The Writing Process
  • Prewriting

    • Prewriting

    Anything you do before you start writing is prewriting. You should always start by making sure you understand the assignment. Other activities that are frequently completed in this stage are researching, brainstorming, choosing a focus, and outlining. 

    Understand the assignment

    Make sure that you understand the requirements of the task. If there is a specific prompt you are supposed to use, make sure your writing addresses the prompt. 

    Research

    Doing research can be the hardest part of academic writing. Up until this point, the majority of the writing you have done shows what you know or think about a topic. Researched academic essays are more about what you have learned. You should not choose topics you know a lot about for research essays. Instead, choose topics you want to learn about. 

    It is very difficult to prewrite if you have not done some basic preliminary research. You will probably need to do research during the process of writing your research essay as well. 

    After you know about your assignment (e.g., write a classification essay), you may start searching online to find a topic (e.g., types of clouds). With the topic in mind, you will need to do more research (unless you are an expert on your topic) to know what to focus on (e.g., cirrus clouds, cumulonimbus clouds, stratus clouds, etc.). After you have your focus, you may need to do more research to create a good outline. 

    Keep track of the sources you use when you are researching. Save links to the websites you find or print sources. Saving information about these sources makes it easier to find quotes for your essay later. 

    You should not try to write the entire essay from your own experience and knowledge and then try to find research that agrees with your points. Research should be the starting point. 

    Brainstorm

    Sometimes you are given a specific prompt (e.g., Research and describe a famous psychologist), but sometimes you can choose your topic. If you can choose your topic, then brainstorming can help you generate ideas to write about. There are many methods you can use for brainstorming. You can discuss the topic with a partner, do a free write, make a list of ideas, make an idea map, do a search on Google, etc.

    Choose your focus

    If your topic is really broad, you should narrow the topic down to have a more specific focus. For example, if you choose to write about the benefits of exercise, you will probably need to narrow down that topic to a few benefits of exercise (e.g., physical and mental benefits of exercise). Researching online or repeating a brainstorming activity may help you choose your focus. 

    Tip: Choosing a Focus

    It's often best to choose a topic you are most excited about. Drafted essays are typically long-term projects, which means you want to avoid getting tired of your topic over the weeks of working on it. Even a timed writing assignment will be easier to write if you start by choosing something you are invested in. 

    Being invested in a topic looks different for everyone. Here are some examples of what it might look like for different students writing about hobbies:

    • I really love soccer. I've always been a part of a team, and I enjoy being a fan of professional teams as well. I know a lot about the game, but I've never written about it formally and definitely not in English. It would help me stay motivated to write about something I'm passionate about in a different way.
    • I enjoy watching makeup tutorials on TikTok. I think it's incredible how people can use their face as a canvas and create art and enhance their natural beauty. I do my own makeup, but I never realized that this could be a "hobby." I want to write about this topic so I can explore the culture of makeup as more "serious leisure" like Wikipedia describes.
    • My roommates love hiking. I never really went hiking in my home country, but it's a very popular activity in Utah. I want to understand this hobby more. Maybe I will learn to enjoy it more if I understand it better?
    • I love video games and I have competed in some competitions. There are a lot of negative opinions about video games that bother me. I want to write an essay to show how this hobby can be a positive thing in our lives. 

    Outline

    Making an outline is a prewriting activity you should do for everything you write. An outline is a plan that will ensure your essay easier to write and understand. 

    Not all outlines are the same. The amount of detail required in the outline depends on the purpose of the essay as well as the purpose of your outline. If you are writing a timed essay without research, your outline will be very simple. If you are writing a researched essay, your outline will probably be more detailed and may include some of your sources. 

    When you write an outline for a class, your teacher may ask you for a very detailed outline of your essay so that you can show your whole plan. When you need to make an outline, be sure to ask how much detail your teacher expects you to use in your outline. 

    At a minimum, every outline will at least state your thesis and topic sentences. To create your outline, think about the question that your essay answers (e.g., what is essential to have in every relationship?). Answer the question (e.g., trust and communication). The supporting points in your answer will become your topic sentences (abbreviated TS). Write the main idea of your essay, your thesis (abbreviated TH), by summarizing your supporting points into one sentence. 

    Look at the example outline below. This basic outline is the type of outline you could create when you are writing an essay without research that is based on what you know (the type of essay you write on the TOEFL). Notice how directly the topic sentences support the thesis. 

    Example: Basic Outline

    I. Introduction 

             TH: Internships can be a very meaningful opportunity for students to gain perspective on careers.

    II. Body Paragraph 1 

             TS: Internships allow students to apply theory and skills they learned in a classroom.

    III. Body Paragraph 2 

             TS: Developing a professional network and securing a job offer is one of the benefits of an internship

    IV. Conclusion 

             TH: If an internship fulfills its intended purpose, it an truly be an eye-opening experience for individuals.

    You can finish one of these basic outlines very quickly. In fact, for timed essays, you need to be able to write an outline like this in about two or three minutes.

    On the other hand, planning a researched essay will take more time. A simple method for planning a researched essay starts with a basic outline. Then add questions to the outline for each topic sentence. Then find quotations in sources that answer each of your questions. 

    One of the reasons that this method is helpful is because it gives you direction in your research. You can research more quickly because instead of reading everything you can find out about your topic, you are reading to find the answers to a few questions. Researching first can help you to more effectively create an outline.

    Ask questions about each of your topic sentences. 

    TS: Internships allow students to apply theory and skills they learned in a classroom.

    Find sources that answer your questions. Copy the quote and put it in the outline. 

    TS: Internships allow students to apply theory and skills they learned in a classroom.

    Sometimes your questions may be difficult to find answers for. Asking questions is a good strategy to focus your research, but don’t hesitate to ask additional questions (or adjust your original questions) if you can’t find sources to answer all of them. It may be that there are no sources to answer some of your questions, and that is okay. Let the research guide you. 

    Oftentimes as you research and become more familiar with your subject, you will ask better questions based off of things you read. It’s also okay to adjust your outline based on the research that you conduct. 

    Exercises

    Exercise 1: Researching a Prompt

    For this practice, we will use a prompt from the "Addressing the Prompt" chapter of this textbook. However, you could practice this same step with a different prompt topic using the same steps.

    Prompt: Describe one of your hobbies.

    1. Visit the Wikipedia page on the topic of hobbies to get a clear idea of what can be included in the content.
    2. Click through to the linked page of the list of hobbies.
    3. Use a search engine to look for recent news articles about hobbies.
    4. Use the BYU Library search or Google Scholar and search "hobby" or "hobbies"

    Exercise 2: Brainstorming for a Prompt

    For this practice, we will use a prompt from the "Addressing the Prompt" chapter of this textbook. However, you could practice this same step with a different prompt topic using the same steps.

    Prompt: Describe one of your hobbies.

    1. Set a timer for 3 minutes. Make a list of everything you think about connected to the topic in that time.
    2. Revisit one of the websites you visited for the previous exercise. Add notes to your paper of anything interesting that stands out to you from that page.
    3. Describe is a big verb. Add ideas to your list of how you can describe the hobby. What would someone be interested to learn? What is most interesting to you about the idea of hobbies?
    4. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Think about the prompt and draw. You don't need to be a confident artist, just draw.
    5. Choose 5 of your items on your list. Draw 5 lines coming from each of those 5 items. Next to each line, write details, questions, or related ideas. 
    6. Set a timer for 3 minutes. Talk to a partner about your initial ideas. Then listen to your partner share his or her ideas. Write down any new thoughts you have during this discussion.

    Exercise 3: Focusing on the Prompt

    For this practice, we will use a prompt from the "Addressing the Prompt" chapter of this textbook. However, you could practice this same step with a different prompt topic using the same steps.

    Prompt: Describe one of your hobbies.

    1. Take a highlighter or a pen and circle all of the ideas that feel interesting and broad enough to write an essay about.
    2. Choose a specific hobby that you will focus your paper on.
    3. Think about how the list items you circled best connect to that specific hobby.

    Exercise 4: Outlining a Prompt Response

    1. With a partner, choose one of the example focused topics from the tip box above. 
    2. Write an outline of what the author might include in this essay to describe the hobby.
    3. Switch your outline with another partner group.
    4. Read through the outline.
    5. Write a question for each topic sentence about what you would want to know about that aspect of the hobby.

    Sources

    Bolli, T. & Renold, U. (2017). Comparative advantages of school and workplace environment in skill acquisition: Empirical evidence from a survey among professional teriary education and training students in Switzerland." Evidence-Based HRM: A Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship, 5(1), 6-29.

    Bolli, T., Caves, K., Oswald-Egg, M. E. (2021). Valuable experience: How university internships affect graduates’ income. Research in Higher Education, 62, 1198-1247. https://doi-org.erl.lib.byu.edu/10.1007/s11162-021-09637-9

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