Help with Brainstorming and Organizing Ideas

Prewriting and Preplanning

Are you having trouble starting a writing assignment?  Don’t have anything to say?  Are you having trouble organizing your ideas?  The initial pre-planning stage is a great way to begin your writing assignment.  Pre-planning means that you plan your assignment before you begin writing. 

Prewriting is an initial pre-planning activity that can help you create, develop, and organize your ideas.  Prewriting activities can save you time and confusion because they allow you to quickly and freely write down any ideas related to your topic.  Prewriting activities include: brainstorming, free writing, mapping and clustering.  Click on the links below to for detailed explanations on brainstorming, free-writing, and mapping/clustering.

• Brainstorming
• Free-Writing
• Mapping/Clustering

Revised March 21, 2008 by webservices@pasadena.edu