Saturday, September 3, 2016

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



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