--- title: Planning before writing — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Planning before writing», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A plan is a map you draw before a journey: a few words or pictures that show where your writing starts, where it goes and how it ends, so you don' --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Planning before writing # Planning before writing Lesson 39 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/39-planning-before-writing/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/0/) — A plan is a map you draw before a journey: a few words or pictures that show where your writing starts, where it goes and how it ends, so you don't get lost halfway. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/1/) — Josh started his lost-dog story before the teacher finished talking; ten minutes later the dog was stuck in a cupboard and Josh had no idea how to get it out, because he had never decided on an ending. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/2/) — Stories often use a story mountain: the opening at the bottom, the build-up climbing, the problem at the top, then the resolution and the ending on the way down; information texts suit a mind map, with the topic in the middle and a branch for each paragraph. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/3/) — A plan should be quick: three or four words for each part are enough, and small children can plan in pictures, called a storyboard; a beautiful colour-coded plan that eats 30 minutes of a 45-minute test leaves no time to write. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/4/) — Every plan starts with two questions: who will read this, and why am I writing it? - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/5/) — A letter to the council needs a different voice from a note to your best mate. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/7/) — Without a plan, writers often run out of ideas in the middle or cannot find an ending. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/8/) — A story mountain shows a common story shape: opening, build-up, problem, resolution and ending. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/9/) — A mind map puts the topic in the middle with a branch for each idea; each branch can become a paragraph of a non-fiction text. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/10/) — A storyboard is a plan made of pictures in boxes, like a comic; it suits young writers and anyone who thinks in pictures, and film makers plan their films with storyboards too. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/11/) — In a timed task, the plan must be short: a few minutes and a few words per part, and a few minutes at the end are saved for checking. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/12/) — Every piece of writing has an audience (who reads it) and a purpose (why it is written), and these change the words you choose. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/13/) — A plan can change while you write; it is a guide, not a cage. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/14/) — Many schools now ask to see the plan, because it shows the writer's thinking. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/15/) — In Scotland "jist" means just and "hen" is a friendly word for a girl or woman; in the American South "fixin' to" means about to. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/39-planning-before-writing/16/) — To "vibe" in Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang means to go with the feeling, without a plan. - ← previous: [Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/38-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were/) - next →: [Openings that hook the reader](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/40-openings-that-hook-the-reader/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)