Ex. 6

FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II

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INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITING

INSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield

Ex. 6

English 1010

James Maxfield, Instructor

Exercise # 6

Pre-Writing Exercise

A number of techniques and strategies will be discussed that can help you to write better essays. These tools, if employed by writers prior to their actual writing of an essay, will make the writing much easier to complete, and the final result will be a much improved piece of writing.

Some of these tools (as discussed in our Strategy book and in class lecture) are as follows:

Brainstorming or Making a List
Clustering and Branching
Questioning and Answering
Free-Writing
Doing a quick & dirty (scratch) outline

Choose one of the following topics and use 3 of the techniques above to generate and expand your ideas concerning the topic.

Topic 1: Identify and Develop possible solutions for the parking problem at Tri-C.

Topic 2: Pres. Bush has announced a new 20-year plan for the space program which includes sending a manned spaceship to Mars. What are your thoughts about this?

Topic 3: College textbooks seem to be overpriced. Discuss your thoughts on this problem.

Topic 4: Discuss your perceptions of the benefits of finishing a college degree.

Topic 5: Should criminals be required to make full financial restitution to an injured innocent party (or their heirs) in addition to possible incarceration (jail time)? What would be the implications of such a law?