You Should be Prewriting More
Students worry that prewriting will affect their "authenticity." More likely than not, "authentic" writing often suffers from run-on sentences and begins with one topic in mind but ends with another. Ironically, these are both issues that prewriting can help. This article makes a case for prewriting.
By Xavier Royer — October 11, 2022
"If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both"
— proverb of unknown originAs an instructor, I put very little stock into students' claims of being a "great" writer in high school. Writing in high school allows for much more flexibility in style, and most assignments provide a pretty explicit structure. My students enter each class writing casually and tend to overestimate their abilities. Many struggle with sentence-level or style issues, such as leaning on using the second person. What I often find, however, is that many students struggle with paper organization. Despite this, very few take the time to do any prewriting. Students worry that prewriting will affect their "authenticity." More likely than not, "authentic" writing often suffers from run-on sentences and begins with one topic in mind but ends with another. Ironically, these are both issues that prewriting can help. This article makes a case for prewriting.
The Case for Pre-Writing
What is prewriting? Pre-Writing, or outlining, is simply the process of tangibly planning the paper. The goal of this process is to make organizational decisions ahead of time. Think of it as creating a set of instructions for the paper you intend to write. "Tangibly" is important. Despite what some students claim, prewriting cannot be done only mentally. Writing or typing the plan or outline for the paper is essential. The primary purpose of the outline is to keep the writer on track.
Writing from surface-level thoughts often leads to unexpected twists and turns, leading the writer in a different direction than intended. Usually, a student will set out with one goal in mind for their paper but conclude having written something entirely different. Even with prewriting, it may be appropriate to change the topic or approach during the writing process. However, this should be an intentional choice, not the result of disorganization.
Many students worry that prewriting will cause their paper to sound robotic and that they will lose their writer's voice. My first thought is that "voice" is not super important in papers that only the instructor and maybe other classmates will see. This sentiment is especially true when it comes to the cost of clarity. In most cases, students will never be downgraded for being "boring."
Boring papers are often easiest to grade because it takes the guesswork out of whether the student achieved the goals of the assignment or not. However, I do think that over a college career, students should work to develop a writing style that is natural for them. The trick is that prewriting helps this process rather than hinders it. Chefs do not spend time during the dinner rush chopping vegetables in professional kitchens. Rather, they do this in advance. They can skip that task and focus on cooking when the time comes.
Students who utilize prewriting have made big writing decisions in advance. This groundwork can help them to instead focus on genuinely articulating themselves. Students who do not use prewriting try to make the organizational decisions simultaneously with the aesthetic choices-failing to do either, or often both, effectively. To return to the cooking example, they allowed the chicken to burn because they had to spend time cutting the carrots.
Prewriting frees up the writer's mental bandwidth by making all organizational decisions ahead of time. Then, when it comes to putting words on the page, they only have to put the pieces in place. Strong voice typically comes from word choice and the tempo or pace brought from sentence length and complexity. Earnest Hemingway and William Shakespeare are considered great writers, but Hemingway's straightforward style contrasts Shakespeare's lyrical prose. Pre-writing hinders neither word choice or tempo. Instead, it allows the writer freedom to focus on those aspects. The mystery of where the paper is going has been eliminated.
This article has articulated what prewriting is and the benefits of engaging it. There is no "one simple trick" to becoming a better writer, but prewriting is probably close. Many of the struggles students have when it comes to writing come from a lack of organization. Prewriting works to eliminate these problems and allows students to commit their full attention to expressing their thoughts and ideas. The Purdue Owl writing lab is a widely accepted resource for improving writing, and this is just one of their many resources on prewriting. Prewriting is also a part of the writing process that most campus writing centers will be more than happy to work on with students.
Xavier Royer
I am currently a full time instructor at a William Penn University, a small private university in Iowa. I am the lone political science faculty member there. In my time teaching, I have already connected with an incredible cohort of students in ways I could never have expected. Partnering with SAGE will allow me the opportunity to help even more students across the globe navigate those tricky questions.
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