Prewriting And Thesis Statement Strategies (Page 2 of 2) in pdf

Prewriting and Thesis Statement Strategies

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What are pre-writing strategies?

Have you ever experienced procrastination because you did not know what to write about? Learning and knowing how to

use pre-writing strategies sets the writer up for success. These strategies are tools of the trade and can help a writer

overcome writers block. In addition, pre-writing helps the writer determine what he or she will be writing about. Lastly, it

lets the write explore the topic thoroughly.

The Pre-Writing Process

Websites for Reference

1. Who is your audience?

Resources for Pre-Writing Strategies

2. What is your purpose for writing?

3. What is your topic?

4. Choose a pre-writing strategy.

Examples of Pre-Writing Strategies

Other Pre-Writing Strategies

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Conducting Research

The Writing Process

Formal and informal reading

Interviews

ess/prewrite_new.html

Outlining

Writing Handouts

Remembering

Drawing

Discussion

Note taking

Pre-Writing Strategies

Freewriting

Listing

Given a topic the writer continues to write for

Listing can help generate subtopics. Once

a set period of time, without stopping.

identified, those subtopics can be at the top of

Freewriting is similar to brainstorming, but

another list.

instead of just single words, you write down

whole sentences about the topic.

Journal

Response journals and dialogue journals offer the

Brainstorming

author growth and a chance to analyze your subject

Brainstorming and listing go together. To

that you are going to write about. Often the response

journal starts with a prompt and by writing about the

brainstorm an idea, write down as many

words that come to mind when thinking of

topic of the prompt, it offers the writer a chance to

your topic. You can organize them of

become a more proficient writer through practice.

Dialogue journals include someone else’s opinion

importance later on or throw out words

that don’t really apply to your topic.

about the topic. Such as an online discussion would,

with threads for each new response.

Mapping and Webbing

Flow Charts

Organizing your ideas in a map or web is a visual

Flow charts is another visual way to organize your ideas.

form of outlining. You can connect like terms and

Flow charts usually move from the top to bottom of a

ideas, create paragraphs by connecting those ideas

page and can easily be turned into an outline, using the

and looking for patterns, and coaches the writer into

main ideas as headings and subheadings and adding

thinking how the first draft will be organized.

new ideas until an outline takes shape.

Last Edited 6/24/2008

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