Assessing the Pre-Writing Stage

As one of the Assistant Coordinators of USF's Writing Studio, I don't typically get to consult anymore, but I was excited to recently have the opportunity to assist one of our new consultants who had two writers co-authoring a paper for a gerontology class.

The writers came in asking questions about the format and structure of a scientific review paper, but after I asked several questions to gain a better understanding of these writers' needs, I realized they needed something different. Particularly that they were not giving due diligence to the pre-writing process. I mentally noted two key issues with which they were faced: 1.) the writers were not viewing research as part of the pre-writing process, and 2.) they had little idea about the academic support services our university offered. At that point, I put away the assignment sheet and re-situated my advice. As many undergraduate writers, these writers were trying to jump in to the writing process too quickly. As many writing instructors and writing consultants are probably aware, many people see the writing process as beginning with writing rather than with research (particularly informal research).

I took some time to explain what they needed to do in order to prepare for the actual writing. Because they had no previous experience with their topic, first they had to research: go to Google (or whatever search engine) and first understand the general yet predominant conversations that are happening about your topic. Next, begin recognizing patterns in these conversations and processes of inquiry or "points of entry" into research, that is, what conclusions/arguments are you consistently seeing and what questions to people seem to be trying to answer as part of their own research. Once aware of this, you should then move to more formal types of research, like through your Library's databases. I also informed these writers about some academic support services, such as our subject librarians and research librarians that could help them with finding peer-reviewed sources.

Consultations with pre-writers are some of my favorite sessions because I often feel like I get to really discover a lot of new things for the writer. Not only about new things about university services but about writing as a process. In many sessions, I find myself having to back the writer up to address some things that were bypassed or not thoroughly considered since the writer often breezes past the pre-writing stage. This means that, as consultants, we have to work harder to recognize the writing stage of the writer since a lot of writers aren't always aware of where they currently exist in the writing process.

For more information, Yale has a thorough description of what the pre-writing stage includes.

By Danielle Farrar, PhD in Literature