FREE ESSAY ON TYPES OF WRITING

TYPES OF WRITING

Writing
Despite all of the increasing technological advances, writing is still a main form of
communication. Beginning in grammar school and continuing through high school and
college, thousands of students spend hours preparing essays for class. The majority of
students usually begin drafting those essays merely by staring at a blank sheet of paper
and contemplating what to write. However, writing essays can be simplified by using four
types of prewriting: free writing, clustering, specifying, and outlining. 
The first type of prewriting is free writing. It is used to help writers select a topic
to write about. The key to free writing is to disregard correct spelling and punctuation,
and just write down everything that comes to mind. To begin free writing, simply choose a
subject and start writing about it. Take nature, for example. The word "nature" evokes
many diverse images. Ranging from outside surroundings, personal relationships with
nature, the beach, a beautiful sunset, a peaceful waterfall, or even the many
environmental concerns that we are faced with today. Environmental concerns could stem
out an excellent idea that could lead to a topic such as the need to recycle. Images of
nature can inspire creativity, which leads to a variety of different topics. 
The next type of prewriting is clustering. Once a topic has been selected, clustering
helps to accumulate the essential support for the paper. Clustering begins with a sheet
of paper that has only one topic written and circled in the center. Anything that relates
to the topic is then written down with a line branching off from the original topic. This
process is continued until enough information is brainstormed. If the original topic is
movies, the support branches would include different types of movies such as comedy,
drama, romance, action, and horror. Then a list of different movies that fall into each
one of these categories extends out from the first support branches. A paper is not
complete without ample support, and clustering is a great way to gather it.
Another type of prewriting is specifying. It is used to change a topic idea to a more
specific thesis statement. Simple questions such as who, what, where, when, and why will
add more description and detail to the writing. To specify, the topic idea is written
down on paper and simple questions are asked to make it more specific. For instance, the
topic Camping is exciting can be specified into a more descriptive sentence such as:
"Many new and different experiences such as hiking, cooking over an open flame, and
sleeping under the night sky are fun to experience when camping in the mountains with
friends. The thesis is the most important aspect of an essay, and specifying helps
develop a strong thesis statement to be supported throughout the paper. 
All papers must be organized in a logical order, and outlining is used precisely for
this. For example, a process essay tells the steps of how to do something, so
chronological order is the best way to organize this type of essay. An outline places the
thesis on top and then presents the framework of the essay. The outline for a process
essay about how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich would designate the introduction, as
Roman numeral one, and then a consecutive Roman numeral for each step of the process. For
example, heating the skillet would be Roman numeral two, and gathering the ingredients
would be Roman numeral three, and so on. A final Roman numeral would designate the
conclusion.
Writing will always be a main form of communication. Therefore, students throughout their
years of school will still have to compose numerous essays. However, writing those essays
can be simplified through prewriting. With the increase in technology, there is an
increase in communication. Through Telephones, fax machines, computers, e-mail, and the
Internet, communication is made much easier and is used worldwide by many people.
However, for students, writing papers will always remain. Although computer assistance is
available, papers will always have the need to be organized and thought out. Using free
writing, clustering, specifying, and outlining to plan a paper will make writing essays
much simpler, and will better ones performance as a writer.