Prewriting Strategies

Learning Objectives

  • Describe and use prewriting strategies (such as journaling, mapping, questioning, sketching)

Before diving into prewriting, let’s break down the word itself. The prefix pre- means “before,” so prewriting refers to the work that happens before you start drafting. It has no set structure or organization—it’s simply a way to generate and explore ideas, some of which may make it into your final piece.

Prewriting is also useful for overcoming writer’s block–when you’re struggling with ideas or organizing your thoughts. While there’s no single right way to prewrite, strategies like brainstorming, freewriting, journaling, mapping, questioning, and sketching can help you get started.

Journaling

Journaling is a way to record thoughts, observations, and reflections on personal experiences or current events. Many people use journals or blogs to explore their reactions, ask questions, and make sense of the world around them.

To use journaling as a prewriting tool, try writing about:

  • A personal experience or memory
  • Different reactions to the same situation
  • A news event or ethical dilemma
  • A challenge at work or in daily life

Instead of just recording what happened, explore the why and how of the situation. This process—thinking about your thinking—helps clarify ideas and deepen your understanding of a topic, which is helpful in the prewriting stage.

Journals can help you develop ideas for writing. When you review past journal entries, you may notice recurring themes or issues you feel strongly about. These topics can serve as strong starting points to further explore in a piece of writing.

Try It

Here’s one sample journal entry. Read through it and look for ideas that the writer might develop further in a piece of writing:

The hot issue here has been rising gas prices. People in our town are mostly commuters who work in the state capitol and have to drive about 30 miles each way to and from work. One local gas station has been working with the gas company to establish a gas cooperative, where folks who joined would pay a bit less per gallon. I don’t know whether I like this idea – it’s like joining one of those stores where you have to pay to shop there. You’ve got to buy a lot to recoup your membership fee. I wonder if this is a ploy of the gas company????  Others were talking about starting a petition to the local commuter bus service, to add more routes and times, as the current service isn’t enough to address workers’ schedules and needs. Still others are talking about initiating a light rail system, but this is an alternative that will take a lot of years and won’t address the situation immediately. I remember the gas crunch a number of years ago and remember that we simply started to carpool. In the Washington, DC area, with its huge traffic problems and large number of commuters, carpooling is so accepted that there are designated parking and pickup places along the highway, and it’s apparently accepted for strangers to pull over, let those waiting know where they’re headed, and offer rides. I’m not certain I’d go that far . . .

Mapping Strategy

Mapping, also known as diagramming, is a visual way to organize ideas. Similar to freewriting, it helps generate thoughts quickly, but instead of writing in sentences, you create a structured web of related ideas. This technique is also similar to brainstorming, where ideas may be listed freely or connected with lines and arrows to show relationships.

To use mapping effectively:

  • Set a time limit of 5 to 10 minutes.
  • Start with your main topic in the center of the page.
  • Jot down related ideas around it, connecting them as needed.
  • Keep adding ideas without worrying about organization—focus on capturing thoughts.

Link to Learning

There are online tools that can help you create maps digitally and sometimes collaboratively, such as: 

Mapping helps visually organize your thinking, making it easier to identify key themes and connections that can shape your writing.

Example: Mapping

Mind map showing squirrels in the center, connected to types of squirrels, how they nest, getting rid of them in the garden, and so forth.

Figure 1. A mind map can help you brainstorm connections between ideas.

Questioning Strategy

This is a basic strategy, useful at many levels, that helps you jot down the basic important information about a topic. Starting by asking the questions who? what? when? where? why? and how?

Example: Questioning

For example, below are answers created for the topic: What is the impact of traditional ecological knowledge on environmental management? 

  • Who? The Dene and Kissi tribes from two different ecosystems were impacted by European colonizers and their fire management policies.
  • What? Consider the impact of fire on the peoples in both environments.
  • Where? Canadian policies and historical data compared to African policies and historical data.
  • When? As far back as the last ice age, there is evidence of how fire has impacted the land. I will focus on the impact of colonization and the policies that affected the land management practices of the indigenous peoples. I will also consider the current implications of controlling and preventing fires.
  • Why? This information is important because the knowledge from the indigenous peoples and their traditional practices provides important insights into how to improve current fire practices.
  • How? Look at historical and current records, such as Lewis, Wuerthner, Fairhead and Leach . . .

Notice how this series of questions and answers is more developed than this topic would be if you were thinking about it for the first time. This author has done a bit of preliminary reading on the subject between the two prewriting activities. This helps illustrate how prewriting can be useful to return to, even after later stages of the writing process.

If you have a broad topic you want to write about, but don’t quite know how to narrow it, you can also ask defining questions to help you develop your main idea for writing.

Example: Defining Questions

For example, if you want to write about school taxes, you could ask:

  • Why do only property owners (and not renters) in New York State pay school taxes?
  • What percent of overall school funding comes from school taxes?
  • Do other states fund schools in the same way?
  • Does the state lottery system, initially designed to fund schools, actually support schools?
  • Is there a limit to paying school taxes when one gets older and no longer has children in school?

Once you have your questions, you can work with the list to group related questions, and then decide whether your writing can logically deal with a number of the questions together or only one. Use questioning to help develop a focus for your writing.

Sketching Strategy

Your brain naturally thinks in images, making sketching a powerful tool for organizing ideas. If you prefer visual thinking, grab a pen and paper to draw your thoughts. This strategy is especially effective if you are trying to conceptualize an idea or clarify relationships between parts of an idea. Sketching helps visualize connections, making complex ideas easier to organize and develop in writing.

One effective sketching technique for comparison and contrast essays is a Venn diagram. A Venn diagram is a strategy that uses two (or more) overlapping circles to show relationships between sets of ideas. The information written where two circles overlap is common to both ideas. The information written outside the overlapping area is information distinct to only one of the ideas.

Example: Sketching

Explore the sketch of a Venn diagram created for the topic: What is the impact of traditional ecological knowledge on environmental management?

A venn diagram titled "Universal Use of fire by native peoples to change ecosystems". A comparison between two tribes is shown by the two sides of the diagram, and each bullet point is paired with a supporting source. There is additional writing outside of the diagram with supporting information.

Figure 2. A Venn diagram like this one can help you organize ideas for your writing.

Notice how this Venn Diagram is even more developed than the same topic explored previously. This author has done even deeper research on the subject, demonstrated by the citations given after some facts here. Again, this helps illustrate how prewriting can be useful to return to, even after later stages of the writing process.

Of course, this is not a comprehensive list of prewriting strategies. You may find that some of these are helpful for certain types of writing projects, or you may prefer other strategies such as making lists, bulleting key points, or writing out columns of pros and cons.

Whichever strategy you choose, be sure to save your prewriting work. You may want to revisit this stage of the writing process again to make sure that you captured all your thoughts in your outline or first draft. You may also want to do more prewriting in the middle of your writing project if you need some help overcoming writer’s block. You may be assigned different prewriting strategies in your courses so you can find what works for you.