Prewriting Thinking and writing…without freaking out

Why Prewrite?Prewriting helps you

discover what you want to say.

Think of this as thinking on the page.

Brainstorming

Focused Freewriting

Clustering

Journalist’s Questions

Listing or Brainstorming--“helps you figure out what you know and what questions you have” (Hacker 13)

How to do it:Just make a list of

everything that comes to you about the topic. Whether this is information that you have gained in the readings or outside information or even your experiences.

Makes for a better community

Politeness without insipidness

Seems on the decline

CivilityPutting a human face on daily interactions.

Is civility valued more by certain age groups?

Is it practiced more by a certain sex or age group?

Focused FreewritingFocus on your topic and

write quickly for a predetermined amount of time. 10-15 minutes works well. Ignore your inner-critic who keeps telling you that this sounds stupid or that it doesn’t make any sense.

Keep your topic in mind, but just write down what comes to you about it

Clustering--"highlights relationships among ideas" (Hacker 13).

Visualize It!“To cluster ideas, write

down your topic in the center of the sheet of paper, draw a circle around it, and surround the circle with related ideas” (Hacker 13).

Make sure to trust your relations/connections .

You don’t need someone's permission to connect two unrelated things.

Journalist’s Questions

Who? What? When? Where?

Topic Sentences—"A topic sentence is to a paragraph what a thesis is to a paper. It expresses the central idea of the paragraph" (Skwire & Wiener 98-99).

In a paragraph, your topic sentence is your main claim or argument. In certain circumstances, uncivil behavior is necessary and productive.