After answering the Topic Exploration questions, Chelsea has come up with two topics that she think might interest her for her persuasive research paper: immigration and the existence of life on other planets. She’s not sure which one is the better choice, though. To explore these topics further, Chelsea decides to try freewriting.

 

Freewriting is a good starting point in the writing process, because it is a great prewriting technique for when you have little or no idea of what you want to write about. Freewriting is a timed activity of usually 5 to 10 minutes. Use the count down timer at the right to set the time to at least 5 minutes. Once the timer begins, begin to write everything that comes to mind about a given topic. The only rule is that you must not stop writing. This can be a hard thing to do at first, but often the best ideas come towards the end of the time, when you have really pushed yourself to the edges of everything you can think of. If you run out of things to write about, write “I can’t think of anything to write,” or “A, B, C, D, E, F, G” until you can think of something to write. After the time is up, go back and pick out the ideas that you feel will be the most fruitful and then spend another 5 to 10 minutes freewriting about those ideas.