Prewriting Stage: Planning

Brainstorming

Brainstorming provides a nearly guaranteed solution to writer's block. It's actually a

very easy process.

1) Begin with a blank piece of paper or computer screen.

2) Write your paper's topic, such as "The Ethics of Cigarette Advertising," at the top.

3) Write down everything you can about the topic; omit nothing, no matter how
bizarre, and don't stop until you are completely out of ideas. Don't worry about
grammar or editing. Here's an example:

Paper Topic: The Ethics of Cigarette Advertising

a) Cigarettes & cancer
b) Cigarette ads not on TV
c) Teenagers & cigarettes
d) Government subsidises tobacco farmers
e) Macho image of Marlboro Man
f) Camel "Hard Pack?"
g) Anti-smoking groups
h) Surgeon General's warnings
i) Why don't we see pipe and cigar ads?
j) Nicotine is addictive
k) Cigarettes still very popular

4) Look at the list above, and reconsider the paper's topic. Ideas (d) and (i) stray from
the topic, so cut them.

5) Organise the remaining points. Idea (a) provides a decent place to start a draft,
since it touches on a central truth about smoking.

6) Next, try to logically arrange the other points in the order that you would use in
your essay. It helps to think about patterns into which ideas would fall, such as
"Appeal of Ads," "Limits on Ads," "Future of Ads." You could write down these
categories and then categorize your ideas from the brainstorming list. You'll end up
with a working outline for the paper.

7) New ideas may occur to you as you organise the material. That's okay as long as
these ideas relate to the topic.

8) You're almost ready to begin a draft, or at least an introductory paragraph. You still
need to clearly state a thesis for assignments requiring one.

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Clustering

Clustering is a type of prewriting that allows you to explore many ideas as soon as
they occur to you. Like brainstorming or free associating, clustering allows you to
begin without clear ideas.

To begin to cluster, choose a word that is central to your assignment. For example, if
you were writing a paper about the value of a college education, you might choose the
word "expectations" and write that word in the middle of your sheet of paper. Circle
"expectations," then write words all around it--words that occur to you as you think of
"expectations." Write down all words that you associate with "expectations," words
that at first may seem to be random. Write quickly, circling each word, grouping
words around your the central word. Connect your new words to previous ones with
lines; when you feel you have exhausted a particular avenue of associations, go back
to your central word and begin again.

For example, "expectations" might lead you to consider "the social aspects of
college," which may lead you to consider "career networking." You may then find
yourself writing down words that compare the types of jobs you might get through
career networking. You may end up asking yourself questions such as "What sorts of
jobs do I want? Not want?" Have fun with this exercise; even silly questions can open
avenues to explore, such as "What if I ended up waiting tables at Buddy's?" "Would I
rather be a lion-tamer or an accountant?" "What about my brilliant career as a stand-
up comedian?"

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Some words will take you nowhere; with other words you may discover that you have
many related words to write. Random associations eventually become patterns of
logic as you look over your work. After looking over the clustering exercise above,
you might conclude that you want an exciting career as a performer of some type,
rather than a job in the service sector or behind a desk.

Now your sample paper about the value of a college education has some focus: how
you expect college to lead to an interesting career that involves creativity, skill, and
performance. You might then want to return to the phrase "Job Skills" and develop
that part of your cluster, noting the skills that you'd need to reach your ideal career.

Clustering does not take the place of a linear, traditional outline; but, as the example
shows, it allows you to explore ideas before committing them to a particular order.

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 Adequate Writing Features

Coherence and Unity

Coherence:

Coherence means establishing a relationship between the ideas presented in a

paragraph. It brings about a rationale in the arrangement of the ideas which are
introduced either in the chronological order or in the order of importance. Besides,
transitions that compare, contrast, illustrate, add or show cause and effect build
logical bridges. The ideas, thus expressed in the paragraph, flow smoothly from one to
the other in a logical sequence. This helps the reader to understand the paragraph.

Let us now analyse the following paragraph for unity and coherence:

The Human Body

(1) The human body is a wonderful piece of work that nature has created. (2) It is not
beautiful like the body of a butterfly or peacock but it is shaped practically. (3) It can do
many types of work which other animals cannot. (4) It is not strong like the body of a tiger.
(5) But in place of physical strength it has a big and sharp brain. (6) By using this brain the
human physique has been able to overcome many of its limitations. (7) By sitting in an
aeroplane it flies faster than a kite, by riding a motorcycle it travels faster than a leopard,
and by firing a machine gun it fights much better than a tiger. (8)In spite of all this, the
human body suffers from many diseases because it has a weakness for habits such as
smoking, drinking and overeating. (9) When it is healthy the body can give great pleasure
but when it is sick it can cause great pain. (10) The wise man would always keep his body fit
because a healthy mind can work only in a healthy body.

The first sentence states the main idea of the paragraph and claims the superiority of
the human body over the rest of the creation. It enables the reader to expect the
following ideas in the paragraph that explain and illustrate the qualities and attributes
of the human body.

The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh sentences compare, contrast,
elucidate and justify the main idea or topic sentence. They establish the main theme
with logical explanations and transitions. They create a graphic picture in the minds of
the reader with suitable and appropriate language expressions. In brief, they develop
the main idea of the paragraph.

The eighth and the ninth sentences interpret and analyse the limitations of the human
body and prove the strength of the topic sentence. They, further, lead the main idea
into a concluding thought.

Finally, the tenth sentence concludes with the idea that the human body should be
well preserved for a proper functioning of the system and that a healthy mind can
work only in a healthy body.

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Thus the paragraph, The Human Body, is a unified and coherent paragraph.

Unity:

Unity is a very important characteristic of good paragraph writing. Paragraph unity

means that one paragraph is about ONLY ONE main topic. That is, all the sentences
-- the topic, supporting sentences, the detail sentences, and (sometimes) the
concluding sentence -- are all telling the reader about ONE main topic. If your
paragraph contains a sentence or some sentences that are NOT related to the main
topic, then we say that the paragraph "lacks unity," or that the sentence is "off-topic."

Look at the following paragraph, which is similar to the paragraph that we have
studied above. Does it have perfect unity? Try to find the sentence that is off-topic:

Each of the Russian manned space exploration projects had

specific major goals. For example, the Vostok project was designed to
test whether or not human beings could survive and function in outer
space. For another example, the Voshkhod project was intended to
find out whether people could work in the weightless environment of
space. One Voshkhod cosmonaut experimented with weightlessness
by taking a "spacewalk." That is, he floated in a spacesuit outside his
Voshkhod spacecraft, connected to it by a tether. The cosmonaut to do
this was Alexei Leonov. Several weeks later, Leonov's spacewalk was
followed by that of U.S. astronaut Ed White. Finally, the Soyuz
project, with three cosmonauts, had goals of testing spacecraft and
spaceflight skills so that people could fly long missions in Earth orbit.

This paragraph is generally good, but the sentence, Several weeks later, Leonov's
spacewalk was followed by that of U.S. astronaut Ed White, does not have anything to
do with the major goals of the various Russian space projects. That is, it is an "off-
topic" sentence, so we can say that the paragraph somewhat lacks unity. In order to
improve the paragraph, we should omit this sentence, even though it is historically
accurate.