What I Have Been Taught About "Pre-Writing"

Despite being a writing student and having to compose papers at an alarming rate, I rarely do much pre-writing. I like to jot down a few ideas, but in general I don't go through a lot of steps prior to putting words on paper. I have, however, been instructed to use multiple techniques to get the words flowing. Here are the lessons that I most remember: 

Sit Down and Figure Out Your Topic/Audience/Purpose

This is the pre-writing tool that I find most valuable because it just makes good sense. Naturally, you need to be aware of all facets of your piece before you can work on any of the finer points. 

Write Your Thesis Statement First

After years of hearing, "Write a thesis statement", "What is your thesis statement", "You must have a strong thesis statement", I have developed a personal dislike for the term. After all, it seems that you can make a coherent piece without having to have one sentence that is specifically designated for explaining yourself (What do all the other sentences do then?). Maybe that's just me. A lot of the teachers in my past insisted that we all write this sentence first and then craft our essays around it. 

Narrow Your Topic

I find this to be good advice. A lot of people (myself included) have difficulty narrowing down what it is that needs to be said. Unless you plan on writing pages and pages for the rest of your life, most topics need to be trimmed. 

Take a Lot of Notes

Writing down thoughts you have is the best way to remember them for later. I write notes for my writing almost constantly. I sleep with a pen and paper next to my bed. If I can't write it down then I record it as a voice memo on my phone. To not rely on just your memory when you sit down to write is probably the best advice I have ever gotten from a teacher. 

Tale to Someone Else

I rarely do this, but I can understand how it could be helpful. You might know a lot about your topic, but if you can't explain it effectively to anyone else then you aren't going to be able to write about it either. 

Make a Cluster Diagram

I don't know if anyone else had to do this in Elementary School, but I remember having to make a bunch of these. You would start with your main idea in the center of the page and then draw lines branching out into all of your sub-topics. I, even as a first grader, found this to be a complete waste of time. 

Make an Outline

This another one of my least favorite pre-writing lessons. While jotting down a quick sketch of how you want a paper to progress is helpful, a full-fledged, bullet-pointed outline seems counter-productive. That didn't keep every High School teacher I had from requiring a turned in outline, though. 

Answer Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How

Though necessary for journalism, these points don't really seem to apply to most writing that I have experienced. Observational writing like this just isn't as prevalent as other, more analytic forms. It seems that teachers also encouraged our writing to follow this pattern (your first paragraph would be who, etc.) 

Spew

This isn't something I was taught by a teacher, but it is the most useful technique I have been introduced to. My dad coined the term "spew", which in essence is simply the act of writing without thinking about it. I open up a word document and just start going for it. Most of the time the writing is awful and occasionally nonsensical, but it is a great way to overcome the difficulties we often have with beginning a piece of writing. 

Pre-Writing is Necessary

There seems to be a prevailing opinion in educational communities that dedicated and organized pre-writing is the only way to write something that works. I didn't pre-write this blog post. And to be honest, the odds of me even editing this is slim. My point being, pre-writing, while potentially useful, is much less important than Ms. Hurff in the seventh grade seemed to believe.