Pre-Writing

PRE is a prefix that means "before".  Before you can do any serious piece of writing, you need to do some pre-writing.  Most of the time, you pre-write in your head automatically. 

We're going to look more specifically at the steps of the process.

PRE-WRITING = TPAG

Before you can write ANYTHING, you have to identify your topic, your purpose, your audience, and your genre.  This is the PRE-WRITING STEP of the writing process.

Topic – General focus of a piece of writing

Purpose – The reason you are writing

Some purposes for writing include:

·       For fun

·       As practice

·       To help us think about our ideas

·       To help us remember

·       To communicate

·       To serve as an outlet for our feelings

·       To teach and to learn

·       To become famous/rich

Audience – A person or group that pays attention to another’s presentation

·     Who is meant to receive your work?

·       Changing your audience can change your message.

·       Consider how word choice, style, and grammar are affected by audience

Genre – a style, type, or category of writing

·       Two main genres – Fiction, Nonfiction

·       Many sub-genres; in fiction, there are fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, mystery, romance, drama, etc.; in nonfiction, there are compare/contrast, persuasion, biography, autobiography, reference, humor, etc.

·       Sub-genres can be combined – you could write a sci-fi thriller romance, or a humorous compare/contrast persuasive piece

After you have TPAG, you are ready to begin writing.  Remember: Writing is a PROCESS.