Anything you do before you start writing is prewriting. You should always start by making sure you understand the assignment. Other activities that are frequently completed in this stage are re- searching, brainstorming, choosing a focus, and outlining.

Understand the assignment

Make sure that you understand the requirements of the task. If there is a specific prompt you are supposed to use, make sure your writing addresses the prompt.

Research

Doing research can be the hardest part of academic writing. Up until this point, the majority of the writing you have done shows what you know or think about a topic. Researched academic essays are more about what you have learned. You should not choose topics you know a lot about for research essays. Instead, choose topics you want to learn about. 

It is very difficult to prewrite if you have not done some basic preliminary research. You will probably need to do research during the process of writing your research essay as well. 

After you know about your assignment (e.g., write a classification essay), you may start searching online to find a topic (e.g., types of clouds). With the topic in mind, you will need to do more research (unless you are an expert on your topic) to know what to focus on (e.g., cirrus clouds, cumulonimbus clouds, stratus clouds, etc.). After you have your focus, you may need to do more research to create a good outline. 

Keep track of the sources you use when you are researching. Save links to the websites you find or print sources. Saving information about these sources makes it easier to find quotes for your essay later. 

You should not try to write the entire essay from your own experience and knowledge and then try to find research that agrees with your points. Research should be the starting point. 

Brainstorm

Sometimes you are given a specific prompt (e.g., Research and describe a famous psychologist), but sometimes you can choose your topic. If you are able to choose your own topic, brainstorming can help you generate ideas to write about. There are many methods you can use for brainstorming. You can discuss the topic with a partner, do a free write, make a list of ideas, make an idea map, do a search on Google, etc.

Choose your focus

If your topic is really broad, you should narrow the topic down to have a more specific focus. For example, if you choose to write about the benefits of exercise, you will probably need to narrow down that topic to a few benefits of exercise (e.g., physical and mental benefits of exercise). Researching online or repeating a brainstorming activity may help you choose your focus.

Outline

Making an outline is a prewriting activity you should do for everything you write. An outline is a plan that will ensure your essay easier to write and understand.

Not all outlines are the same. The amount of detail required in the outline depends on the purpose of the essay as well as the purpose of your outline. If you are writing a timed essay without research, your outline will be very simple. If you are writing a researched essay, your outline will probably be more detailed and may include some of your sources.

When you write an outline for a class, your teacher may ask you for a very detailed outline of your essay so that you can show your whole plan. When you need to make an outline, be sure to ask how much detail your teacher expects you to use in your outline.

At a minimum, every outline will at least state your thesis and topic sentences. To create your outline, think about the question that your essay answers (e.g., what is essential to have in every relationship?). Answer the question (e.g., trust and communication). The supporting points in your answer will become your topic sentences (abbreviated TS). Write the main idea of your essay, your thesis (abbreviated TH), by summarizing your supporting points into one sentence.

Look at the example outline below. This basic outline is the type of outline you could create when you are writing an essay without research that is based on what you know (the type of essay you write on the TOEFL). Notice how directly the topic sentences support the thesis.

You can finish one of these basic outlines very quickly. In fact, for timed essays, you need to be able to write an outline like this in about two or three minutes.

On the other hand, planning a researched essay will take more time. A simple method for planning a researched essay starts with a basic outline. Then add questions to the outline for each topic sentence. Then find quotations in sources that answer each of your questions.

One of the reasons that this method is helpful is because it gives you direction in your research. You can research more quickly because instead of reading everything you can find out about your topic, you are reading to find the answers to a few questions.

Write a basic outline after you have done some preliminary research.

• TH: Learning a language as a child and learning language as an adult are very distinct processes.
• TS: Learning vocabulary in a second language is faster than learning vocabulary as a child.
• TS: Whether learning a language as a child or as an adult, the grammar is learned differently.

Ask questions about each of your topics.

• TS: Learning vocabulary in a second language is faster than learning vocabulary as a child.
  • Q1: How long does it take to learn vocabulary in a second language?
  • Q2: How long does it take to learn vocabulary as a child?
  • Q3: Why is it faster to learn as an adult?
• TS: Whether learning a language as a child or as an adult, the grammar is learned differently.
  • Q1: How do adults learn grammar?
  • Q2: How do children learn grammar?
  • Q3: What does that mean for grammar learning?

Find sources that answer your questions. Copy the quote and put it in the outline.

• TS: Learning vocabulary in a second language is faster than learning vocabulary as a child.
  • Q1: How long does it take to learn vocabulary in a second language?
    • (Couldn't find anything definitive to answer this question).
  • Q2: How long does it take to learn vocabulary as a child?
    • "During the second year of life, children start learning approximately one word per week, and then one word per day" (Gleason, 2017, p. 112).
    • "Children do not acquire a language more quickly than adults and with lots of time to devote to language acquisition, adults can learn a second language to a high level of proficiency in the same amount of time it takes a baby to learn its first 20 words" (Brown & Larson-Hall, 2012, p. 15-16).
  • Q3: Why is it faster to learn as an adult?
    • "Adults bring life experience and a lot of experience with language to the classroom. They are able to learn explicitly, using rules... This is not to say that adults can't learn implicitly, but adult students may be in a hurry to learn, and rules (and strategy use) might facilitate learning for them." (Brown & Larson-Hall, 2012, 2012, p. 17)

Sometimes your questions may be difficult to find answers for. Asking questions is a good strategy to focus your research, but don't hesitate to ask additional questions (or adjust your original questions) if you can't find sources to answer all of them. It may be that there are no sources to answer some of your questions, and that is okay. Let the research guide you.

Oftentimes as you research and become more familiar with your subject, you will ask better questions based off of things you read. It's also okay to adjust your outline based on the research that you conduct.

Exercises

Sources:

Gleason, J. B., & Ratner, N. B. (2017). The development of language. Pearson.

Brown, S. & Larson-Hall, J. (2012) Second language acquisition myths: Applying second language research to classroom teaching. The University of Michigan Press.