PreWriting Strategies Several options for getting paper writing

Pre-Writing Strategies Several options for getting paper writing ideas on paper!

Reading & Audience • Instructing students on how to approach a reading assignment for which they will write a paper will help the pre-writing process. • Always consider Audience

3 Pre-Writing Strategies for EOC • Freewriting • Visualizing • Listing

Freewriting • Freewriting simply means putting your pen to the paper and writing whatever comes into your head about an assigned writing topic. • Time yourself for at least five minutes. • Read the topic, think about some ideas and then begin writing. • Don't worry about grammar or punctuation -- the purpose of free- writing is to get ideas written out without worrying about other issues. • The key is to keep writing, even when you are having difficulty thinking of something to say.

Visualization • After you have decided on the experience you will write about, close your eyes, and try to remember the sensory details of the experience: Sight: What did you see during this experience? did the people and environment look like? What things were in the room? People? What did they look like? Sound: What sounds did you hear? Traffic sounds? birds? music? What were people saying? Was it silent or noisy? Smell: What smells did you smell? Smoke? Cooking smells/ Perfume? Crayons? Sweat? Taste: What did your mouth taste like? Mint gum? dry with fear? Touch: What did you feel? Stomach ache? Head ache? Cold or hot? • After you are done imagining all of the senses involved (this should take from 10 -15 minutes) open your eyes, and do some listing or freewriting about the details you remember.

Listing • Generate a list of all the things you think of related to your topic. • You can think of your list as a sort of grocery list of the items that make up your topic.