In writing, as in any field, there is only one way to take a person from a novice to a veteran, and that method is practice. Offer assignments practicing the craft of writing focusing on prewriting. This can be done in four stages: Identifying rhetoric in written pieces, practicing prewriting strategies with rhetoric in mind, writing about prewriting, and practice writing incorporating parts of stage one and stage two.
Teachers should focus on the key aspects of rhetoric such as audience, purpose, and limitations of writing when introducing the prewriting aspect of writing to students. The tools writers need to create interesting pieces are included in the rhetoric. Follow the four stages below to accomplish the task of transitioning writers.
Introduce Novice Readers to Rhetoric to Develop Writing Skills
First, get students started by identifying key components of rhetoric in written pieces. Use the following sample assignment involving the identification of rhetoric in writing.
Read any article of interest. Summarize the article by paying close attention to who the audience is, the purpose of the article and the limitations of the writer. Summarize carefully and precisely with attention to accurate identification of the article’s main points, omission of less relevant details, inclusion of relevant detail, organization scheme, and composition.
Depending on the length of the course, give students two or three of these assignments for better understanding and identification of writing.
Teach Appreciation of Prewriting to Enhance Writing Development
In stage two, have students practice prewriting strategies. Give students a scenario to write about. Tell students they are not going to actually turn in a final essay, and it is simply a hypothetical situation. Use the following sample assignment that involves practicing prewriting strategies.
Compose an essay about a favorite hobby. Try out three prewriting techniques from the following selection to help organize the essay such as brainstorm list, freewriting list, venn diagram, outline, cluster diagram. Make sure to consider the audience, purpose and limitations as well.
Depending on the length of the course, give students two or three of these assignments for better understanding and identification of writing.
Practice Writing About Prewriting to Transition into Prompted Assignments
The third stage involves having students write about prewriting for their first official full writing assignment. It will be an easy transition since they will be comfortable with the process and subject matter. Use the following sample assignment that involves writing about prewriting.
Think about the essay topic prewriting. Use three prewriting strategies for that topic. Write a reflective essay comparing and contrasting each strategy that was tried. In the essay, clarify which strategy was most successful, how it was effective, and why. Provide an explanation about which strategy was least successful, how it was ineffective and why. In the closing of the reflective essay, address the benefits of pre-writing strategies.
Teach the Writing Process to Developing Writers
In the final stage, slowly incorporate other aspects of the writing process into lesson plans as more writing assignments are given. The students will already have the most important stage mastered, they will not be intimidated, and they will now only need to focus on revising and editing.
To turn beginning writers into advanced ones, focus on recognizing rhetoric in writing, practice prewriting, teach writing about prewriting, and incorporate aspects of rhetoric and prewriting in longer writing assignments. At the end of this four stage process, students will feel more comfortable with the idea of writing and consider themselves bonafide writers.
