As far as I can remember, the earliest form of a pre-write that I was taught was a mind map. Somewhere on the page, a circle is drawn with a thesis or idea that could be used for a central theme is written down and then a thin line is used to connect supporting ideas to the main one in a flowing way to a meaningful implication(also composed in the beginning), like using a GPS to find points of interest on a trip from Bozeman to Phoenix. This method is great if the author already has a good idea of what implications they want a reader to gather from their writing. One teacher introduced me to a method called stream of consciousness, where a word or phrase that is particularly interesting is written down and then a free flowing stream of words or phrases associated with the original sentence and the other phrases are written down in quick succession.
One idea that I ascribe to is to read. Ask a teacher for an example, find a essay along similar lines, and read a bunch of them.
However, my favorite method of pre-write was introduced to me by my 10th grade English teacher. It's called, "Start the damn thing." Basically, what Zachary Kuhn's philosophy was to start the paper. Sit down at the computer, type a sentence, read it out loud. Change some words, add some, delete some, delete the whole thing if it's crap. Write an introductory paragraph using several different leads and styles, maybe even emulating the essay that you read along similar lines.
A question that I had about the Aristotle reading was this: If the power of persuasion is so powerful, can it overpower the will of the gods?
