Pre-Writing Exercises
Getting Started
·
Think right:
believe in yourself and ability to learn; keep trying and learn from
mistakes
·
Get organized
Use a notebook:
keep track of handouts and assignments
Take notes:
notes help you to retain important information and stay focused; write
down whatever your teacher writes on the board and specific information about
assignments.
Schedule study time: don’t leave assignments to the last minute;
schedule regular time
Use good resources: teachers, books, on-line sources, classmates
First Steps to
Writing
·
Understanding the assignment
Make sure you are clear on requirements:
Due Date
Length
Format of paper
Topic restrictions
·
Narrowing the topic
Find an area of the topic that you can write
about
Narrowing tree to divide a general topic or
subject into more specific parts until you find a specific topic of interest
Brainstorming by thinking of the aspects of the
topic or of specific examples and writing down all the ideas that come to mind
(can be done in a group)
·
Determining the writing context
Purpose:
why are you writing, what your goals are, and what you hope to
accomplish; what to include and what to leave out; most writing is to inform,
to persuade, or to entertain.
Audience:
tailor your statements to the person or group to whom you are speaking;
keep in mind your audience’s interests, concerns, values, educational
backgrounds, and attitudes.
Tone: the
writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience; can range from serious,
sarcastic, angry, humorous, condescending, insensitive, compassionate, etc.
·
Formulating a main idea: think about the direction you might be
heading in or what you might write about; stating a tentative main idea will
help you generate ideas about your narrowed topic more effectively.
Generating Supporting
Ideas
·
Brainstorming:
write down everything you think of regarding this topic; be aware of all
the senses; can be done in phrases; can be done individually or in a group
·
Freewriting:
start writing sentences and paragraphs; write everything that comes to
mind
·
Listing:
visualize and write what comes to mind;
·
Clustering/ Mind map: cluster related ideas together; group or
organize ideas
·
Dividing:
break the topic into its components; use journalistic questions (who,
what, where, when, why how)
Organizing Ideas
·
State the main idea: narrow your topic into a thesis statement;
sometimes this will need to be revised as you gather materials
·
Map your topic:
Use the a table similar to the one below the develop your ideas
Supporting Ideas
|
Specific Details
|
Relation to Thesis
|
|
|
|
·
Outline:
use the formal outline structure to help organize topics of support and
subtopics. The outline below is an
example of style.
I.
Introduction
A. Specifics
B. Specifics
II. Suppporting idea #1
A. Specifics
B. Specifics
1. Details
2. More details
III. Supporting idea #2
A. Specifics
1. Details
2. More details
B. Specifics
IV. Conclusion
No comments:
Post a Comment