Writer's Guidelines: The Writing Process: Stage One

1. Freewriting consists of writing without stopping, letting ideas tumble forth.

•Freewriting involves breaking down emotional barriers, generating topics, discovering ideas, and exploring ideas.
•Your approach to freewriting will depend on whether you work on a topic of your choice (great freedom), a topic from a restricted list (more focused), or an assigned topic (concentration on one idea).
•You need not use freewriting for all writing experiences. You would probably not use it for very short assignments, in-class assignments with limited time, outline and summart assignments, or assignments on topics you know well.
2. Brainstorming is used for quickly developing key words and phrases that relate to your topic. It includes two basic forms: the big six questions and listing.

•You may ask Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How? questions about your topic, ignoring questions that do not fit.
•Or, you may simply list points on likely divisions of your topic.
3. Clustering is visual way of showing connections and relationships. It is sometimes used with an outline and sometimes in place of one.

•Start by double-bubbling your topic.
•Then, in response to the question What comes to mind? single-bubble other ideas on spokes radiating from the hub.
4. Gathering information can take the form of reading with underlining, annotating, and note taking.

Source: Brandon, Lee. Brandon, Kelly. Paragraphs and Essays