1 Pre-Writing: Getting Ready to

Write

• choose and narrow a topic.

In this unit, you will learn how to …
• gather ideas.
• edit ideas.

What is pre-writing?
Before you begin writing, you decide what you
are going to write about. Then you plan what
you are going to write. This process is called
pre-writing.

Choosing and narrowing a topic

How to choose a topic for a paragraph
A paragraph is a group of five to ten sentences that give information about a topic. Before you
write, you must choose a topic for your paragraph.
• Choose a topic that isn’t too narrow (limited, brief). A narrow topic will not have enough ideas
to write about. The ages of my brothers and sisters is too narrow. You can’t write very much
about it.
• Choose a topic that isn’t too broad (general). A broad topic will have too many ideas for just
one paragraph. Most paragraphs are five to ten sentences long. Schools is too general. There
are thousands of things you could say about it.
A student could narrow this topic by choosing one aspect of schools to discuss.
schools high schools in my country
popular school clubs
university entrance exams

1 Choose three topics from this list. Narrow each of the three down to a paragraph topic.
Then compare with a partner.
a. holidays
b. friends
c. my country
d. exercise
e. cars

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 ESSAYS

Brainstorming
What is brainstorming?
Brainstorming is a way of gathering ideas about
a topic. Think of a storm: thousands of drops of
rain, all coming down together. Now, imagine
thousands of ideas “raining” down onto your
paper! When you brainstorm, write down every
idea that comes to you. Don’t worry now about
whether the ideas are good or silly, useful or
not. You can decide that later. Right now, you are
gathering as many ideas as you can.
You will learn three types of brainstorming in this
unit: making a list, freewriting, and mapping.
Making a list
Write single words, phrases, or sentences that are connected to your topic. Look at this list a student
made when brainstorming ideas to write about her topic, “What should I study at university?”

history—learning about the past

math (too difficult, not interesting?)
What job do I want later?
English for work? Travel?
writing ?
science—biology, chemistry
I don’t like physics!
journalism
I like reading—literature?
art—drawing, painting , sculpture
photography?
studying / homework
friends / social life

2 Work with a partner or small group. Choose one of these topics. List as many ideas as you can
in five minutes.
a. teenage fashions
b. social networking
c. video games

3 Work alone. Choose a topic from exercise 1 on page 8, and list as many ideas as you can in
five minutes.

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 Freewriting
When you freewrite, you write whatever comes into your head about your topic, without
stopping. Most freewriting exercises are short—just five or ten minutes.
Freewriting helps you practice fluency (writing quickly and easily). When you freewrite, you do
not need to worry about accuracy (having correct grammar and spelling). Don’t check your
dictionary when you freewrite. Don’t stop if you make a mistake. Just keep writing!
Here is an example of a student’s freewriting:

There are too so many subjects to study at university, it is difficult to

choose one for my major. I’ve always made good grades in math, but I don’t like it
very much. I don’t like physical physics or any science very much. Writing—I’ve
always liked writing. Would journalism be a good course to take? Newspapers have
pictures, too, so maybe photography would be good. I’m maybe definitely looking
forward to meeting new friends at university. And what about reading? Reading
is a part of any course, but literature includes a lot of reading and it probably
includes a lot of writing, too.

Notice how the writer’s ideas jump around. When she makes a mistake, she just crosses it out
and continues writing. One thought (writing) leads to another (journalism), and then to another
(photography). There are some details that are not exactly about her topic (looking forward to
meeting new friends), but that’s OK in freewriting. You want to get as many ideas on paper as you
can. You can take out unnecessary words and sentences later.

4 Choose one of the narrowed topics you thought of for exercise 1 on page 8. Practice
freewriting for five minutes. Remember, do not stop, erase, or go back. Just write as much as
you can.

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Mapping
To make a map, use a whole sheet of paper, and write your topic in the middle, with a circle
around it. Then put the next idea in a circle above or below your topic, and connect the circles
with lines. The lines show that the two ideas are related.
The example below shows a map of “What should I study at university?” The writer connected
favorite subjects to the main idea. Art and English are connected to favorite subjects to show
that they are related.

Become a the past

teacher? history

too much reading?

photography
favorite travel
art subjects
painting English
job
sculpture What should
I study?
biology

good subjects
journalism for jobs least favorite
science
subjects

business good money physics

math

experiments
boring?

5 Choose another narrowed topic you thought of for exercise 1 on page 8. Make a map in five
minutes. Share your map with a partner. Explain how the circles are related to each other.

What’s the best way to brainstorm?

There is no best method of brainstorming. Some writers like to use lists because they
don’t have to write complete sentences. Some writers like freewriting because they can
write quickly and ideas come easily. Some writers prefer mapping because they can
easily see the relationship between ideas. Experiment with all three methods, and then
choose the one that works best for you.

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 Editing
How to edit
After you have gathered plenty of ideas, you will need to go back and edit them. This is the time
to choose which ideas are the most interesting, and which are the most relevant to (important
or necessary for) your topic. Of course, you can still add new ideas if you think of something
else while you are re-reading your list. For example, the student writing “What should I study at
university?” edited her list like this:

history—learning about the past

math (too difficult, not interesting?)
Not interesting to me.
What job do I want later? Describe
more.
English for work? Travel?
writing ? Important in many subject
s.
science—biology, chemistry
I don’t like physics! I don’t want
to study science!
journalism
I like reading—literature?
art—drawing, painting , sculpture
Become a the past
photography? teacher? history
studying / homework What about it?
ted. too much reading?
friends / social life Not relaphotography
Favorite travel
art subjects
painting English
job
To edit freewriting, cross
sculpture What should
out sentences or parts of
sentences that aren’t related. I study?
You can add more ideas in the biology
margin or add more sentences
at the bottom. good subjects
journalism for jobs least favorite
subjects science
To edit a map, cross out circles
that don’t belong, and add new
ones if you get more ideas. You business good money physics
math
might also change the lines you
have drawn.
boring? experiments

6 Look at the list you made in exercise 3 on page 9, the freewriting you did in exercise 4 on
page 10, or the map you made in exercise 5 on page 11. Edit your brainstorming. Show your
work to a partner. Explain how you edited your brainstorming.

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Put it together
A Complete the crossword puzzle.
7.

2. 3. 5.

1.

9.

8.

4.

6.

Each paragraph has only one topic. If the topic is too 1. n___, you will not be able to write enough
about it. On the other hand, if the topic is too 2. b___, you will have too many ideas for just one
paragraph.

After you choose a topic, you will need to 3. b___ some ideas to write about in your paragraph.
One way to do this is to make a 4. l___. Another way of brainstorming is
5. m___. After you have written down many ideas, you can go back and decide which ones are the

most interesting and the most 6. r___ to your topic.

7. F___
is a useful way to help you write more easily and naturally. In this kind of writing, you are
working on 8. f___, and not 9. a___.

B Look again at the note about brainstorming at the top of page 9. Brainstorm a list of pros
(good things) and cons (bad things) about each of the three methods of brainstorming.

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