Creative problem-solving can be used successfully in the writing classroom, for the problem-solving process involves three distinctive stages of thinking activity that remarkably parallel the prewriting steps in the composing process. Similar stages include: (1) data generation and preparation to write; (2) data manipulation and incubation; and…

Generating writing ideas is often a serious obstacle for students. Some classroom techniques to help them out of this dilemma include word associating and self-questioning. Students can also construct a matrix chart with the subheadings from their information resources. Once ideas are generated, they can be arranged in appropriate presentation…

Intended for junior high and high school writing instructors, this booklet provides prewriting activities designed to help students master the thinking strategies essential to effective written communication. The first portion of the booklet discusses theory and research on the role of thinking strategies in writing and gives an overview of the…

Arguing that to consider only the writer's mental processes is an intellectualist view of the composing process that does not present a fully human way of knowing, this paper takes the position that the writer is more than a mind at work and that an account of the writer as knower must include a consideration of the interaction between mind and…

A study conducted to determine if speaking activities facilitated growth in writing involved approximately 60 community college students enrolled in freshman composition. A review of the literature supported the notions that a definite relationship exists between talking and writing, that prewriting activities affect the quality of composition,…

Students who are not writing, or not writing well, may have a second chance to do so if they are able to receive the counsel of published writers to write before writing. These students should be told of the importance of prewriting. Most writers need time to wait for ideas to formulate. In this preparatory stage, writers feel four pressures that…

Describes four prewriting techniques that elementary and middle grade students can use to gather and organize ideas for writing, and by so doing, cure writer's block. Techniques discussed are: (1) brainstorming; (2) clustering; (3) freewriting; and (4) cubing.

Describes a method for teaching students to connect their ideas causally or logically in their writing by talking about the ideas before beginning to write. (HTH)

Discusses the benefits of using a word processor for composition in the areas of prewriting, revising, proofreading, and printing. (AEA)

A prewriting activity requires elementary and middle school students to compose a political cartoon interpretation by asking questions and helps develop their writing ability. An example shows how the prewriting strategy translates into a specific classroom application. (AM)

Research suggests that good writers differ from poor writers. Teachers who develop prewriting exercises, emphasize multiple draft assignments, help the student think about revision, and evaluate the product can help undergraduates write and think more clearly. (Author/AM)

Describes different types of prewriting activities such as "brainwriting," visual synectics, and relational algorithms. (JL)

Describes a remedial writing class in which students learned organizational skills by cutting up and rearranging their own freewriting on a particular topic. (JL)

Describes how students can be encouraged to draw upon their imaginations and upon their observations of and speculations about the outside world to write their own short fiction. (AEA)

Facetiously examines heuristics in mumbling, staring, moving, doodling, and noise that can be used by writing teachers to help their writing students with rhetorical invention. (RL)