Improving Student Writing Skills - cse crafts

The Writing Process
Prewriting
During prewriting, the first step of the writing process,
authors will generate ideas and put their thoughts in
order. Researchers such as Matsuhashi (1981) have found
that as writing tasks become more complex and as more
abstract thought is required, so too do experienced writers
require more time to plan their writing. Examples
of prewriting include anything from a sentence or two
describing a project’s organization to an extensive outline
with references to where you will place notes. Three
usable formats for prewriting include the following:
• Bubbling (mind web)
• Outlining
• Drawing/writing a captioned cartoon strip
Included here are sample templates for these three methods.
You may want to provide students with templates
at first, although once students are comfortable with the
process, you may choose to let them prewrite without
using templates. Depending on the level of flexibility
your class can handle, you may decide to use these prewriting
templates in one of the following ways:
• Distribute the appropriate template for every
assignment.
• Scaffold the prewriting experience by distributing
templates only for the first few assignments.
• Allow students to choose the prewriting form that
works best for them.
• Distribute prewriting templates only for research
assignments or longer works that require
significant organizational skills.
• Teach the prewriting method appropriate to the
assignment and distribute templates only to
students who struggle.
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