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

EXAMPLE OF A MIND MAP