Lesson 2: Prewriting and Essay Structure

What is Prewriting?
During the prewriting stage, also known as the brainstorming stage, a writer develops ideas about a topic. But before we explore the
prewriting concept, let’s first take a look at how it fits into the writing process scheme. Take a look at the following diagram, as you can see
the “prewrite” step is listed right after “topic”.
Since the amount of work devoted to mastering a writing project can seem challenging at first, break it into smaller tasks. Then, following the
specific stages of the Writing Process can make it a lot more manageable and even enjoyable to complete the writing project. When faced with
a blank page, experienced writers remind themselves that writing, like other everyday activities, is a process. Every process, from writing to
cooking, bike riding, and learning how to use a new cell phone, will get significantly easier with practice.

It is also easier to master any of these skills if the steps in the process are followed in a specific order. The graphic above lists the steps in the
Writing Process in the order you should use as you work towards the completion of a writing project. During this module you will become
familiar with these terms and some of the strategies and techniques you can utilize to make each step of the process easier and more
productive.

Where to Start?
Prewriting is the first stage in the writing process. When using a prewriting strategy, you jot your initial thoughts about a topic down on paper.
Prewriting has no set structure or organization; it is usually just a collection of ideas that may find themselves in your paper over time.
Prewriting is also a great way to get past writer’s block -- that period of time when you find you have no ideas or don’t know how to put your
thoughts together. There is no right or wrong way to approach prewriting, but there are some strategies that can get you thinking. Although
many more prewriting strategies exist, in this lecture we will cover a few of the prewriting strategies such as freewriting, idea/mind mapping
etc. Using these strategies can help you overcome the fear of the blank page and confidently begin the writing process.
Freewriting
Freewriting is the process of simply writing down any and all ideas about the topic that pop into your mind. Set a timer for yourself and write
continuously for 5 or 10 minutes on your topic. If you run out of ideas, rewrite the last word or phrase on the page until another idea jumps
into your thoughts. Keep writing, even if it doesn’t make sense! At this point, you are just getting your ideas down on paper without editing or
judging them. If you are trying to decide between topics, it is a good idea to freewrite on all of them to see which one provides you with the
best ideas.

Asking Questions
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
This is a basic strategy used by students at many levels that helps you jot down the basic important information about a topic.

Idea/Mind Mapping
Mind-mapping is very similar to freewriting, but the outcome often looks more like a list of ideas. This strategy is quite similar to brainstorming
where the listed ideas may or may not be connected with arrows or lines. You should set a time limit of 5 to 10 minutes and jot down all the
ideas you have about the topic. Instead of writing sentences, you are quickly jotting down ideas, perhaps showing connections and building a
map of your thoughts.

Here are some online tools that can help with this process:
 Check out Inspiration Software where you can use a free   Use Mindomo, which is a collaborative mind-
trial of their software for thirty days. mapping tool. You may use the basic tool for free
 Try XMind, a free mind mapping tool that runs on both or pay a minimal fee for extra features.
Mac and PC computers.

Explore an example of a mind-map created for the topic: What is the impact of
traditional ecological knowledge on environmental management?
Many of us tend to want to skip the prewriting step in the Writing Process and just begin writing. To do this is a real mistake because the time
we take to prewrite helps us to solidify our ideas, make sure we have chosen a good topic, and begin to formulate ideas for what to include in
our project. At the end of the prewriting phase, we should be ready to consider what to include in the thesis statement and how that
statement will lead into the rest of the project.
Thesis Statements
Your paper's thesis statement is essentially a one-sentence summary of your topic and the point of view you've decided to take. The rest of
your paper will be devoted to developing, supporting, and explaining this statement using examples and evidence. If you think of an essay like
a target, the thesis statement is your bullseye. In one sentence, you'll let your reader know what you're trying to prove. It will include a
supportable opinion and your intent for the essay.
Thesis statements sometimes reflect the organization of the whole paper, but they don’t necessarily have to. Nor do you need to try to fit
every major point from your essay into one sentence. The content of your thesis statement will also be determined by the type of paper you’re
writing. An argument essay will have a different kind of thesis statement than a narrative essay. However, all thesis statements do have three
things in common.

A thesis statement is a complete, grammatically correct sentence (or a few

sentences) that:

Identifies the topic.  Takes a position on the topic.
 Gives a general outline.

Thesis statements appear in essays, research papers, and any persuasive piece of writing. Your thesis statement may evolve over the course
of the writing process.
 Thesis statements do not necessarily have to be:

A complete outline or summary of your essay.  Finalized before you start writing.
To develop a thesis statement:

Figure out the type, purpose, and audience of your paper.  Take a position on the topic and make sure that it is provable.
 Start with your research question and answer it with your thesis  Give the thesis statement two parts: a clear topic or subject
statement. matter, and a brief summary of what you will say.
Common Issues with Thesis Statements
The “non-thesis” thesis. The overly broad thesis.
A thesis statement needs to take a position on an issue. It is
different from a topic sentence in that a thesis statement is not
It is not possible to write a college-level paper about the history of
neutral.
America in five pages. A topic should be specific enough for you to
Weak: This paper will consider video game learning in the
address it thoroughly.
classroom.
Weak: Teachers need to stop students from cheating.
Strong: Video games represent a promising teaching tool in the
Strong: New computer technology may be able to help teachers
classroom.
stop some forms of cheating.
The incontestable thesis. The “list” thesis.
A thesis statement must be arguable. In order for it to be
A thesis statement should allow the reader to anticipate how
arguable, it must take a position that someone might reasonably
arguments are related to one another, rather than merely stating
disagree with.
a series of facts without connecting them in a logical order.
Weak: Students should not cheat.
Weak: There are many ways that video games could enhance
Strong: Cheating is not simply a problem in schools; it may affect
education, including system thinking, collaborative tasks, and
people’s future workplace behavior.
what James Paul Gee calls “situated meanings.”
Strong: Among the many learning tools James Paul Gee cites in
video games, the most significant ones—system thinking,
collaborative tasks, and situated meanings—all share an emphasis
on seeing information as a whole, rather than as disconnected
facts typically presented in the classroom.
The Perfect Paragraph
As you expand your research material and outline notes into sentences, you will also begin to package those sentences into larger units—
paragraphs—that follow a standard, familiar structure that enables readers to easily follow their content and locate key information at a
glance. If a sentence communicates a complete thought, a paragraph communicates a topic composed of a few thoughts coherently collected
together in an organized sequence.
How Many Paragraphs Do You Need?

The standard format for an English composition essay is five paragraphs: an introduction, three body paragraphs outlining three main points
or claims, and a conclusion. However, many assignments will allow you to adjust the length of the essay based on the amount of material you
need to include.
At minimum, a paragraph should have at least three sentences, but ideally 4-5 to allow the development sentences in the body to explore the
topic in detail. A rule of thumb on sentence length is that sentences should vary in size but average about 25 words long. Thus, a normal
paragraph should be about ten lines on the page when the font is 12-pt. in a document with 1-inch margins. Like sentences, however,
paragraphs should vary in length depending on audience needs and abilities, as well as the topics being covered. An audience with advanced
literacy skills can handle longer paragraphs that would lose an audience reading at a more basic level, which takes us back to our earlier
points about adjusting the message to the audience.
Some topics need more development sentences than others and don’t easily divide in the middle, though a paragraph of ten sentences or
more is really pushing it. “Wall-of-text” paragraphs longer than a page are out of the question in professional writing. No matter what the size,
however, all paragraphs should follow the standard structure explained below so that readers at any level can easily find what they’re looking
for.
Topic Sentences
A topic sentence is to a paragraph what a thesis statement is to a whole essay. It is usually, but not always, the first sentence in the
paragraph. The topic sentence will state the main point of the paragraph and give a brief summary of the information in the paragraph. That
way, the reader gets a good idea of the structure of the paragraph before reading the whole thing. Every sentence in the paragraph will
provide examples, explanations, or details of the information contained in the topic sentence. The final sentence of a paragraph should wrap
up the topic and begin to transition into the next topic.
Paragraphing
Why break an essay up into paragraphs in the first place? Paragraphs are necessary in academic writing to show changes in ideas or further
development of ideas. In academic writing, paragraphs present mini-ideas that often develop out of the thesis sentence’s main idea. Also, it’s
much easier to read. You’ve already seen that a “wall of text” is difficult for a reader to follow.
Remember that all your paragraphs don’t need to be the same length but consider the content within them as well. If you have a very long
paragraph on your first claim and only two or three sentences on your second, you might need more detail or explanation on the second claim,
or you might have gone into too much detail on the first. Remember that you can always deal with paragraph breaks as part of the revision
process. Don’t get stuck on the length of your paragraphs as you write your first draft.
Sometimes, especially when writing longer essays, you may need to cover one point or claim over more than one paragraph. When you see
that a paragraph is longer than about twelve lines or so, look for internal transitions of thought. Is there a “however” in the paragraph? How
about an “also” or “additionally”? These are usually good places to think about dividing a very long paragraph.

Introductory Paragraphs
The introductory paragraph accomplishes three purposes: it captures the reader’s interest, it suggests the importance of the essay’s topic,
and it ends with a thesis sentence. There’s no one correct way to write an introduction, but most start off with some kind of “hook” statement.
For example, consider the following sentences as if they were the first sentences of an introductory paragraph. Which essay would you like to
read?
 1. The American Civil War began in 1861 and ended in 2. By 1863, the state of Virginia had been ravaged by more
1865. In this conflict, the Southern states attempted to than two years of bloody battles. Confederate General
secede from the Union, and the North fought to keep the Robert E. Lee sought to push north into Union territory
Union whole. and set his sights on destroying the Union army at the
fort at Gettysburg.

You’d likely prefer the second example, which uses a hook of narrative description to catch the reader’s interest. There are many other types
of hooks, including using a shocking statistic or an intriguing quote.

After the hook, you’ll use a few sentences to introduce a little background on your topic. In the above example, the writer might relate the
outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg and talk about it as the turning point of the war. Then, the writer will need to get to the thesis statement:
Gettysburg is the most important battle of the Civil War.
As a reminder, a strong thesis is essential to a good essay. A strong thesis not only makes a claim, but also uses examples to back it up. A
weak thesis might be:
Wikipedia is a powerful resource in many ways.
As an alternative, a strong thesis for the same topic would be:
Wikipedia is a powerful resource because it allows users with knowledge in a specific area to
share their knowledge, because it allows users to quickly find information about a vast array of
topics, and because studies have confirmed that it is as accurate as any other encyclopedia.
This thesis statement would allow you to separate your body paragraphs into three sections: one explaining the open-source nature of the
project, one explaining the variety and depth of information, and a final one using studies to confirm that Wikipedia is indeed as accurate as
other encyclopedias.
Body Paragraphs
Each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence. If the thesis contains multiple points or assertions, each body paragraph should support
or justify them, preferably in the order the assertions originally stated in the thesis. Thus, the topic sentence for the first body paragraph will
refer to the first point in the thesis sentence and the topic sentence for the second body paragraph will refer to the second point in the thesis
sentence. Generally, if the thesis sentence contains three related points, there should be three body paragraphs, though you should base the
number of paragraphs on the number of supporting points needed.
Linking Paragraphs: Transitions
Transitions are words or phrases that indicate linkages in ideas. When writing, you need to lead your readers from one idea to the next,
showing how those ideas are logically linked. Transition words and phrases help you keep your paragraphs and groups of paragraphs logically
connected for a reader. Writers often check their transitions during the revising stage of the writing process.
Here are some example transition words to help as you transition both within paragraphs and from one paragraph to the next.
Concluding Paragraph
Congratulations, you’re almost finished with your essay! By this point in the writing process, you should have:

 Determined who your audience is (in this case, probably  Used correct grammar, mechanics, and spelling
your teacher)  Followed all the guidelines for your writing assignment
 Clearly presented information to your audience


Writing conclusions can be challenging, but they are very important since the conclusion is the last paragraph that your audience will read.
You’ll want to briefly summarize your main point, but don’t simply restate information from your body paragraphs. Usually, a concluding
paragraph in an academic essay starts with a reminder of the thesis statement so your reader will clearly remember your point.

Different types of essays will require different types of conclusions, but all conclusions should leave the reader satisfied with the way the
writer has drawn the essay to a close. One thing the conclusion should never do is bring in new points or new examples that you have not
included in the body of your essay. Instead, you can invite the reader to think about the consequences of your main point. You might paint a
picture of what the future will look like if the information in the essay is acted on.
How to Find and Focus Ideas

Choosing a Topic
When presented with the challenge of writing an essay, assuming the topic hasn’t been established by your instructor, choosing a topic often seems like a difficult obstacle. There
are handy tips you can use to help overcome this barrier. First, devote serious time to choosing your topic. Think about your topic as you begin to prewrite. Second, search out
ideas and questions as a path to discovering a topic that interests you. For example, why do kids drop out of school? Are human beings predisposed to violence? Why was Galileo
punished by the powers that be for revealing evidence that the Earth isn’t at the center of the solar system?
Meanwhile, narrowing your topic is vital. For example, regarding the effects of television exposure on young children, you’ll find lots of approaches. So you might decide to
narrow your topic by asking specific questions: How is time watching TV related to obesity? Is time watching TV related to academic performance? Does TV content depict
violence as a normal way to handle disputes?
Branching helps you take a topic and divide it into subcategories, which are then divided further into ideas and statements. Another technique of narrowing topics is through
questioning. If you use the questioning technique, use the questions who, what, where, when, why, and how to help narrow your topic. Questioning allows you to focus your
attention on specific aspects of the topic.

Determining Purpose
You must determine the purpose of your essay, article, op-ed, or bulletin. Do you want to persuade or simply inform your readers? Do you want to argue for or against a public
policy? Do you want to disclose an interesting incident in the history of the Civil War?
If you need help identifying your purpose, ask yourself why you're writing the essay or what you would like the essay to accomplish. Always remember to consider your audience
when you start the writing process, even if your audience solely consists of your instructor. You can ask yourself several questions to help you analyze your audience, including
what they know, what kind of background they have, what their expectations might be, and what tone you should use in your essay.
In any case, if you haven’t considered your audience, you can’t expect to get your message across. To help you deal with that vital concern, consider relevant questions. For
example, what does your audience know (or not know) about your topic? What’s the general education or likely background of your audience? An article on unions will take a
different slant if it’s directed to members of a trade union as opposed to anti-union lobbyists. What opinions, biases, or political sentiments are likely to be embraced by your
readers?
Choosing a point of view is another important step in the early stages of the writing process. If you don’t have a point of view on a given topic, you’re not likely to communicate
effectively with your presumed audiences. Indeed, even in deciding whether to write in the first person as opposed to the third person, you’re choosing a point of view.
Discovering Ideas
This section offers a number of ways to discover ideas, the collection of which will allow you to form the first draft of your paper. The following is a list of these techniques and a
brief description of each:

Freewriting. At this point, you’ve probably grasped the idea of freewriting. Basically, you write whatever comes to mind for up to 10 minutes. As you do this, you don’t need to
pay attention to punctuation, spelling, and grammar. After completing a freewriting session, review it to underline or comment on ideas that may be useful.

Mapping. Mapping, also called clustering, is a visual technique for discovering ideas and how they’re related. Think about a police detective drawing circles, boxes, and arrows on
a whiteboard, trying to link possible suspects to locations or other suspects.

Brainstorming. Brainstorming is different from freewriting in that you write down any or all of the ideas that pop into your head while focused on a specific topic. Brainstorming
may also involve a small group as opposed to a single individual. Quite often, you’ll find that your ideas fall into clusters. For example, let’s say you wrote down 12 possible
disadvantages of the war on drugs. You might find clusters related to three narrowed topics: 1) the social and economic costs of massive imprisonment of offenders, 2) the social
and monetary costs of steering law enforcement away from stopping organized and white-collar crime, and 3) the impacts on children and families of those most often caught up in
the drug war.

Questioning. Questioning is a process of raising and writing down all the questions one or two individuals may pose related to some topic, such as charter schools or communal
vegetable gardening. Starting questions with “what if” can be helpful. In any case, the idea is to pose questions that lead to a narrowed topic.

Writing assertions. Writing assertions amounts to viewing a general topic from as many perspectives as possible. For this type of rewriting, jot down five to 10 sentences that take
a strong position on your topic. For example, if your topic is the availability of childcare for working mothers, you might write assertions such as "The lack of inexpensive
childcare options shows that we undervalue women in the workforce" or "Businesses who want to retain the best employees should offer childcare options for working parents."
Abstract learning types may benefit from this approach because it helps a writer divide a “big picture” frame of reference into limited, manageable topics.

Patterns of development. There are nine approaches to developing an essay: narration, description, illustration, process analysis, comparison and contrast, classification and
division, definition, cause and effect, and argument. Each of these can be called a pattern of development. If you have a general topic idea but don't know how to approach it,
consider how it may work within these different patterns. For example, if you know you want to write about animal welfare, you could use a comparison and contrast approach to
show how farm animals are treated in small family farms versus large factory farms. Alternatively, you could use a cause-and-effect approach to show how American eating habits
have affected the treatment of farm animals.

Visualizing or sketching. Imagine that you want to write a descriptive essay on the architecture of the Pantheon in Rome. To be sure, you’ll be adding in historical context, but you
might benefit greatly from making rough sketches of interior and exterior views of this famous building. In another related approach, while working on your descriptive
observations of a county fair, you might close your eyes and visualize your impressions of people you saw, kids on a merry-go-round, pie contests, and so on. This will help you
describe sensory details, but it may also lead to new approaches to your topic. For example, if you wanted to write about the decline in popularity of shopping malls, you could
imagine the sights and sounds of a mall full of people and then what that same mall would look and sound like while empty.

Research. It’s typically a good idea to do research. In the age of the Internet and Google, that process is easy to start. Note that any research needs to be cited and documented
according to APA format. However, it’s also a good idea to conduct some research in the old-fashioned way—in public or college libraries. You may be amazed at how helpful
librarians can be.
Drafting an Essay
Essay Structure
It’s not a bad idea to store the basic structure of an essay in your memory. Your mental notes could look a bit like this:

 Title—Reveal your topic in a way that sparks your readers’ interest.

 Introduction—Paragraph 1 (or maybe both Paragraphs 1 and 2) introduces your narrowed topic, presents your thesis, provides background, and tries to engage your
readers’ interest.
 Body—The body is three or more paragraphs that support and explain your thesis using evidence.
 Conclusion—You emphasize your thesis without simply repeating it. That is, you want to end with a flourish that amplifies your thesis. Draw your essay to a close.
Essays have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, and there are a number of options for how you can organize the body.
In some cases, such as when you’re writing an argument, you may want to follow either the “most-to-least” principle or the “least-to-most” principle. So, if you have three main
pieces of supporting evidence, you can rank that evidence in the order of its importance—1, 2, and 3. On the other hand, if you want to end your essay with a bang, you might
organize your evidence so as to save the best for last—3, 2, and 1.
When your essay is a narrative, you’re likely to organize your paragraphs in chronological order; first A happened, then B, then C, and so on. However, in a descriptive essay, for
example, you might want to use a spatial order. Imagine you’re writing an essay about the many wondrous features of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. Different
“body spaces” can be appointed to describe the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the American Historical Museum.

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Key Points
 Put some thought into choosing a topic for an essay  Your thesis statement will include a quick summary of the
assignment, then spend some time determining your essay's topic as well as your point of view on that topic.
purpose and prewriting before you begin the writing The rest of the essay will provide evidence supporting
process. your thesis statement.
 Good prewriting strategies include freewriting, mapping,  Each paragraph in your essay should have a topic
brainstorming, asking questions, clustering, visualizing, sentence, or mini-thesis statement that states the main
and research. point of the paragraph. Paragraphs should contain one
 Essays are structured around a thesis statement and main point or claim and be no more than about 10 lines in
arranged into an introductory paragraph, several body length.
paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.  Transition words and phrases help you link your ideas
from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph.

Thesis Statement Topic Sentence

Definition: A sentence that summarizes the essay's topic Definition: A sentence that states the main idea of a
and the writer's point of view paragraph

Transition Words Hook Sentence

Definition: Words or phrases that help logically link ideas Definition: The first sentence of an introductory
paragraph that grabs the reader's attention
Prewriting
Definition: The first stage of the writing process in which
the writer identifies and narrows down his or her topic