The Pre- Writing stage

Why should I pre-write and how do i begin the pre- writing process. These were words that once echoed through my brain whenever I was given any writing activity to do at Secondary School. First of all, in other the answer the question, “why should I engage in a pre writing process? There is need to define the term pre writing. Pre- writing according to Lorcher ( 2009) is

”exploring and organizing ideas before writing. prewriting strategies must include what the purpose of the writing is and who the audience of the writing is."

What this means is that during the pre-writing stage writers are basically planning for what they intend to write. This is of great importance because having such a plan would for the most part ensure that ideas are well organized and that the audience for which something is written would be better able to follow a writer’s trend of thought. The importance of pre-writing therefore cannot be downplayed.

However many of our students at secondary school, do not engage in prewriting during the writing process. The reasons for this in my opinion are twofold: Firstly, due to the over reliance on traditional assessment methods in our classrooms many students ignore the pre-writing stage when they write in other to complete a given task so that they are awarded a good mark. Consequently many students view the pre- writing process as a time wasting experience, where attempting to pre-write would mean time lost. The next reason why students do not pre write is because students don’t actually know how to go about pre-writing. Many teachers simply go to the class room and tell students “ You need to pre- write before any meaningful writing takes place”; not bothering to at least model how one actually goes about the pre-writing stage. Students in turn are left in limbo not knowing what to do except to just simply ignore the prewriting stage. Consequently, I believe there is need for teachers to constantly model to students how to engage in effective pre-writing.

Lorcher ( 1999) for instance highlighted the following procedures be used by teachers when they teach students to pre-write :

1. Brainstorm. Encourage students to think outside of the box.

2. Model the exercise. Students like to see how something is done first before they could attempt it.

3. Give examples. Students like to see examples. Show them a completed essay as well as the planning for that particular essay.

4. Help them come up ideas, though do not do all the work yourself. Be an active participant.

5. Reinforce the fact that students are doing a good job, even if their work is not-so-great.

Some strategies which teacher could model to help students during the pre-writing stage

1. Free writing-writing freely about whatever comes to mind without regard to mechanics. Use this technique in 10-15 minute increments. This technique is very adaptable and can be used as a reading writing connection response, response to discussion or response to a picture or artwork.

2. Wet-Ink Writing- Nonstop writing in short (2-3 minutes) bursts of time. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible “without lifting your pen”. The key is speed and not lifting the hand from the paper. The purpose of this technique, like free writing, is to increase fluency.

3. Trigger Words- This is a combination of free writing and free association. The goal is to jog the memory with certain strong words and to see how many associations or interesting angles the writer’s mind finds. The teacher calls out a word and everyone writes as quickly as possible. The students can write words, phrases, and sentences.

4. Free Association- This activity is designed to get students thinking. Set up two words with spaces between them and try to fill in the blanks with words that make sense with each word. (The Wheel of Fortune has a version of this called Before and After) The more spaces between words, the more difficult the challenge and the more associations that can be made.

Old______shop

Old furniture shop

5. Sentence Stubs- Open ended sentence fragments meant to be finished to spark interest.

Today I thought….

If I won the lottery I would first…

My most important possession is….

6. Journal Writing-

These can also be called daybooks, logs, learning logs, and writer’s notebooks where students can collect ideas and respond to various prompts. This collection of ideas can then become a resource for topics and pieces of writing

7. Brainstorming – Is a collaborative pre-writing activity where a large or small group generates a large number of ideas.

8. Listing- The trick is to generate not just one list but several. Use one list to generate later lists to help to narrow or fine tune a topic. Start with very broad topics then narrow as more ideas are generated to come up with specific topics for writing. Give each list a specific title.

9. Blueprinting- Draw a floor plan of a house where you currently live or a place you know and are familiar with. Label each room what you call it. Then list specific people, places and events that happened in each room. After generating several events from each room, circle ones you might like to explore in more depth later.

Whenever I begin the pre- writing process I generally use graphic organizers such as Venn and Webb diagrams . For instance, when using a webb diagram I would begin firstly by writing my topic in the centre of the diagram. I would then begin writing the supporting details for my topic on my webb diagram. After this is done I try to organize ideas whilst pondering on how these ideas would be best constructed into paragraphs.