Running head: Writing Process

Writing Process and Pre writing

John Miel Guinto
Nevada State College

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Abstract

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Writing Process and Pre writing

Pre writing is an easy tool to learn and is available for everyone. Students coming into
college as a fresh high school graduate or a returning student you should be able to pre write.
Students who cannot pre write are suffering from when they are writing essays. It is important
for everyone coming into college to know about pre writing and the writing process. Pre writing
tells you what you know about the topic and also tells you what you need to learn more about.
Pre writing is the first step in traditional writing and is sometimes called the invention
stage. Anything you do before your draft is pre writing. Pre writing usually begins with the
student thinking about the writing purpose and audience. Finding the best method for pre writing
will help students become better writers and make their lives easier. Even though each student is
different there will be other methods that will suite each students writing styles. Pre writing is
important because it can help cure writers of procrastination. It would help the writers because
many people think writers get lazy because the writers have trouble starting off their papers. If
something comes easily and beneficial to a person that person will tend to do it more. So if prewriting can help start off and make writing easier for the writing it will help improve their
attitude to writing.
One size does not fit all. There are different types of pre-writing methods for different
students. Pre-writing is effective and will improves students paper greatly.Once we find out
which method is effective for you, and will help you out for the rest of your life.
A study at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College of the City University of New
York was done to see how students who do not know how to pre write operate and what they do
when they write their papers. Students were in a room and given a topic and they would have to
write about the topic within the specified time. The observed the students to see how they would

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operate on going about with the paper. Perl noted that "Composing does not occur in a straight
forward linear fashion. The process is one of accumulating discrete bits down on the paper &
then working from those bits to reflect upon, structure, & then further develop what one means to
say" (p 331). many with the Perl that finding your own way of writing will help you in the long
run. Life is a lot like writing it is never in a straight forward linear fashion, It can go many ways.
In another study, a college students were assigned to do a informative essay for analytical
thinking. The students were not given any time to pre write. In another group the students were
given time to draft and prepare for the informative essay. The students used a lot of methods
while they were drafting their paper. The methods varied from clustering, outlining, listing, and
to branching. Their essays were graded based upon the quality of the paper and the way of their
outlining. In conclusion Kellogg stated that "The results showed that outlining significantly
improved the overall quality of documents and the fluency of drafting the text" (p 327).
Preparing of any type of essay will greatly improve your grade. It is the matter of how you
prepare and what you prepare. Outlining is one of the most common and helpful pre writing
method.
A study done by Lee Odell He took forty-six students from freshman English classes.
The forty-six were split into groups of two. One group would be taught by a normal English
teacher and one was taught by the writer. One group was taught philosophical and psychological
assumptions underlying the semester's work. The other was taught the pre writing operations
heavily. The students were given the same topic of the essays and same deadlines. In the end,
what Odell concluded from his findings is that "Despite these and other unanswered questions,
the study does provide some support for the belief that the teaching of pre-writing procedures
can affect student writing. Results of the study show that all essays studied revealed an increased

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use of at least some of the operations taught in the experimental course, and several of these
increases can be attributed to students' experiences in that course rather than simply to chance" (p
249). Even though Odell did not find solid evidence that pre-writing is important. Odell did find
that pre-writing can help enhance the writing of students.
Zamel in her article "Writing: Process of Discovering Meaning" ,stated that "Since
writers do not seem to know beforehand what it is they will say, writing is a process through
which meaning is created. This suggests composition instruction that recognizes the importance
of generating, formulating, and refining one's ideas" (p 195). Zamel talks about pre writing and
how she thinks it is helpful and it can boost the writing of writers. Also Zamel in her article made
it seem like it should be common knowledge for students to know about pre-writing and the
writing methods.It also ties in with what Martha said on her article "Exploring the Potential of
Word Processing for Non-Native Writers. "It is generally thought that writers who explicitly plan
or outline before writing produce better texts than those who do not and that expert writers work
from more elaborate plans, including more hierarchical arrangement of goals and sub goals, than
do novices. (p 152) It might seem common knowledge for some people that pre-writing is
important.
Methods
From the research I did half of the participants said that they did now know about prewriting coming into college. It is important the that every learn at least that college level students
should know basic pre-writing and pre-writing methods. Out of all the students I have surveyed
asking the participants when doing pre writing do you think that it actually makes a difference
when you pre write vs when you do not pre write? 100% of the students said yes it actually made
them feel great about their writing and gave them the confidence that the students were going to

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receive a better grade. I also surveyed the students and asked which is the best pre-writing
method seemed to work for them 44% said free writing, 22% said brainstorming, 22% said
mapping, and 11% said that listening helps them out. The teachers I interviewed said that
outlining was a great problem. "Outlining is recurring problem in medical/biological field" Dr.
Mantooth stated. He felt that students lap reports were all over the place. He said that most
students problem is outlining and felt that students have to work on their outlining.
Discussion
Finding the most effective pre-writing method is a long and difficult road. Each student is
different. What might be effective for one student might not work for the other student. In the
end we did find out that pre-writing is effective. Pre-writing will help you to become a better
writer. "Obviously, the importance of prewriting cannot be overemphasized, for it motivates and
prepares students for engaging in the remaining two phases of the writing process. It is during
this phase of writing that students must recognize they have choices in approaching their subject
and their selection is the essence of creativity in writing. " (p47 Carolyn) Pre writing must come
natural, It cannot be forced to a person. Once they find the right pre-writing method for
themselves they will become a better writer.

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References
Perl, S. (1979). The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers
Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 13, No. 4 , pp. 317-336
Kellogg, R.(Autumn, 1990) Effectiveness of Prewriting Strategies as a Function of Task
Demands
The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 103, No. 3 , pp. 327-342
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Pennington, M.(1993)Exploring the Potential of Word Processing for Non-Native Writers
Computers and the Humanities, Vol. 27, No. 3 , pp. 149-163
Odell, L. (Summer, 1974) Measuring the Effect of Instruction in Pre-Writing
Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 8, No. 2 , pp. 228-240
Boiarsky, C. (1982)Prewriting Is the Essence of Writing
The English Journal, Vol. 71, No. 4 , pp. 44-47
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Zamel, V. (1982)Writing: The Process of Discovering Meaning
TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 2 , pp. 195-209
Published by: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
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