Prewriting: Organizing Ideas Introduction Planning your organization Chronological order Spatial...
-
Upload
janis-booth -
Category
Documents
-
view
224 -
download
0
Transcript of Prewriting: Organizing Ideas Introduction Planning your organization Chronological order Spatial...
Prewriting: Organizing Ideas
Introduction
Planning your organization
Chronological order
Spatial order
Logical order
Order of importance
Your Turn 1: Choose an order
Your Turn 2: Arrange ideas
Creating an outline
Introduction
Usually, you can find more than one way from point A to point B.One route may be better because it’s the shortest.Another may be better because there are places you need to stop along the way.The route you choose depends on your needs.
In all cases, though, it’s a good idea to plan out your route in advance.The same holds true for writing.
Point A
Point B
Introduction
You may wonder how you’ll turn the ideas and information you’ve collected for your topic from a disorganized mess into a coherent composition.
Organizing your ideas makes order out of chaos.
Here’s one way to plan your organization: Copy the ideas and information you’ve gathered onto note cards. Then, move the cards around until you find an organization that works.
Planning your organization
Drafting your paper will be much easier if you first plan the organization your work will follow.
Planning your organization
Most writing uses one or a combination of the following organizational patterns:
•Chronological order •Spatial order•Logical order •Order of importance
Planning your organizationChronological order
Use chronological order to tell a story or explain a process. Present actions and events in the order in which they take place—first to last, earliest to latest, and so on.
light sleep; muscle activity slows
Stages of sleep
body temperature drops; breathing & heart rate slow
deep sleep; tissue growth & repair; slow breathing
REM (rapid eye movement); some muscles paralyzed
Planning your organizationChronological order
Another strategy for arranging ideas in chronological order is to use a sequence chart or time line.
REM (rapid eye
movement)
deep sleep; tissue growth and repair; slow breathing
cycle repeats itself 5 more times
(starting with light sleep)
body temperature drops; breathing and heart rate
slow
awakelight sleep;
muscle activity slows
sequence chart
Planning your organizationChronological order
light
sleep
; mus
cle
act
ivity
slows
body
tem
pera
ture
drop
s; b
reat
hing
and
hear
t rat
e slo
w
deep
sleep
; tiss
ue
grow
th a
nd re
pair;
slow b
reat
hing
REM (r
apid
eye
mov
emen
t)
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
time line
Planning your organizationSpatial order
Use spatial order to describe a place, a person, or an object. Arrange your details or ideas according to their location in space:
• left to right, right to left
• inside to outside, outside to inside
• top to bottom, bottom to top
• near to far, far to near
crust: outer layer; thinnest layer
Description of Layers of the Earth
mantle: consistency of asphalt
outer core: nickel and iron in liquid state
core: heavy metals (nickel and iron) in solid state
outside to inside
Planning your organizationSpatial order
In addition to using note cards, you can use a circle diagram or web diagram to show ideas in spatial order.
Layers ofthe Earth
innercore
outer core
mantle
crust outside
inside
outside to insideinside to outside
circle diagram
Planning your organizationSpatial order
pantry
Top cereal
crackersoatmeal
Bottomsandwich bags
lunch boxes
Leftcanned vegetables
soup
Rightpastarice
web diagram
Planning your organizationLogical order
You’ll use logical order when you want to explain or classify. Group related details or ideas together to show their relationship.
• comparing and contrasting
• defining• dividing a topic
into partshave a beak
no beakcurved dorsal
fin
triangular dorsal fin
spade-shaped teeth
cone-shaped teeth
Planning your organizationLogical order
You’ll use logical order when you want to explain or classify. Group related details or ideas together to show their relationship.
• comparing and contrasting
• defining• dividing a topic
into parts
have a beak no beak
curved dorsal fin
triangular dorsal fin
spade-shaped teeth
cone-shaped teeth
Dolphins Porpoises
Planning your organizationLogical order
Charts or Venn diagrams are also good ways to organize ideas and details in logical order.
NoneLongBeak
TriangularCurvedDorsal fin
Spade-shapedCone-shapedTeeth
PorpoisesDolphins
chart
Planning your organizationLogical order
Dolphins Porpoises
• have a curved dorsal fin
• have a beak
• have cone-shaped teeth
• have a triangular dorsal fin
• have no beak
• have spade-shaped teeth
marine mammals
Venn diagram
avoid the sun, especially at midday 1
Planning your organizationOrder of importance
Use order of importance when you want to inform or persuade readers. Arrange your ideas from least to most important or least to most powerful (or vice versa).
wear sunscreen year round 2
wear protective clothing 3
avoid tanning beds/booths 4
check your skin regularly 5
have regular skin exams at your doctor 6
most important least important
Planning your organizationOrder of importance
Another way to arrange your ideas in order of importance is to use a pyramid diagram.
most important
least important
avoid the sun at midday
wear sunscreen year round
wear protective clothing
check your skin
visit doctor
avoid tanning beds
With some types of writing, such as fact-based informative writing, an outline can be helpful in organizing both broad ideas and specific details.
Creating an outline
Thesis: Skin cancer, the most common type of cancer in America, can be prevented simply by protecting skin from the sun.
I. Wear sunscreen year round.A. Choose a sunscreen with broad-
spectrum protection.1. UVB protection2. UVA-shorter wavelengths3. UVA-remaining wavelengths
B. Sunscreen needs to be reapplied every two hours.1. after sweating2. after swimming3. after drying off
What kind of organization—spatial, logical, chronological, order of importance—would you use in writing about each of the topics below? Be prepared to discuss your answers.
Your Turn 1: Choose an order
1. a description of your room
2. the events of your day, so far
3. places you would like to visit
4. a comparison and contrast of your two favorite foods
Choose one of the topics below and brainstorm some ideas for writing about that topic. Come up with 10–12 ideas. Then, use one of the graphic organizers presented in this lesson to arrange your ideas.
Your Turn 2: Arrange ideas
1. a description of your room
2. the events of your day, so far
3. places you would like to visit
4. a comparison and contrast of your two favorite foods