At this point, you are making only temporary decisions. Surveying helps you tentatively decide what will work and what will not. Only when you’ve read what you’ve written can you decide what works or fails to work. Thinking and writing are close cousins, but they’re not the same—no more so than writing and talking.
Remember, your thoughts may make perfect sense to you because you’ve got a particular mindset and base of information, but you can’t assume they will make sense to your readers. You can’t assume your readers know everything you do. Thus, you also have to assess the validity of the thoughts you put on paper. What “thinks” well does not necessarily “write” well, at least the first time; so, you need to survey.
While ...
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