ch04 organizing your work and preparing for writing

Copyright © 2015 by Nelson Education Ltd.

NETA PowerPoint® Slides to accompany

Mohawk College

4-1


Organizing Your Work and Preparing forWriting

Chapter 4

4-2


If it passes the 4-S test, your subject is the basis of a good paper.

Think about Your SubjectMake sure you have a satisfactory subject, one that satisfies the basic principles of the 4-S test:

A satisfactory subject is significant, single, specific, and supportable.

4-3


The Writing ProcessWriting an essay typically flows through the following stages:•Analyze your audience. •Read carefully. •Do some critical thinking .•Find a good subject.•Identify interesting main points.•Start outlining your material.•Discover your thesis statement.•Organize the body of the essay.•Write the introduction and conclusion.•Revise and edit the essay.

4-4


Make Your Subject Significant

Significance is about meshing your ideas, thoughts, and research with a subjective focus that will elicit the response you are hoping for.

4-5


Make Your Subject Single

Don’t try to crowd too much into one paper. If you attempt to write about two or three related ideas, your readers will get only a superficial and possibly confusing overview instead of the interesting and satisfying detail they expect to find in a well-planned paper.

4-6


Make Your Subject Specific

Given a choice between a broad, general topic and a narrow, specific one, always choose the specific one. You can narrow a broad subject and make it more specific by applying one or more limiting factors to it. Try thinking of your subject in terms of a specific kind, time, place, number, or person associated with it.

4-7


Make Your Subject Supportable

Remember, your readers want information that is new, interesting, and thought-provoking—not obvious observations familiar to everyone. You must be able to include specific examples, facts, figures, quotations, anecdotes, or other supporting details.

4-8


Organizing Subject Ideas into Main Points

Bottom-Up Approach: Prewriting StrategiesTalking

FreewritingBrainstorming

4-9


Talking

The prewriting strategy of talking can work for writing, too, as long as you are clearly and tightly focused on a specific subject. Focused dialogue works best in groups of three or four students, all of whom are interested in the subject.

4-10


Freewriting1. Put a pad of paper on your desk or use your computer. Write your subject at the top of the page.

2. Start writing. Don’t stop until you have written for three, five, or even ten minutes straight. Write anything that comes to mind. If you get stuck, write your subject over and over until something new comes to mind. (Don’t worry, it will!)

4-11


Freewriting cont’d3. Write as quickly as you can. Don’t pause to analyze or evaluate your ideas, and don’t scratch out or delete anything.

4. When the time is up, stop and stretch. Then read over what you’ve written. Highlight anything that is related to your subject. Much of your freewriting will be irrelevant but what you have highlighted will be useful in the next step: identifying the main points you will use to explain your subject.

4-12


Freewriting cont’d5. Turn the highlighted phrases, fragments, and sentences into clear, understandable points. If you don’t have at least 10 points, keep freewriting for another few minutes.

6. On a separate piece of paper, list the points you have identified. Study the possible relationships among these points and cluster them under two or three headings. These are your main points. Now you can move on to the next step: testing each main point to be sure it is satisfactory for your essay.

4-13


Brainstorming

4-14

In brainstorming, you write down a list of every idea you can think of about a specific subject. Work alone or in a small group.

1. Write your topic at the top of the page. Check your subject against the 4-S test. Decide how much time you will spend on this exercise.

2. Write down in short form—words or phrases—every idea you can think of that is even vaguely related to your subject. Work quickly. Don’t slow down by worrying about grammar.


3. When the time is up, relax , then go over the list carefully. Highlight the points that seem most clearly related to your subject and cross out any duplicates or any ideas that are vague. If you don’t end up with three or four points that are meaningful to you, brainstorm again.

4. Take your three or four most significant points and rephrase them in clear sentences. Then move on to the next step: testing your main points to ensure that they are suitable for use in your essay.

Brainstorming cont’d

4-15


Organizing Subjects into Main Points

Top-Down Approach: Prewriting Strategy

Questioning Your Subject (various strategies)

4-16


Questioning Your Subject

Questioning lets you “walk around” your subject, looking at it from different angles, taking it apart and putting it back together again. Each question is a probe that enables you to dig below the surface and find out what you know.

4-17


How to Question Your Subject1. Begin by writing your proposed subject at the top

of the page.

2. Apply the 12 questions to your subject to see which ones “fit” best. As you go down the list, you will probably find more than one question for which you can think up answers. Do not stop with the first question that produces answers. The purpose of this idea-generating technique is to discover the best approach for your target audience and writing purpose.

4-18


How to Question Your Subject cont’d3. Go through the entire list and record your

answers to any questions that apply to your subject. Ignore the questions that make no sense in relation to the subject.

4. Finally, study the questions that produced answers and choose the one that generated the ideas that are closest to what your reader needs to know and what you want to say.

4-19


The 12 Questions

4-20


Testing Your Main PointsOnce you’ve identified main points using talking, freewriting, brainstorming, or the questioning approach, your next step is to examine the points you’ve come up with to make sure each is going to work as a major component in your essay.

Main points must always be significant, distinct, and

relevant.

4-21


Are Your Main Points Significant?Each main point should be worth writing and reading about. If you can’t write at least one interesting and informative paragraph about a point, it is probably not significant enough to bother with. Don’t waste your readers’ time with trivial matters.

4-22


Are Your Main Points Distinct?Each main point should be worth writing and reading about. If you can’t write at least one interesting and informative paragraph about a point, it is probably not significant enough to bother with. Don’t waste your readers’ time with trivial matters.

4-23


Are Your Main Points Relevant?The main points you choose must be clearly and directly related to your subject. They all must be aspects of that subject and must add to the development of your readers’ information on the subject.

4-24


Summary• Coming up with main points can be generated in a

variety of ways.• In the bottom-up approach, main points can be

generated using talking, freewriting, or brainstorming.

• In the top-down approach, structured questions can help you find out what points are of most interest to your paper.

• Once you have your main points, make sure they are significant, distinct, and relevant.

4-25

ch04 organizing your work and preparing for writing

Education

nelson education

specific subject

satisfactory subject

good subject

subject supportableremember

subject specificgiven

subject singledont

broad subject andmake