1 / 19

PREWRITING STRATEGIES

PREWRITING STRATEGIES. TECHNIQUES THAT WRITERS USE TO HELP THEM GET IDEAS DOWN ON PAPER AND TO DISCOVER WHAT THEY KNOW (AND DON’T KNOW) ABOUT A TOPIC. PREWRITING STRATEGIES (cont.). ALSO HELP WRITERS W/ THE PROBLEM OF OVERCOMING INERTIA & GETTING STARTED. PREWRITING STRATEGIES (cont.).

betty_james
Download Presentation

PREWRITING STRATEGIES

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. PREWRITING STRATEGIES • TECHNIQUES THAT WRITERS USE TO HELP THEM GET IDEAS DOWN ON PAPER AND TO DISCOVER WHAT THEY KNOW (AND DON’T KNOW) ABOUT A TOPIC.

  2. PREWRITING STRATEGIES (cont.) • ALSO HELP WRITERS W/ THE PROBLEM OF OVERCOMING INERTIA & GETTING STARTED.

  3. PREWRITING STRATEGIES (cont.) SOME COMMON PREWRITING STRAT-EGIES: • FREEWRITING • CLUSTERING • OUTLINING • BRAINSTORMING • HEURISTICS

  4. FREEWRITING • WRITING NON-STOP FOR A MANAGE-ABLE PERIOD OF TIME (10-15 MINS.) • THE ONLY RULE: DO NOT STOP WRIT-ING FOR ANY REASON UNTIL THE TIME IS UP.

  5. FREEWRITING (cont.) • REDUCES ANXIETY BY ALLOWING A WRITER TO EXPRESS IMMEDIATE FEEL-INGS, QUESTIONS, & IDEAS ABOUT A TOPIC. • GETS WORDS & IDEAS FLOWING; HELPS OVERCOME THE URGE TO EDIT.

  6. FREEWRITING (cont.) • AFTER FREEWRITING, UNDERLINE STRIKING WORDS OR IDEAS THAT CAN SERVE AS STARTING POINTS FOR FUR-THER THINKING & (FREE)WRITING.

  7. FREEWRITING (cont.) • CAN ALSO BE A USEFUL WARM-UP ACTIVITY FOR TAKING OUT ONE’S MENTAL “GARBAGE.”

  8. CLUSTERING • A VISUAL FORM OF BRAINSTORMING THAT HELPS A WRITER SEE RELATION-SHIPS AMONG IDEAS BETTER THAN FREEWRITING DOES.

  9. CLUSTERING (cont.) • BASIC PROCEDURE: (1) CIRCLE TOPIC IN MIDDLE OF PAGE. (2) WRITE DOWN (AND CIRCLE) OTHER IDEAS & CONNECT RELATED IDEAS W/ LINES.

  10. CLUSTERING (cont.) • ANY WORD OR IDEA IN A CLUSTER CAN BECOME THE STARTING POINT OF A NEW CLUSTER, WHICH CAN PROVIDE THE BASIS FOR SUPPORTING PARA-GRAPHS.

  11. OUTLINING • HELPS PLAN THE ORGANIZATION OF AN ESSAY AS WELL AS GENERATE IDEAS. • THREE BASIC TYPES OF OUTLINES: • SCRATCH • TOPIC • SENTENCE

  12. SCRATCH OUTLINE • A ROUGH LIST OF INTENDED POINTS & IDEAS (THE LEAST FORMAL TYPE OF OUTLINE).

  13. TOPIC OUTLINE • MORE DETAILED, W/ IDEAS PRESENTED IN KEY WORDS OR PHRASES IN CONVEN-TIONAL OUTLINE FORMAT (I.E., W/ NUM-BERED & LETTERED HEADINGS & SUB-HEADINGS).

  14. SENTENCE OUTLINE • EVEN MORE DEVELOPED IN COMPLETE SENTENCES, EACH SENTENCE BEING A SUBTOPIC FOR A SUPPORTING PARA-GRAPH. CONTAINS MOST OF THE IN-FORMATION IN AN ESSAY (THE MOST FORMAL TYPE OF OUTLINE).

  15. BRAINSTORMING • RAPID FREE ASSOCIATION & LISTING OF IDEAS ABOUT A TOPIC. • THE BASIC RULE: WRITE DOWN ALL IDEAS THAT COME TO MIND IN SINGLE WORDS OR SHORT PHRASES; OMITNOTHING.

  16. BRAINSTORMING (cont.) • AFTER INITIAL BRAINSTORMING, ANA-LYZE THE LIST BY DOING THE FOLLOW-ING KINDS OF THINGS: • PUT ASTERISKS, STARS, ETC. NEXT TO THE MOST PROMISING ITEMS; • NUMBER KEY ITEMS IN ORDER OF IMPOR-TANCE;

  17. BRAINSTORMING (cont.) • ANALYZE BRAINSTORMING BY: • GROUP RELATED ITEMS; • CROSS OUT UNPROMISING ITEMS; • ADD NEW ITEMS.

  18. HEURISTICS • A HEURISTICIS A SYSTEMATIC DIS-COVERY PROCEDURE THAT FORCES A WRITER TO CONSIDER DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF A TOPIC.

  19. HEURISTICS (cont.) • AN EXAMPLE OF A HEURISTIC IS THE JOURNALIST’S QUESTIONS: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, & HOW.

More Related