What the Clueless Student needs more than anything is to get started, to generate ideas so that he will have something to work with. Using whatever techniques prove beneficial, you, the tutor, can approach students in this stage of writing from whatever angle proves most productive. You should also, at this stage, emphasize that the writing process is in no way linear. While some writers might begin at the beginning, more writers must work out of sequence, working first, for example, on the introduction, then skipping to the third body paragraph, then back to the introduction, and then perhaps on to the conclusion. Writers must feel free to work on idea development in any section of the writing assignment.
Any ideas are better than no ideas.
Writer s block, or the anxiety which can prevent writers from being able to add anything to the blank page, can be managed and overcome through the use of prewriting techniques. All rights reserved.