Planning

Planning Maxims

• Plans are made to be broken.
• Any plan is better than no plan. (Minsky's Maxim)
• Plans are instructions to yourself so give good ones.
• Form doesn't matter as long as it works.
• Good plans are detailed enough to argue with and cheap enough to throw away.
• Bad plans are plans that you can't use.
  

Planning Strategies

Because writing is not a linear process-that is we seldom move from one activity to the next without doubling back-use the following strategies in whatever order proves to be the most productive for you.

• Make A Plan "To Do"
  A Plan "To Do" focuses on how you will accomplish your goals.
  • What do you expect the piece of writing to do for you?
  • What writing strategies will you need?
    
    
• Plan With A Partner
  • Talk through your plan with a tutor, classmate or friend.
    
    
• Convert Your Plan Into Specific Steps and Subgoals Make A Plan "To Say"
  A Plan "To Say" focuses on how you will use information to accomplish the goals in your Plan "To Do." The best plan combines information from your Plan "To Say" with strategies for using that information from your Plan "To Do."
  
  
  • Move from your Plan "To Do" to your Plan "To Say" by looking for connections between the purpose, audience, and context for your writing.

• Listen To Your Intuition and Change The Plan If Necessary
  Plans can be abandoned if they don't work or if you discover something new while writing. Try planning in different ways.

• Reveal Your Plan To The Reader
  
  Open with a problem/purpose statement that does two things:
  1. Explains the problem, issue or thesis that is the focus of your essay.
  2. States the purpose of your essay-how you will solve the problem, examine the issue or explain the thesis.

Information from Linda Flower's Problem Solving Strategies for Writing. 4th ed. N.Y.: Harcourt, 1993.