Question

Jamal has to write a research paper on the Vietnam War. Before he starts researching, he sits down with his laptop and begins typing different ideas about Vietnam that pop into his mind. What step of the writing process is Jamal in, and what specifically is he doing in that step?

Answer 1

Jamal is in prewriting.

The steps of the writing process are : prewriting, research, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading.

The writing stage before research is called prewriting. It is a think and decide stage. The main goal of this stage is to find ideas about the subject you want to write about. Some of the strategies used to generate ideas are: brainstorming, clustering, free writing and looping.

Jamal is trying to develop a great deal of information about the subject quickly. He is trying to find information on the internet that would be relevant to his writing. He is also assessing the information there, in order to see if it would be useful to him.