As we all know, the Internet is made of words and in order to improve your writing skills, use pre-writing/ invention strategies:

Writing is a way in which we learn, figure out what we know or do not know about a topic, and to understand a topic better; therefore, the best way to write about something is to use pre-writing strategies. Roen, Glau, and Maid (2008) states, “Many famous writers have commented that they cannot really know what they think about something until they write about it.” Therefore, tried-and-true writing strategies help us learn, discover, explore, and understand the topic that we choose to write about.  

Paraphrasing, muddiest point, and the double-entry notebook are three pre-writing/invention strategies that are effective in generating ideas, knowledge, and information and upon experimentation, I have found them to be the most effective of all the other pre-writing/invention strategies. It is important to implement more than one strategy and this essay will compare and contrast the three most effective ones as well as list the least effective pre-writing/invention strategy and why it was the most ineffective.

Paraphrasing is a most effective way of understanding a topic because it requires you to put information about the topic into your own words. According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary a paraphrase is “a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form.” By restating and explaining something in my own words, I was able to have a better understanding of the topic. If I could not paraphrase certain parts then I knew that I needed to do more studying and/or research in order to understand the topic better so that I could put it into my own words.

The effective strategy of muddiest point required writing down ideas and concepts that I did not understand in order to use writing to help clarify my thinking. I found using the muddiest point strategy highly effective when I could not understand something that I had read in my other college course. I made a list of things that I could not understand and then used the Internet to conduct some research on the topic of SQL. Then I jotted down important information that was useful in organizing what I read and found that using a muddiest-point entry was indeed extremely helpful in make sense of what I could not understand earlier.

The double-entry notebook was the third most effective pre-writing/invention strategy in my experimentation as it allowed me to take notes on a topic and also to jot down my own thoughts and questions right beside the related entry. The double-entry notebook has two columns. The left column contains information that is related to the context. In other words, this was where I took notes about my college course reading. Then in the column on the right side of the page, I wrote questions, responses, and jots that related to my notes on the left side. The double-entry notebook was effective in creating a “dialogue” between the two columns and I was able to answer my own questions as I saw the information laid out side by side.

Some pre-writing/invention strategies may not be effective as I discovered in the strategy of listing. Listing required me to create lists of keywords that would help me to remember more ideas for later writing. Categories of these keywords were created in the attempt to provide clarification and a solution to a problem. Yet I found that in my mind I was constantly listing and categorizing keywords automatically. Therefore, I felt that doing what I already do subconsciously and consciously and putting it all in writing was a waste of time and using key words was not enough to provide additional information or to jog my memory. Listing did not give me enough information to work in the way that it is supposed to work and, needless to say, listing was the most ineffective invention strategy for me.

Pre-writing/invention techniques help to generate writing ideas (such as blogging topics and the right words to create a buzz online), gain information, and acquire knowledge as writing is a very effective way in which we learn, figure out what we know or do not know about a topic, and to understand a topic better. It is often said that in order to improve your writing skills, you must understand the topic and in order to gain more knowledge of the topic. The many benefits of pre-writing/invention strategies include learning and figuring things out as you use writing to work through processes, jotting and brainstorming ideas, and categorizing keywords for research purposes. Other benefits include finding solutions to problems, clarifying what you do not fully understand, and gathering new ideas. From putting the information into your own words, which leads to further understanding and/or discovering which areas you need to do more learning, to finding answers through the strategy of questioning, the benefits of using pre-writing/invention strategies are many. Regardless of the purpose of writing, these strategies will assist in generating information and knowledge through invention techniques. There are many different pre-writing/invention strategies and techniques and they are highly effective in preparing one to write, regardless of the type and purpose of a writing that needs to be accomplished. It is best to experiment and figure which one is most effective and applicable for you.

References

paraphrase. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved January 23, 2010, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paraphrase

Roen, D., Glau, G.R., & Maid, B.M. (2008). The Brief McGraw-Hill Guide. New York, NY:  McGraw-Hill.

by Lena Hunt

Contact lena@celebritizeyou.com if you have comments and questions regarding this blog or other related topics.

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