Essay Planning Guide
Essay Planning Guide | |
File Size: | 37 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Listing
- Consult your topic lists and select a topic to write about.
- Write your topic at the top of a page/document.
- Write down every idea, word, or thought you can think of relating to that subject, regardless of how far-fetched the thought may be. The information will not have any specific order.
- When you have written down everything you can think of go over the list and look for related ideas. Next, place a on (1) in front of each related idea. Then read the list for a second group of related ideas. Place a two (2) before the second group of related ideas. Continue this procedure until all words of ideas have a number. You may cross out any words you wish to discard.
- Read through the list and write at the bottom of the page a sentence that gives the main idea or opinion about the ideas in the list. This thesis statement will provide a focus for the writing.
- Using the thesis statement and list, write a draft of your essay.
- Your audience for your writing is your classmates, and the purpose is to explain or express an opinion about the subject, but not less than 1 1/2 to 2 pages.
Questioning
- Consult your topic lists and select a topic to write about.
- Write your topic at the top of a page/document.
- Write twelve questions about your topic. Each question must begin with one of these words: Who, What, Where, When, Why, or How. If you have trouble getting twelve questions written, your subject may be too narrow or you really don't have an interest in that subject. Consider choosing another topic.
- Compose your questions without skipping lines or leaving space for the answers.
- Write the answers to your questions on a separate page/document. Number the answers to match the numbers of the questions.
- When you have both the questions and the answers, review your answers and decide what your main idea, opinion, or point of view will be. Write a sentence telling your main idea at the bottom of the page/document.
- Use your prewriting and thesis sentence to begin a draft of your essay.
- Your audience for your writing is your classmates, and the purpose is to explain the subject well, but not less than 1 1/2 to 2 pages.
Clustering
- Consult your topic lists and select a topic to write about.
- Write your subject in the center of your page. Draw a circle around the word.
- Concentrate on the circled word in the center of the page, and as ideas flow into the mind about the word, write those ideas down randomly around the central word. Draw a circle around each new word and connect these new words to the center word with arrows. Concentrate on each newly circled word and write those ideas. Continue in this fashion until you have written down on paper all you can about your original subject. Try to fill the page.
- Review your cluster of ideas. Write a sentence that gives your main idea, opinion, or point of view about the subject.
- Use your clusters and thesis sentence to begin a draft of your essay.
- Your audience for your writing is your classmates, and the purpose is to explain the subject well, but not less than 1 1/2 to 2 pages.
Timed Writing
- Consult your topic lists and select a topic to write about.
- Write the topic at the top of the page/document.
- Write about the subject you selected for ten minutes without stopping. The object is to get down on paper as much as you can as quickly as your can without worrying about correctness.
- At the end of ten minutes, stop and write a sentence across the bottom of the page that tells the main idea or thesis about the topic you've written.
- Use the Timed Writing and the sentence you wrote as the basis for a draft of your essay.