Prewriting, Planning, and Professional Communication

Students may have an oversimplified notion of what it means to prewrite, suggests the author, and they could grow by analyzing and experimenting with alternative forms of prewriting exercises. Citing a case study by Jack Selzer, in which he observes a professional writer who did not write drafts, Blackburn-Brockman reminds us that research, interviews, related reading, and content grouping, are all valuable prewriting activities, and she suggests how this professional writer's tasks might translate into classroom activities.