2. Pre-writing activities
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “The formulation and
organization of ideas preparatory to writing”
• Prewriting can help you:
• 1. Think. Writing → creative act of communication.
– something to say implies thinking
– putting your ideas down on paper (or the computer)
helps you collect and develop your ideas.
• 2. Have well-organized, clear writing.
– To come up with ideas, organize those ideas and
develop a plan for your paper.
– Having a plan will lead to a well-structured writing
assignment.
3. • 3. Save you time.
– Ideas on paper → you have something to
work with → an outline (first draft easier)
– Revise and edit your final paper.
• 4. Produce better writing.
– think and generate support for your ideas.
– Better supported ideas = better piece of
writing.
4. Clustering
• See your ideas and their connection.
• Also called mind mapping or idea
mapping.
• Clustering is especially useful in
determining the relationship between
ideas.
– distinguish how the ideas fit together.
– where there is an abundance of ideas.
5. • Put the topic in the center of a page. Circle
or underline it.
• Link the new ideas to the central circle
with lines.
• As you think of ideas that relate to the new
ideas, add to those in the same way.
• The result will look like a web on your
page.
– Locate clusters of interest to you, and use the
terms you attached to the key ideas as
departure points for your paper.
6. Brainstorming
• Helps you to activate your own
knowledge and ideas related to the
assigned topic.
• Write down everything about your topic
(no sentences)
• Don’t worry about the order of the ideas,
or whether some ideas are general and
others are details
• Don't try to connect your thoughts.
7. • In general the brainstorming process is the
following:
• Pick a word, idea, or concept
• Quickly list all the words and phrases that the
target brings to mind (Don’t pause when writing)
• Don't stop writing until you run out of
associations.
• Group the items that you have listed according to
arrangements that make sense to you.
• Give each group a label. Now you have a topic
with possible points of development.
8. Asking yourself question
• Questions that a person might have about your topic.
• Answering these questions will help the writer to
supply the details a reader may find necessary to
understand the topic.
• Writer can get a different slant on the topic.
• Who is X?
• What is X?
• When is X? / when was X? / when will X be?
• Where is X?
• Why is X ?
• How is X?
9. Taking notes from a Reading
• Decide what your opinion on the topic will be.
• Take notes on the parts that show that your
opinion is the correct one.
• Reading is a two-way communication
process between you and an author. To be an
active reader, learn to "talk" directly to the
author in your mind and in your notes.
• One problem students write down ideas
without a focus.
– Discard anything that doesn't directly help you in
developing your thesis.
