Prewriting is everything you do BEFORE you write that essay or paragraph. It's the getting ready part!

Don't procrastinate. Get comfy and find a space where you can be productive. Narrowing the subject will give you focus.

If it helps, think of a camera: you See a sweeping landscape to photograph, but you know you can't get it all into one picture, so you pick
out a particularly interesting part of the scene. Focus in an essay works in the same way;
you zoom in, so to speak, on a particular part of your topic and make that the focus of
your writing.
Ask yourself...am I informing, entertaining or persuading the reader? Why am I writing this?

Listing is quick and works well for many of us.
All you need to do is write all the ideas that connect to your subject in list form. There doesn't have to be any logical order, but you can look for connections when you revise the list.
(? Have you done this before when you write? When?)

The prompt:
Tell me how you schedule your day.

Give 5 minutes or so.

Look at your list. Do you see connections among your ideas?

Freewriting
With freewriting there are no rules. In your head there is the writer(who just wants to write) and the editor (who worries about grammar, punctuation,etc). The editor can hold you back, so we aren't going to worry about anything but writing. Think of your topic for a minute and then write for 10 minutes. The only rule is that you don't stop writing!
It might look like a mess, but you will probably be able to pull something from it to get you past writer's block.

Prompt:
Butler should really have more...

Looping is freewriting on steroids!
Looping is a continuation of free-writing. It involves taking a sentence or idea out of a free-writing product and using that as a basis for additional free-writing. The steps are simple:

Select a recent (completed preferably within the last fifteen minutes) free-writing exercise.
Choose a sentence or idea that stands out because of originality, quality, or interest.
Write the sentence again below the original free-writing example, with one line between the two.
Re-read the sentence and free-write again from there for 10 minutes.

Prompt:
Butler should have more...

With the boomerang technique, you look at your subject from different angles. For instance, if the prompt was "Are vaccinations necessary?" You would spend 5 minutes writing about why vaccinations are necessary. Then you would stop and write for 5 minutes about why vaccinations aren't needed. You can then go repeat the process again. By throwing the ideas back and forth you can gather new thoughts and perspectives.

Prompt:
Should minimum wage be raised?

Clustering or mindmapping
First you put your general
subject in a circle in the middle of a blank sheet of paper and begin to draw other
lines and circles that radiate from the original subject. Let them branch off of one another.Cluster and connect those ideas that seem to
fall together. At the end of ten minutes, see if a topic emerges from any of your groups
of ideas.

Eg. on board

Prompt:
What are the advantages of eating healthy?

Ask a friend or another student to discuss a subject with you. Take notes. Conversation is great for encouraging ideas. If you are having trouble getting started remember those WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY questions.

Prompt:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of cell phone use?

Some of you will be more internal. Maybe you are artistic. Others may be intimidated by this process. What if someone asked you to describe something. Would drawing help you? Try it out.

Prompt;
Describe your favorite place.