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Today, we prepared for our soon to be assigned first essay. We discussed and practiced several
prewriting strategies so when we meet for our next class and learn about the first essay assignment, the process will go much more smoothly and you'll be able to jump right in with getting your ideas from your head to your paper.
There are several prewriting techniques you can use, and, in fact, it is a good idea to use more than one technique if you are feeling stuck on your topic. Let's look at a few go-to methods that will help you out.
FREEWRITING: is a
method of giving yourself a set time frame to just write! Don't worry about what anything looks like or sounds like (it doesn't need to be pretty). Just write whatever ideas you come up with. The key is to keep your pen or pencil moving, even if you find yourself writing "banana, banana, banana" over and over for a line or two. Trust me, at some point, the ideas will start flowing back to you. Once your time limit is up, then you'll need to go back and read what you wrote to look for the good stuff.
Example: I really don't know what the most important memory I have is. Sometimes I think that my life isn't all that interesting and that nothing has ever really happened that I need to remember. But that isn't true, I know. I know that I have a lot of memories about school because I have been in school for so long. I also have a lot of memories about sports. I played softball a lot, so maybe I should write about a softball game. Once I was on a traveling team and we had a double header. I broke arm in the second game, and sometimes it still affects how I can move my arm. It was awful to have a broken arm in the summer too because it was so hot and itchy and I couldn't go swimming even.
**Note that the paragraph above doesn't necessarily have a strong central point. The freewrite is more about the
process of discovery**
BRAINSTORMING: this is slightly different for different individuals. In fact, you may have heard the term brainstorming used in other subjects not even related to writing. You may have also had teachers in the past who used the term brainstorming to refer to all the prewriting strategies we covered today. Brainstormning is
a listing process where you can jot down your thoughts without worrying about sentences.
example:
- memories of softball--traveling team, double headers
- broken arm from game
- ruined summer
**Notice that these are short notes. They will mean much more to the writer who came up with them than an outside reader**
CLUSTERING: this is a graphic or more visual version of prewriting where you get to
draw out your ideas. Check out the example below.
**Notice that the highlighted part "apple jumper" means almost nothing to an outside reader. Remember that these strategies are meant to help you develop out personal ideas that will allow you to see that you have your own voice in writing**
RESEARCH:
Sometimes you need to learn more about your topic before you know enough to develop out ideas to write. If that is the case, you can research your topic on the Internet (just be careful of the site's quality--Wiki sites might not be the best). You can also check out the resources the
library has--check out the books, ebooks and journals via online databases.
REVIEWING ANNOTATIONS: Each time we read something, we take notes. This is a process called annotation, and it helps us become better students in several ways. The most important way annotation helps writers is that it gives us material to review and reflect on.
The notes and ideas we wrote out on a text can be used to help us realize what matters to us and what we should write about
Check out the example below:
**Notice that, once again, the notes off to the side and the highlighted and underlined portions are of key significance to the reader. An outsider might not understand the significance yet, but that is the reason someone would write an essay. For example, see the note about smell being comforting? Well, that is a perfect example of something a writer can take and expand on throughout the course of a whole essay**
There are many other techniques to generate ideas, and if you are familiar with them, USE THEM! Any of these strategies are great for helping you figure out what you need to write about and to help you realize what points you'll need to develop throughout the course of an essay or paragraph.
For extra practice, check out the chapter on the writing process from your textbook.
