Now that you have a topic selected and have written a short piece in favor of that hypothesis, it's time to start expanding upon your initial ideas.
Part of this next exercise will be determined by the angle you are taking for your piece, but the basics will be the same. What we are going to focus on is giving you some ideas as to how to organize your thoughts. This will help focus your research and allow you to seek out what you need specifically. As we said in announcing the project, it's easier to whittle down than to add in.
There are some common methods that we will focus on.
Mind mapping- This method means writing the main topic in the middle of the page and then connecting ideas off of that. You are looking to connect key ideas off the main topic. This method is not necessarily good for fleshing out the entire outline of a piece. It does help you focus on main ideas but sometimes its helpful to look at a full layout on paper.
Brainstorming- At the top of the paper write your main topic. It should be either a phrase or a short sentence.
From there you would then list a few ideas related to that topic at hand.
In the third section you would make up some questions and answers for yourself that are designed to help you grasp some of the concepts and focus your interests.
Outline- This will be the most effective way of prewriting for many students, because they are most familiar with the outline format. At the top again you write your topic. Below that you would then write one of your main ideas. Under that heading you would then write a few of your supporting ideas.
This pattern will continue until you've used all your main ideas and included a few of the supporting ideas and details.
YOUR MISSION:
Choose one (or more) of these methods of prewriting and expand upon your hypothesis. What you are doing is framing the entire outline of your paper. Think of it as when you had a coloring book as a kid. You color the lines surrounding the picture first before you color the inside. That's what we are doing. We are outlining the piece and then over the next few months we will work on coloring everything inside that.
You'll have 2 weeks from today to work on your prewriting. If you have any questions or concerns throughout the process I am here to help.
Also, please check out the links on the right-hand side of the page to help direct you towards some activities to help with this exercise. The study guides site has some more detailed explanations of the processes outlined above.
