What do you do to prepare for a writing assignment? Do you dive in and research the topic? Do you try to find similar materials to try and Here’s one sequence of activities I particularly favor.
Brainstorming. I like brainstorming potential reader’s questions the moment I receive a writing assignment. That’s because it’s those questions that will eventually drive the contents of the piece. I consider this part relatively easy. Just pretend you know (or don’t know, whichever the case may be) as much about the subject as your potential readers and you should be able to approximate the questions they’ll have.
Decide Early. Narrow the focus of your research quickly based on the questions you come up with. The core of your research should answer the question, “What’s this story really about?”
Be Willing To Change. One of the most important purposes of the pre-writing phase is to find the heart of the piece. What’s the single most dominant impression is it supposed to leave the readers? If you find, during the research, that the area you’re focusing on doesn’t accomplish this, be willing to change.
Standard Questions
Some potential reader questions you will want to answer during this phase include:
- What’s the news about this?
- What’s new to learn here?
- Why am I reading this?
- What makes this important?
Ready Your Tools
Get your writing tools (grammar software, thesaurus, etc) handy during the preparation, so you can write without being interrupted by logistical concerns. Similarly, make sure that your notes and research are in order.
