First, we'll talk about how to organize thoughts within paragraphs, and then how to organize paragraphs into a clear essay. Main points of the presentation include using evidence in each paragraph, making sure that evidence is framed with clear topic ideas, and organizing paragraphs into a logical stream that effectively demonstrates the validity of the thesis. Once students come to understand how to organize an essay prior to and during writing, the task of an essay becomes much less overwhelming. Students will be taught how to brainstorm in groups, on-line, and by themselves. Brainstorming stresses general ideas.
Clustering stresses relationships.
Freewriting stresses written personal insights and thematic relationships. Looping stresses summarization, organization and sub-topic building. The peer writing consultants will set aside time at the end of their presentation for class practice and discussion of the pre-writing techniques. Advanced Brainstorming takes the techniques taught in Understanding Assignments and Beginning Brainstorming and teaches students how to use these to increase the effectiveness of their research. Also stressed is how the choice of key words reveals the author's preferred direction.