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Prof. Chouari. Lecture 2. Paragraph Writing (S 1)

The document outlines the pre-writing process essential for paragraph writing, including choosing and narrowing a topic, brainstorming techniques such as making lists, freewriting, and mapping. It emphasizes the importance of gathering ideas without judgment and provides practice exercises for each brainstorming method. Finally, it discusses the editing phase where writers select the most relevant ideas for their topic.

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23 views5 pages

Prof. Chouari. Lecture 2. Paragraph Writing (S 1)

The document outlines the pre-writing process essential for paragraph writing, including choosing and narrowing a topic, brainstorming techniques such as making lists, freewriting, and mapping. It emphasizes the importance of gathering ideas without judgment and provides practice exercises for each brainstorming method. Finally, it discusses the editing phase where writers select the most relevant ideas for their topic.

Uploaded by

anouarlakhloufi4
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UMI Paragraph Writing – S 1 Prof. A.

Chouari
School of Arts and humanities
Department of English -- Meknes

Lecture 2 Pre-writing:

Getting ready to write


What is pre-writing?

Before you begin writing, you decide what you are going to write about. Then you plan what you

are going to write. This process is called pre-writing.

Choosing and narrowing a topic

Before you write, you must choose a topic for your paragraph.

 Choose a topic that is not too narrow. A narrow topic will not have enough ideas to write

about.

 Choose a topic that is not too broad. A broad topic will have too many ideas for just one

paragraph.

Practice 1. Narrow each of these four topics to a paragraph topic:

a. Diseases

b. Sports

c. Education

d. Social networks

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a way of gathering ideas about a topic. Think of a storm: thousands of drops of

rain, all coming down together. Now, imagine thousands of ideas “raining” down onto your

1
UMI Paragraph Writing – S 1 Prof. A. Chouari
School of Arts and humanities
Department of English -- Meknes

paper! When you brainstorm, write down every idea that comes to you. Don’t worry about

whether the ideas are good or silly, useful or not. You can decide that later. You are gathering

as many ideas as you can. There are three types of brainstorming: making a list, freewriting,

and mapping.

A. Making a list:

When you make a list, you can write single words, phrases, or sentences that are connected to

your topic. Look at this list a student made while brainstorming ideas to write about this topic,

“What should I study in college?”

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UMI Paragraph Writing – S 1 Prof. A. Chouari
School of Arts and humanities
Department of English -- Meknes

Practice 2. Work with a partner. Choose one of these topics and make a list of as many ideas

as you can in five minutes:

 Moroccan marriage.

 Your best movie.

 Your hero.

 Your favorite animal.

B. Freewriting

When you freewrite, you write whatever comes into your mind about your topic, without

stopping. Most freewriting exercises are short – just five or ten minutes.

Freewriting helps you practice fluency (writing quickly and easily). When you freewrite, you do

not need to worry about accuracy (having correct grammar and spelling). Don’t check your

dictionary when you freewrite. Don’t stop if you make a mistake. Just keep writing!

Here is an example of a student’s freewriting:

3
UMI Paragraph Writing – S 1 Prof. A. Chouari
School of Arts and humanities
Department of English -- Meknes

Practice 3. Choose a topic and practice freewriting for five minutes. Remember, do not stop,

erase, or go back. Just write as much as you can.

C. Mapping

To make a map, use a whole sheet of paper, and write your topic in the middle, with a circle

around it. Then put your next idea in a circle above or below your topic, and connect the circles

with lines. The lines show that the two ideas are related.

Example of a map:

4
UMI Paragraph Writing – S 1 Prof. A. Chouari
School of Arts and humanities
Department of English -- Meknes

What is the best way to brainstorm?

There is no best method of brainstorming. Some writers like to use lists because they don’t
have to write sentences. Some writers like freewriting because they can write quickly and ideas
come easily. Some writers prefer mapping because they can easily see the relationship between
ideas. Experiment with the three methods, and then choose the one that works best for you.

Editing: How to edit

After you have gathered a lot of ideas, you will need to go back and edit them. This is the time
to choose which ideas are the most interesting, and which are the most relevant (important or
necessary) to your topic. Of course, you can still add new ideas if you think of something else
while you are re-reading your list (see examples 1 and 2).

Example 1: List Example 2: Map

Source:

Zemach, D. E. & Rumisek, L. A. (2003). College writing: From paragraph to essay. London:
Macmillan.

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