Chapter 1 Summery

Planning out what you need to write is an important step for writing. Chapter 1 in Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker explains the prewriting process and gives helpful tips that make writing a little easier. First important step is to know what you are writing about. Either you'll be given a topic or have to come up with one. You might chose to write about something that you have experience with, base it on reading that you've done, by observation, or by interviewing people. Once you know what you are writing and where you are drawing your inspiration from you need to find out who your audience is and what the purpose of your writing is. Are you educating a certain group about something, persuading someone or writing for a general audience?

Once you have those questions answered there are a few different ways that you can start brainstorming. You can talk about your topic, annotate text relating to your topic, make a list, create a cluster diagram, free write, keep a journal, or ask the journalist questions. The journalist questions are: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? Next you start writing your thesis and create a formal outline.

I plan on using what I learned in this chapter when I write. I really like the tips given for planning what to write. I find that talking about what I want to write, creating lists, and free writing are the most helpful things listed in this week’s chapter. Even though those are the strategies that I prefer I also want to try using the cluster diagram.