The Writing Process (preparing part two ... and Step Two: Planning)

Last time, we talked about the first step of the writing process, focusing on determining your purpose and your audience. I ended with determining your subject and mentioned that it's often necessary to do some brainstorming to get started (this is still part of the preparing process).

There are three brainstorming activities I often recommend: freewriting, clustering, and mind-mapping.

The theory with freewriting is that you start with an idea or a thought and expand on it through just writing whatever comes to mind. This is a great exercise for kinesthetic learners because it gives them a hands-on approach. The theory with clustering is that you start with an idea or a thought and expand on it through logical hierarchy. This is a great exercise for visual learners because it gives them a linear view. Mind-mapping is a combination of the two and works well with most learners.

Okay. You've completed step one! You've determined your purpose, audience, and subject.

FINALLY!

Let's move on to Step Two: Planning.

This step is often skipped, but I learned the hard way how important it is. I used to skip planning. I'd go directly from preparing to drafting, and usually did okay in high school and as an undergrad. However, when I started grad school and began writing longer papers, I realized how important a good outline can be (my first few papers weren't as well-structured as they could have been, and once I began outlining, my drafts flowed much more smoothly!). I encourage you to incorporate this step with all your writing assignments!

When you begin planning, follow these four steps:



You will have determined your topic during your preparing, so now you're delving more deeply into that topic. A couple of blogs ago, I talked about developing a good thesis, so review that blog as a refresher. As a quick reminder:



Next, put together an outline (the same blog mentioned above deals with outlines as well, so take a look at it again). Outlines help to structure your essay and help you determine if you have enough support.


A sample outline:





See how a good outline can help structure your essay? If you have solid main and supporting points, you already have your paragraph topics!

Once you've written your thesis and have a well-developed outline, you're ready to move on to Step Three: Drafting. We'll talk about this next time.

Keep pen to paper!

Prof. Rinehart