and is maintained by Joe Landsberger,
academic web site developer at the University of St. Thomas (UST), St. Paul, Minnesota.  It is collaboratively maintained across institutional and national boundaries, and  last revised September 04, 2002 . 

Permission is granted to freely copy, adapt, print, transmit, and distribute
Study Guides in settings that benefit learners. On the WWW, however, please link rather than put up your own page since pages are frequently modified and improved in consideration of educational research.  No request to link is necessary.   Additional contributions and translations are warmly received.

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