ABC’s of Pre-Writing

1. ABC’s of Pre-Writing Attack the Prompt Brainstorm Choose the Best Response

2. Attack the Prompt • Underline any words that give you directions, such as “discuss,” “evaluate,” or “explain.” • Circle the words that indicate what your writing will be about. • Think carefully about what the prompt is telling you to do, looking carefully at the words you have underlined and circled. Example: Describe an important event in your life and explain how it affected you.

3. Understanding Direction Words • Analyze: Examine, Take it apart, Look at closely • Compare: Tell what they have in common • Describe: Give showing details • Evaluate: Critique, Judge, Rate, Review • Explain: Tell why, Give reasons • Identify: List or briefly state • Support: Provide data, Give reasons and examples

4. Practice Attacking the Prompt • Identify one quality that makes a parent effective. Explain how this quality helps the children. • Describe the worst job you’ve ever had. • Evaluate the high school you attended. • Analyze the effects that the economic downturn has had on our society.

5. Brainstorm • Now that you know what the prompt is asking, spend some time brainstorming your response. There are many ways to do this: • Freewriting • Questioning • Interviewing • Listing • Clustering/Mapping

6. Freewriting Method: Write about the topic without stopping, planning, or thinking. You might not even want to use punctuation. Write for ten minutes or more, and only look back at what you have written after time is up. Let your mind wander around the topic freely. • Practice freewriting in response to this prompt: Identify one quality that makes a parent effective. Explain how this quality helps the children.

7. Questioning Method: Think of five or more questions that will help you respond to the prompt. Keep all of the question words in mind (who, what, where, why, when, how). Then respond to each of those questions. • Practice questioning in response to this prompt: Describe the best job you’ve ever had.

8. Interviewing Method: Talk to a partner about your response to the essay topic. Have your partner stop you periodically to ask clarifying questions. You may either ask your partner to take notes as you speak, or you may wish to jot down notes when you finish. • Practice interviewing in response to this prompt: Describe the worst job you have ever had.

9. Listing Method: Without using complete sentences, make a list of all of the ideas that come to mind when you think about the writing prompt. For some topics, it may work better if you have two or more different lists that will help you answer the topic. • Practice listing in response to this prompt: Evaluate the high school you attended.

10. Clustering/Mapping Method: Make a graphic organizer that shows the relationships between all of your ideas or that categorizes the ideas.

11. Practice mapping in response to this prompt: Analyze the effects that the economic downturn has had on our society.

12. Choose the Best Response • Sort through the ideas in your brainstorm and find a central idea for your paragraph. • Criteria for choosing: • Your idea really answers the question (look back at what you learned when you attacked the prompt) • Your idea is interesting and passes the “so what?” test • Your idea is well-matched to the length of the assignment • You can support your idea with relevant examples and details.

13. Example of Choosing the Best Response • What was good at my school: • Walk outside between classes • Theater was newly remodeled and very nice • Nice Spanish teacher and English teacher (at least to me) • Cafeteria was set up more like college dining hall. Many choices. • Principal had beehive hairstyle • AP classes were very small • Basketball team was state champ • What was bad at my school: • Non-AP classes were very poorly run • Lots of teachers seemed really burned out • Lots of drugs and fights • Gun in parking lot on my first day • No field trips or special events • Very low test scores Does it respond to prompt? Is it interesting?/ So what? Fits in paragraph? Enough supporting ideas? Central Idea: My high school had a nice campus. Central Idea: The academic environment of my high school was very poor.

14. Practice For each of your brainstorms, locate a central idea that could become the focus of your paragraph. Then check to make sure your central idea passes the five criteria. Share with a partner when you are finished.

15. Review What do the ABC’s of prewriting stand for? How do you attack a prompt? List five methods for brainstorming and describe each one. What are the criteria for choosing the best response? Why should you spend time prewriting?