Module 2

Writing Process:
Prewriting
Researching and Organizing

THE WRITING PROCESS

The writing process is something that no two people do the same way. There is no "right way" or "wrong way" to
write. It can be a very messy and fluid process, and the following is only a representation of commonly used steps.

STEP 1: PREWRITING
THINK AND DECIDE
 Make sure you understand your assignment.
It is important that you understand the assignment. If you are you are unsure about the assignment, you
may find yourself even more confused when trying to choose a topic. Two key steps will help you understand
your assignment.
1. Read the assignment sheet carefully to ascertain the teacher’s expectations. Is there an explicit list of
topics, or are you expected to narrow to a topic on your own? Are you to work with a specific theory of
course material as you write the paper? Are you to work with a specific theory or course material as
you write the paper?
2. Contact your teacher if you do not understand any components of the assignment.
 Decide on a topic to write about.
Strategies for a topic search:
- Work from the general to the specific.
- Note in a research notebook provocative questions that arise in class lecture or discussion, topics in your
textbook that appear ripe for further exploration, or issues that come up in your conversations with
classmates.
- Use prewriting strategies such as brainstorming, clustering, or free writing to generate topics.
- Use the on-line catalogue to narrow to a topic quickly and see what books are available on the topic.
- The Internet is also a useful resource, although you must take care to evaluate Internet sources for
reliability.

 Consider who will read your work.

Audience
When writing, it is very important to use language that fits your audience and matches your purpose.
Inappropriate language uses can damage your credibility, undermine your argument, or alienate your
audience. Some of the major issues with appropriate language use:
 Levels of Formality: Writing in a style that your audience expects and that fits your purpose is key to
successful writing.
For example: "It would be wise to get a second opinion." Formal
Vs. "Y'all should ask somebody else." Informal
 In-Group Jargon: Jargon refers to specialized language used by groups of like-minded individuals. Only
use in-group jargon when you are writing for members of that group. You should never use jargon for a
general audience without first explaining it.
For example: Military jargon - "rack" which means "bed"
 Slang and idiomatic expressions: Avoid using slang or idiomatic expressions in general academic writing.
For example: "insane" meaning "mentally ill" but intended to mean "outrageous"
Or, "it was a piece of cake" meaning it was "simple"
 Deceitful language and Euphemisms: Avoid using euphemisms (words that veil the truth) and other
deceitful language.
 For example: "collateral damage" for the unintended destruction of civilians and their property
Or, "Between jobs" meaning "unemployed"
 Biased language: Avoid using any biased language including language with a racial, ethnic, group, or
gender bias or language that is stereotypical.2
For Example: Just "Doctor" rather than "Woman Doctor" (Which might be referring to a doctor for
women)

Voice
The flip side of the idea of audience is that of voice (sometimes called tone, mood or style). Every writer
has their own unique voice and the use of that voice is what makes their writing unique. It is important
that the writer's thoughts and ideas clearly show through their use of language - their voice. The writer's
voice comes from the choices made while writing: the words, the organization, which details to include
and so on. All of the choices the writer makes reflect that writer's voice.

 Brainstorm ideas about the subject.

These are some prewriting strategies that can be used in brainstorming ideas.

 Listing
Listing is a process of generating a lot of information within a short time by generating some broad ideas
and then building on those associations for more detail. Listing is particularly useful if your starting topic
is very broad and you need to narrow it down.

Example:
“The Benefits and Challenges of Being a College Student”
Benefits
independence
living away from home
freedom to come and go
learning responsibility
new friends
Challenges
financial and social responsibilities
paying bills
managing time
making new friends
practicing good study habits

 Clustering
Clustering is also called mind mapping or idea mapping. It is a strategy that allows you to explore the
relationships between ideas.
a. Put the subject in the center of a page. Circle or underline it.
b. As you think of other ideas, link the new ideas to the central circle with lines.
c. As you think of ideas that relate to the new ideas, add to those in the same way
 Freewriting
Freewriting is a process of generating a lot of information by writing non-stop for a predetermined
amount of time. It allows you to focus on a specific topic, but forces you to write so quickly that you are
unable to edit any of your ideas.
a. Freewrite on the assignment or general topic for five to ten minutes non-stop. Force yourself to
continue writing even if nothing specific comes to mind (so you could end up writing “I don’t
know what to write about” over and over until an idea pops into your head. This is okay; the
important thing is that you do not stop writing). This freewriting will include many ideas; at this
point, generating ideas is what is important, not the grammar or the spelling.
b. After you have finished freewriting, look back over what you have written and highlight the most
prominent and interesting ideas; then you can begin all over again, with a tighter focus (see
looping). You will narrow your topic and, in the process, you will generate several relevant points
about the topic.

 The Journalists’ Questions

Journalists traditionally ask six questions when they are writing assignments that are broken down into
five W's and one H: Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?, and How? You can use these questions to
explore the topic you are writing about for an assignment. A key to using the journalists' questions is to
make them flexible enough to account for the specific details of your topic. For instance, if your topic is
the rise and fall of the Puget Sound tides and its effect on salmon spawning, you may have very little to
say about Who if your focus does not account for human involvement. On the other hand, some topics
may be heavy on the Who, especially if human involvement is a crucial part of the topic. Possible generic
questions you can ask using the six journalists' questions follow:
a. Who?:
Who are the participants? Who is affected? Who are the primary actors? Who are the secondary
actors?
b. What?:
What is the topic? What is the significance of the topic? What is the basic problem? What are the
issues related to that problem?
c. Where?:
Where does the activity take place? Where does the problem or issue have its source? At what
place is the cause or effect of the problem most visible?
d. When?:
When is the issue most apparent? ( in the past? present? future?) When did the issue or problem
develop? What historical forces helped shape the problem or issue and at what point in time will
the problem or issue culminate in a crisis? When is action needed to address the issue or problem?
e. Why?:
Why did the issue or problem arise? Why is it (your topic) an issue or problem at all? Why did the
issue or problem develop in the way that it did?
 f. How?:
How is the issue or problem significant? How can it be addressed? How does it affect the
participants? How can the issue or problem be resolved?

The journalists' questions are a powerful way to develop a great deal of information about a topic very
quickly. Learning to ask the appropriate questions about a topic takes practice, however. At times during
writing an assignment, you may wish to go back and ask the journalists' questions again to clarify
important points that may be getting lost in your planning and drafting.

STEP 2: RESEARCHING AND ORGANIZING

SEARCH AND OUTLINE
 Do Your Research
a. List places where you can find information.
b. Evaluate your Sources

Evaluating Internet Resources

Unlike similar information found in newspapers or television broadcasts, information available on the
Internet is not regulated for quality or accuracy; therefore, it is particularly important for the individual
Internet user to evaluate the resource or information. Keep in mind that almost anyone can publish
anything they wish on the Web. It is often difficult to determine authorship of Web sources, and even if
the author is listed, he or she may not always represent him or herself honestly, or he or she may
represent opinions as fact. The responsibility is on the user to evaluate resources effectively.

Ask yourself these questions before using resources from the Internet:

Author
 Is the name of the author/creator on the page?
 Are his/her credentials listed (occupation, years of experience, position or education)?
 Is the author qualified to write on the given topic? Why?
 Is there contact information, such as an email address, somewhere on the page?
 Is there a link to a homepage?
 If there is a link to a homepage, is it for an individual or for an organization?
 If the author is with an organization, does it appear to support or sponsor the page?
 What does the domain name/URL reveal about the source of the information, if anything?
 If the owner is not identified, what can you tell about the origin of the site from the address?

Note: To find relevant information about the author, check personal homepages on the Web, campus
directory entries and information retrieved through search engines. Also check print sources in the
Library Reference area; Who's Who in America, Biography Index, and other biographical sources can be
used to determine the author's credentials.

Purpose
 Knowing the motive behind the page's creation can help you judge its content.
 Who is the intended audience?
 Scholarly audience or experts?
 General public or novices?
 If not stated, what do you think is the purpose of the site? Is the purpose to:
 Inform or Teach?
 Explain or Enlighten?
 Persuade?
 Sell a Product?
Objectivity
 Is the information covered fact, opinion, or propaganda?
 Is the author's point-of-view objective and impartial?
 Is the language free of emotion-rousing words and bias?
 Is the author affiliated with an organization?
 Does the author's affiliation with an institution or organization appear to bias the information?
 Does the content of the page have the official approval of the institution, organization, or
company?

Accuracy
 Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so that the information can be verified?
 Is it clear who has the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of the content of the material?
 Can you verify any of the information in independent sources or from your own knowledge?
 Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
 Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors?

Reliability and Credibility

 Why should anyone believe information from this site?
 Does the information appear to be valid and well-researched, or is it unsupported by evidence?
 Are quotes and other strong assertions backed by sources that you could check through other
means?
 What institution (company, government, university, etc.) supports this information?
 If it is an institution, have you heard of it before? Can you find more information about it?
 Is there a non-Web equivalent of this material that would provide a way of verifying its
legitimacy?

Currency
 If timeliness of the information is important, is it kept up-to-date?
 Is there an indication of when the site was last updated?

Links
 Are links related to the topic and useful to the purpose of the site?
 Are links still current, or have they become dead ends?
 What kinds of sources are linked?
 Are the links evaluated or annotated in any way?

Note: The quality of Web pages linked to the original Web page may vary; therefore, you must always
evaluate each Web site independently.

Conclusion
 Be very critical of any information you find on the Web and carefully examine each site.
 Web pages are susceptible to both accidental and deliberate alteration, and may move or
disappear with no notice.
 Print out or download all pages you plan to use in your research so that your bibliography will be
complete and accurate.
 Are you sure the Web is where you want to be? It may take an hour to find the answer to a
question on the Web that would take a Reference Librarian two minutes to find.
 Outline
Creating a Working Outline

An outline is a systematic way of organizing your ideas for your paper. Any list can be an informal outline and may
work for your purposes. Sometimes you may want to use a formal outline to manage your information as your
research expands. This can help you organize and manage your information as you draft your paper.

Many writers organize their work more quickly and easily when they first make an outline of the material they
wish to cover. The organizing principle of your outline will depend on your topic, the argument you intend to
make, and the expectations of your audience. There are as many types of outlines as there are writers! Some
people work better with longer outlines of complete sentences; others find that simple keywords do the trick.
Whether you are developing a topic outline or a sentence outline, keep the following points in mind:

 Work from your thesis statement. In fact, it's wise to put it at the top of your outline for reference.
 Most word processing programs will automatically fill in the numbers and letters when they recognize that you
are creating an outline.
 Start with broader topics and then work toward the specifics.

Sample Outline
An outline of a writing project can serve as a reliable road map to your project’s destination. By outlining your key
points, you can insure that your most important ideas do not get left behind. The following outline structure can
be helpful as you develop your individual outlining style.

A. Introduction
1. Current task
2. Area/Persons of Focus
3. Key terms
4. Thesis statement
B. Background
1. Historical Overview
2. Link between history and current events
3. Gaps in the current materials

C. Major Point I: _____________________

1. Minor point related to Major Point I
a. Evidence (Name your sources in your outline!)
2. Minor point II related to Major Point I
a. Evidence

D. Major Point II: ____________________

1. Minor point related to Major Point II
a. Evidence
2. Minor point related to Major Point II
a. Evidence

E—G. Other Major Points, following the structure of C and D.

H. Conclusion
1. Restatement of Thesis
2. Next steps in the research and literature conversation
3. Limitations in the research
Title: "The Benefits of Running"

I. Introduction
1. Running is becoming an extremely popular sport for all ages.
2. Running is a great form of exercise because it helps people control
their weight, develop muscles, and improves mental and physical
performance.
II. Body
1. Weight control
1. Aids self-control
2. Burns calories
3. Encourages a healthy diet
4. Suppresses appetite
2. Muscular Development
1. Improves tone
2. Enhances contours
3. Increases strength
4. Improves endurance
3. Psychological well-being
1. Aids sleep
2. Inhibits depression
3. Intensifies vitality
4. Cardiovascular Fitness
1. Strengthens heart
2. Lowers blood pressure
3. Changes blood lipids
4. Improves circulation
III. Conclusion
1. Benefits of running make it an excellent exercise.
2. People who want to improve their health should consider running.

Source: Excerpted and adapted from Writing Research Papers, by Melissa Walker