The first four years of college are filled with writing - writing paragraphs, class notes, research notes, papers, essays. This is why it is imperative that students enter post-secondary education armed with practical writing strategies to help them produce effective college papers. Prewriting can be a powerful strategy to help students become effectual writers. One of the foundational elements of it is Exploring.
Prewriting has three parts: choosing a topic, exploring a topic, and organizing/planning the writing. So, after you have chosen a topic to write about, you should take some time to explore information, facts, and details that will help you elaborate on your topic. Exploring allows you to utilize different strategies to come up with varied and diverse pieces of information to write an excellent paper. This is a good strategy when you are writing complex and lengthy papers like research papers and analytical papers that compare and contrast subjects.
Brainstorming is an exploring strategy. Many times, students will be assigned to work in teams to create a comprehensive presentation, which can include a written paper and/or an oral presentation. Consequently, students explore by working in unison, discovering ideas, topics, and ways to gather supporting information. Or, you can brainstorm independently by making a list of topics and then sub-lists with supporting details for each one.
People are a great source of exploring. Interview people who are familiar with the topic(s) you have selected. Treat the exploration activity as an interview. Have specific questions prewritten so that you walk away with an overall view of your area of interest. Be sure to collect information on how to research the topic further.
Exploring can include taking mini quizzes. Choose several topics and then take a quiz, asking the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how? This is a great exploratory strategy when you are at the preliminary stage of narrowing down your topics. If you can answers the standard questions with information that can be easily expanded upon, you have a viable topic to consider.
Free-writing is a creative form of exploring. This exploring activity allows you to free yourself from barriers and inhibitions, and it gets you in the habit of thinking and writing. So in relation to exploring topics, use free-writing to write about what you already know about a particular topic, and even more importantly, what you want to learn about the topic. This will help determine which direction to move in when you start your research.
Writers are typically visual learners, so exploring through pictures, drawings, and charts can actually stimulate the mind and generate ideas and concepts. Let's say you wanted to write about the Grand Canyon. One way of exploring it would be get a picture book that includes several photos of the natural masterpiece and view them, all the while making notes of ideas and different ways in which you could write about the topic.
Incoming college students should take care to prepare for the tremendous amount of writing they will be subjected to during their four years. Those enrolled in online Bachelors programs will still be subjected to the same amount of writing. If you decide to earn an online Masters, be prepared for even more writing. Students can avail themselves to whichever writing strategies help them become better writers. Prewriting and exploring may be one way to help develop your writing skills.
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