Pre-Writing

I have written many papers during my time in school, but I don't believe I have ever heard of "Pre-Writing". Not that I haven't actually done pre-writing, it would be fairly impossible to write a paper without it. I'm just saying that I don't think I have ever put conscious effort into the process of pre-writing. It is essentially a game plan for the paper, picking a topic, formulating points, gathering evidence, the steps before the first draft. I think that with this new knowledge of pre-writing, I will be able to compose much more efficient and well written first drafts for the papers in this class, as well as papers in classes that are in my future. I can think of one paper in particular where the time spent pre-writing was almost 10 times the amount of time I spent on the writing itself. In 8th grade, I had to write an essay about how Ford Motor Company started the assembly line, and how that helped their business shut out the majority of its competitors (back in the early 1900's at least). I spent weeks on the research, and the point development, and the overall structure of the paper. Then it only took me a day or so to actually write the thing. Even though I didn't know it, I was pre-writing. And I think putting conscious effort into this process will definitely help improve my writing as a whole.