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Sample response journal activity
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Responding to drafts in progress ·
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Prewriting Strategies Much
can be said about prewriting strategies.
In addition to allowing some time in class for students to do
prewriting, you might mention prewriting strategies to use beyond class
time. Students do need help in
learning about effective prewriting strategies; in fact, some students get
stymied right at the start of a writing project. Furthermore to deter procrastination, you
should consider collecting prewriting activities. Doing so might also help you to see if
students need more direction. The
prewriting strategies described below are not listed in chronological
order. In fact, some of the first ones
given are those that might come later in the writing process, as writers
often start with list making as a first step.
However, the order of the list does follow some pattern. It starts with the strategy that I have
found the most effective for first-year students, moves to a strategy that
colleagues in education often consider, reviews several list-like techniques,
and concludes with a variety of concrete strategies that writers find
particularly helpful or innovative.
The hope in producing this list and the descriptions is that you will
recognize strategies that you already use in your own writing and find new
ones to suggest to your students.
This list is not meant to be conclusive and is likely to grow, as
people offer descriptions of more ideas. Response Journals “Response
journals” is just another name for what some might call simply journals. Unlike regular journals where the writer
writes whatever comes to mind, writers work from prompts. These prompts
connect with an upcoming writing assignment, an assigned reading, or other
course content. Some would see
response journals as functioning much like a heuristic, giving writers a
jumpstart for thinking. Response
journals cannot only help students generate ideas for an assignment but they
can yield notes that segue to a first draft.
To
encourage students to take journal writing seriously, professors should
periodically collect work and holistically grade it. Looking for overall effort and commitment
to the task is a good way to assess the work.
Rarely, if at all, should journals be graded in the way a finished
piece of writing would be. Some
specialists in the field of teaching with writing suggest that volume alone
might be the most important criterion, offering the rationale that the best
way to get good at writing is to practice it.
Don’t forget that course syllabi should indicate how journals figure
into the final course average. Dialogue Journals Dialogue
journals can take on a variety of configurations. Two are described here. First, are the popular dialogue journals in
which one writer starts a conversation and others join it. Respondents can speak directly to the
original author or to anyone in the thread.
The original writer or someone else along the way could synthesize the
strand. Such dialogue journals are
much like electronic threaded discussions.
Dialogue journals can also be done by having just two students swap
journals until a string of entries unravel.
At some point, the threaded discussions should be related back to a
writing assignment at hand. Dialogue
journals are also used as a means for students to interact with course texts
and materials. In split-page or
split-column journals, students summarize key ideas found in class readings
or lectures in one space and use the other space for commentary and
analysis. These kinds of journals help
students build critical thinking skills and develop a set of working notes
for writing a paper. Brainstorming Brainstorming is a strategy for
getting ideas down on paper in rapid succession. Students might be directed to list in five
minutes all of the things they can think of on a topic, including even
far-fetched possibilities. Afterwards,
writers might be directed to look over their lists for emerging patterns,
surprises, or theses. Although
brainstorming and freewriting might appear to be similar, and for some they
are identical, the real distinction lies in the fact that one is list-like
and the other is sentence-like.
Regardless of the method, though, the main point is to generate ideas
quickly, sometimes in a time span of only a minute or two. Listing Listing
helps writers to think of main ideas and subtopics for a paper. Listing can also help writers arrive at a
topic. If listing is used to generate
subtopics, the writer can take each subtopic, place it at the top of a sheet
of paper, and generate a new list from there, in effect, beginning to form
the parts of a paper. For many,
generating lists is far easier than outlining, for the order in which the
parts interrelate is not a concern, thus freeing the mind to concentrate on generating
ideas. Mapping and Webbing Students are directed to start in the
middle of a sheet of paper and to write a topic or word there and circle
it. Lines are drawn out from the
circle, like spokes radiating from a hub.
New ideas or words are written at the ends of the lines and circled,
and new lines are drawn for new ideas—the process, continuing until the page
is full. The final visual provides a
schema of mapped ideas. Looking at the
schema and examining the connections among the parts, the writer searches for
patterns and ways to begin a draft for a paper. Schematic webs, like brainstorming, help
writers get a barrage of thoughts on paper, but now the interconnectedness of
parts is visually displayed. In addition to having students use
webs for their individual writing projects, classes together can design webs
for getting started on a writing project.
Students can call out ideas as one student draws the web on the
board. Once the diagram is finished,
students can examine it for patterns and ideas, looking for material to use
in their own papers or group writing assignments. Computer software programs like Inspiration are ideal for making webs
and also for magically turning these webs into outlines and flow charts. The many ways in which ideas can be
reconfigured in schematic diagrams allow for looking at the interconnections
of ideas from varied vantage points.
Toying with the same ideas in a variety of visual configurations can be
very helpful for getting started on a writing project and for setting the
stage for making the composing process inventive and productive. Flow Charts Flow
charts are another way to generate ideas graphically, but the flow of ideas
is down or across the page. Thus, the
final product is neater and perhaps more logical than a web. Flow charts can readily be turned into
outlines, using the main ideas to form headings and subheadings, and then
adding new ideas until an outline takes shape. Trees Trees, like webbing and flow charts,
are a graphical way to generate ideas.
A main idea is placed at the top of the page, and a tree is drawn
starting with top branches and working downward to the trunk where an
emerging thesis can be written. Twigs
can be added to branches, extending the process. A tree can also be started
at the bottom of the page, writing a main idea there and then drawing the
tree trunk and working upwards, adding branches, twigs, and maybe
leaves—filling in ideas all along the way. Trees, like webs, help writers
commit ideas to paper, and the final picture yields a way to look at how
ideas interconnect. Invisible Writing Although not a popular technique,
invisible writing is worth trying to see where it leads. Some claim that this method helps the
anxious writer. The writer sits at a
computer and dims or turns off the monitor and types for a predetermined
amount of time focusing on a main idea.
Once the time elapses, the writer turns the monitor back up and looks
at what has been written. The process
could end there, or the writer could save the text and go back and revise it,
saving the updated version with a new name.
If the session is productive, the writer can print the drafts, mining
them for ideas for later drafts. Freewriting This technique is successful for many
writers, and thus is quite popular with both novice and veteran writers. Given a topic or an idea, the writer starts
writing and does not stop until a set period of time has elapsed. Freewriting allows for associative, stream-of-consciousness
writing. Many find it liberating and
relaxing, an easy way to pour ideas out on paper. Writers who get adept at freewriting
invariably find their freewrites metabolize into first drafts. If the freewrite is done at a computer, it is
relatively easy to go back in and turn the writing into a decent first draft.
Writers can also explore their freewrites for novel ideas or work on finding
a thesis in the flow of thoughts. Summaries and Critical
Questions Writing
brief summaries of reading materials helps students to understand what they
read. A series of summaries can be
helpful starting points for writing papers.
The caution here is to remind students of the differences between
summaries and the dictates of a specific assignment. Analytical summaries or probing questions
written in reaction to a reading might be another option, moving students
further along in their critical thinking skills. Annotated
Bibliographies These
need not be formal annotated bibliographies.
Rather, students can be asked to summarize and comment on what they
found in a source. Creating a few
annotated bibliographies can be helpful for assignments where students will
be writing using sources. The
annotations are a starting point for reflecting on the ideas of others. Electronic Discussions Electronic
discussions offer a written copy of a dialogue, an invaluable resource for
writers who want to refer back to a conversation. Electronic discussions also help shy
students speak and be seen. Assignments requiring writing on
controversial subjects lend themselves to electronic discussions, and writers
often benefit because they have a record of representative viewpoints. Cross-class and external campus discussion
boards extend the process, giving students more to stew over when writing a
paper. Preliminary Outlines Many
writers simply cannot do an outline until after they have written a rough
draft, and some resist outlines altogether.
Using a few other prewriting strategies first, though, a writer might
be able to get started on an outline.
Formal outlines with Roman numerals and Arabic letters invariably are
difficult to do in the early stages of writing. In short, most writers cannot outline a
paper until they have first discovered what they want to say—and at least
written a solid set of notes or a working draft. Models Seeing
models helps students understand what is expected and can deter getting off
track. As an in-class activity,
students might analyze a model, picking out its strengths and
weaknesses. Students could comment in
writing, and their written notes could help you assess how well they
understand your writing assignment. . A Closing Thought The
following comment from Erika Lindemann in A
Rhetoric for Writing Teachers might convince skeptics of the merits of
prewriting activities: As a rule, the more time students spend on a variety of
prewriting activities, the more successful the paper will be. In working out the possibilities an
assignment suggests, students discover what they honestly want to say and
address some of the decisions they must make if the paper is to express a
message effectively. Writing the first
draft becomes easier because some writing—notes, lists, freewriting—has
already taken place. Drafting also
becomes more productive because students are less preoccupied with
formulating ideas from scratch and freer to discover new messages as the
words appear on the page….[Involving] students in several prewriting
activities, not just one, for each assignment [is helpful]. Sequencing
several kinds of prewriting activities encourages students to explore their
subjects thoroughly, planning their response to an assignment gradually,
moving tentatively but then more confidently toward a first draft. (106) Work Cited Lindemann,
Erika. A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers (3rd ed.) New York: Oxford UP, 1995. |
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Last revised: Judy Arzt |
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