PART 1.

 

Instructions

Demonstrate: Writing Preparation

Evaluation Title: Pre-writing and Outlining

For this assignment, you prepare to write a This I Believe essay by generating ideas and planning how to organize your essay.

Complete a 5-minute free write

• Consider this question: “What are your most cherished beliefs?”
  • When you freewrite, you write without stopping for a set period of time.
  • Do not worry about spelling or grammar.
  • Do not censor your ideas, just keep writing.
  • If you get stuck, repeat a prompting question or the topic until something comes to you.
  • Freewriting is about quantity rather than quality.
  • We’ll reverse that philosophy when we start writing your essay, but for now focus on generating as many ideas as you can.
  • When freewriting, you are not evaluated on how good your ideas are – just that you have a lot of writing and thoughts to work with.

Create an outline or skeleton draft for the This I Believe Essay

• Include clear direction for each paragraph of your essay.
  • An outline follows a specific format for organizing your ideas into paragraphs with some details mapped out.
  • A skeleton draft is writing what you imagine the first sentence of each paragraph will be to get a picture of your essay sub-topics from start to finish.
  • You do not need to write the full essay, just map out a few of the ideas for each paragraph.

Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 30 minutes
See a sample of what this assignment looks like here: Sample prewriting and planning assignment [Word document]