This document provides guidance on prewriting and developing ideas before starting to write a paper. It emphasizes that writing is a process that involves drafting, revising, and editing. It recommends beginning by writing down all initial ideas on a topic without worrying about structure or style. Key questions to ask include what is known about the topic, what the purpose of the writing is, and who the intended audience is. Outlining strategies like developing a thesis, identifying reasons to support an opinion, and finding examples to back up each reason can help to organize ideas. The document also provides tips for deconstructing a writing prompt and using an organizer to structure the various elements of a paper.

1. PreWriting!
FROM THE WRITING CENTER
@ THE A.R.C.

2. Writing is a Process...
• Writing takes Patience
• Writing is an art form; your writing can only improve with practice.
• rewriting allows the writer
to: Develop thoughts and
ideas. Discover the purpose
of the writing.
• Organize the purpose,
thoughts, and perspective
Pre Writing
• writing begins with a draft;
it doesn't have to be pretty
it just has to be written.
• writing is a continual
process of drafting, editing
and revision.
Writing • Writing may never fully be
complete or done, but in
time writers learn when a
particular piece of writing
is as finished as it will ever
possibly b
Finished

3. To Begin
Write down your initial ideas
•Do you have a topic/prompt for your instructor? If so write down everything you know about that topic or prompt?
•If you don’t have a specific prompt but a particular type of paper you are writing, then look up examples of that paper
on the internet or in your book and then write down what you think that type of paper should be about.
•Experiment with your ideas.
•If you come across something that interests you, but are unsure on how to approach it, write down everything you don’t
know.
Ask yourself what do you know? What do you know you don’t know?
•What is the common opinion or perspective you have witnessed when seeing or hearing your topic discussed? Do you
agree?
•Write down what you would like to write about and what you hope to discuss in your paper, regardless of topic, what is
your purpose?

4. Development
As you begin to organize your initial thoughts ask yourself the
following:
• What is the purpose of this paper?
• Will this answer a specific problem or set of problems?
• Will it point out questions that have not been asked
• Will it merely be a meditation on a particular idea or theme?
Who is the audience?
• Writing is never in a vacuum, who are you writing for and why will it be important to them?
• Beyond your instructor and your peers, who do hope to inspire or confront or applaud or criticize in your
paper?
• Are you writing to people who are in agreement with you or those that will initially oppose your ideas?
• How will your answer determine the way you write?

5. Strategies
What-Why-
How
Prompts
Organizer
• Clarify your opinion
• Identify reasons to support your
opinion
• Develop evidence to support each
reason.
• How to deconstruct a prompt.
• R.A.M.P.S
• Develop the main idea or thesis.
• Identify reasons to support your
opinion.
• Discover examples to support
each reason

6. What-Why-How
Create a chart and ask the following questions of your topic:
• What do you think about the topic?
• This can state an opinion as well as become the main idea of your paper.
• Why do you think what you think?
• What are your reasons behind your opinion, not facts necessarily but what is the logic to support your
opinion?
• How do you know what you know?
• This is the evidence or support, you may have to eventually do research here to find specific support, but
for now just write down what supports your reasons and opinion as you see them now

7. Deconstructing a Prompt
To Deconstruct a Prompt:
• Read it.
• Take it apart.
• Understand what you need to do.
• Determine how you respond to the prompt correctly.
• Deploy R.A.F.T.S.

8. Identifying Key Parts of a Written Prompt
• Does the prompt give you suggestions to get started?
• Look for suggestions in the prompt to get you started (ideas to think
about, verbs that tell you what to do).
• Use key words from the prompt to construct your thesis statement.
• Use R.A.F.T.S.

9. R.A.F.T.S
RAFTS Ask yourself simple questions when understanding a
Prompt.
Role What role do you take as the writer? (student, citizen,
expert)
Example: I am writing this as a student.
Audience Who is your audience? (class, parent, teacher, friend)
Example: My audience will be the teacher
Format What kind of response are you writing? Is there a word
count?
Example: I am writing a 700 word descriptive multi-
paragraph essay.
Task What are the verbs in the prompt asking you to do?
Example: Select a person, write an essay describing why
he/she is good a this/her job, include examples and
details
Strong Key Words What are the key words that you need to include in your
response?
Example: Profession, successful

10. Organizing...
• Once you have your initial thoughts it is important to
organize them:
• What are you writing about?
• What is your purpose?
• Do you have an initial thesis?
• See support Module 2.2.1 on the Thesis, but it is
not necessary that you have a firm thesis when you
begin the drafting process. You can always revise
later.
• What are your reasons?
• Why are you write?
• What evidence do you have?

11. Essay Organizer
Hook: Don’t over think this, but you should have a sentence that grabs the reader’s attention.
Introduce the issue or topic. If there’s a prompt discuss it here
What reasons correspond to your opinion?
What is your opinion/thesis?
Why/Reason #1?
HOW #1: For instance, (evidence, examples, and descriptions):
Quote and explanation of quote and refers back to thesis:
Transition Sentence: how will you move from Reason #1 to #2?
Why/Reason #2?
HOW #2: For instance, (evidence, examples, and descriptions):
Quote and explanation of quote and refers back to thesis. Transition Sentence: how will you move from Reason #2 to #3?
Why/Reason #3?
HOW #3: For instance, (evidence, examples, and descriptions):
Quote and explanation of quote and refers back to thesis.
Transition Sentence: how will you move from Reason #3 to #4/conclusion?
Introduction
Body

12. And now to Write!
Good Writing is about:
• Presenting a clear and concise topic/deconstruction of
the prompt;
• Identifying strong feeling about the topic;
• Forming an opinion;
• Above all, embarking on a Journey of Discovery about
the topic with reader/audience as passenger.