PRE- WRITING ACTIVITIES - WELCOME TO MY PAGE



PRE- WRITING ACTIVITIES

➢ Pre-writing helps you to get started with writing. Pre-writing is an important tool for writers.

➢ It is a valuable step in the writing process. It breaks through writer’s block, getting the ideas flowing and helping you find a starting point.

➢ As a result, it reduces the anxiety and frustration that you might have felt in the past as you began writing.

ACTIVITY 1: Getting to Know About Pre-Writing Activities

Task 1

Read the extract below on the benefits of using pre-writing activities.

Match the headings with the appropriate paragraphs in the box provided. Do this task individually.

Extract

2: What are the different types of pre-writing activities?

To brainstorm for ideas to write about, you ask yourself questions about your topic. The answers can provide details for your essay. Sometimes the question that offers up the most is the simple question “Why?” In addition, you may find the following questions helpful:

|Why did it happen? |What is it like? |

|How did it happen? |What is it different from? |

|Who was involved? |What does it look like? |

|When did it happen? |Why is it important? |

|Where did it happen? |Who would care about it? |

|Could it happen again? |What causes it? |

|What does it mean? |What are its effects? |

|How does it work? |What is it related to? |

|Why does this matter to me? |What examples are there? |

|Why does this matter to my reader? |How can it be explained? |

Source: Clouse, B.F.(1993) Working it out. (p.22)

Source: Singleton, J. (2005). Writers at work (p. 39).

Source: Clouse, B.F.(1993) Working it out. (p.21)

Below you will see many exemplars of pre-writing activities.

Exemplar 1A - Describing a place

In this activity, you will write a description of the hometown of one of your classmates. Ask your partner questions about his hometown.

Exemplar 1B - Describing a place

Write a letter to a friend who is coming to visit you. You plan to take him/her to visit the places of interest in your hometown. Write to him/her and inform him/her about your plans.

Activity A

Work in pairs.

Before you write, make a list of the places to go and things to do.

|Places to go |Things to do |

| | |

|1 |1 |

|2 |2 |

|3 |3 |

|4 |4 |

|5 |5 |

Now, put a tick on two places you want to focus on in your essay. Then, make a list of the things to do based on the two places you have chosen. Organize your points according to your proposed plan.

Activity B

An incomplete letter is given below. Complete the letter using your points above.

Exemplar 1C - Describing a room

When you describe a place, you use space order to explain where things are located. The easiest way to do this is to choose a starting point.

Then you describe where things are located in relation to your starting point. For example, when describing a room, choose a starting point and move clockwise around the room. Other methods are left to right, top to bottom, and back to front.

Word bank

| |

|bed |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

Activity B

What adjectives would you use to describe the room? Develop the word bank to help you describe the room.

Word bank

| |

|clean |

Activity C

When you want to explain where something is located, you need to use the correct preposition. Tick the prepositions in the box that will help you to write about your brother’s room.

| |

|on beside in front of |

| |

|next to between under |

| |

|above next to behind |

| |

Activity D (Writing)

My Brother’s Room

The room is small and neat. There is …………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

| |

|Which of these pre-writing activities (A, B, C) would you use with your pupils? Why? |

| |

Exemplar 1D - Describing people

When you describe what a person looks like, you write about the physical characteristics such as height, weight, and hair colour.

Again, the key to writing a good description is to use details that help the reader imagine the person you are describing.

Activity A

At the last minute, Ros is unable to go to the airport. Her brother Johan has agreed to pick Peter up instead. Ros is writing a note to Johan describing Peter so that he will be able to find him.

What should Ros’ note say? The following questions will help you.

Discuss what Ros will write in her note.

• Is he tall or short?

•

•

•

Activity B (Writing)

Pretend you are Ros. Write a note to Johan describing Peter.

Dear Johan,

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exemplar 1E

Describing people

You are interested in finding a pen pal from other states in Malaysia.

Write a short profile to describe yourself as well as what you are looking for in a pen pal. This will be published in a magazine.

| |

|A profile is a short description of a person. In the profile below, a writer describes important things about himself and|

|what he is looking for in another person in order to get a pen pal. Read the profile carefully. |

To write your profile, follow the steps below.

Step 1

Read the profile of the boy below.

Step 2

Tick the adjectives in the box that describe you.

Step 3

Underline words in the box that describe what kind of pen pal you would like.

|romantic |funny |lucky |friendly |

|amazing |creative |determined |cheerful |

|lazy |honest |confident |outgoing |

|contented |hardworking |shy |kind |

|quiet |responsible |serious |caring |

Step 4

Write sentences about yourself with at least three of the adjectives from the box above.

Examples

I am hardworking. I study hard and read many story books in my free time.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Step 5

Make a list of your favourite past time.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Step 6

Now, write your profile and what you are looking for in a pen pal.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exemplar 1F - Describing places

The pupils of year 4 Merah have been chosen to take part in the ASEAN student exchange programme. They have to write an article on Kuala Lumpur to introduce our capital city to their friends from other countries.

Activity A

In groups of four to five, brainstorm and list down the attractions in Kuala Lumpur.

Highways KTM KL Tower National Museum

LRT

National

Mosque

Monorail

KL Tower

Bird Park

Central Market

Chinatown

Putrajaya

Night markets Shopping Complexes

Activity B

Now, choose two places of interest that you decide to write about. Include specific details.

Places of Interest

Example:

|Places of Interest |Things to see, do or buy at the place |

| | |

|Shopping | |

|i. Chinatown | |

| | |

| | |

|ii. Night Market | |

Activity C (Writing)

My City Kuala Lumpur

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exemplar 1G - A Haunted House

Write a short story on your experience in a haunted house. Think about the time you were really frightened.

Activity A

In a small group brainstorm the events, the adjectives and the vocabulary that will help you to write your story.

Brainstorming List

Write words and phrases- where, when and what happened – in the box below.

|Where |When |What (Events) |

|in my mother’s village |holiday | |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

Activity B

Briefly organize and state step by step what happened.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Activity C

Write words and phrases you can use to describe details of your scary experience.

Use active verbs, adjectives and sensory language.

|Active Verb | Adjectives |Sensory Language |

| | | |

|screaming |dark shadow |cold wet object |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

| |

|Would you use the activities above with your pupils? Why? |

Exemplar 1H

The Tiger and the Mousedeer

Write a short story based on the pictures given.

Source: Len, E. (ed.) (1991). Composition practice 2 (p.11).

Activity A

In a small group, brainstorm the events that will help you to write your story.

|Picture 1 |Picture 2 |

| | | | |

|a beehive on branch | |tiger planned | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

|Picture 3 |Picture 4 |

| | | | |

|mousedeer ran away | |beehive fell | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

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1. On those occasions when you write your essay about a topic of your own choice, pre-writing can help you think of one.

2. When your topic is assigned, pre-writing can help you narrow, or limit, your topic to one that is more manageable for the essay. In addition, pre-writing can help you discover an aspect of the topic that is interesting to you. When you write about a topic that interests you, you will be more enthusiastic about the essay. As a result, you are more likely to write a better essay.

3. Not only can you pre-write to discover a topic, but you can also pre-write to find out what you know about a topic. You probably have some knowledge or beliefs about most topics, and pre-writing can help you unlock this information from where it is stored in your mind. At the same time, pre-writing allows you to get a better understanding of what you do not know about a topic.

4. Once you have decided on a topic and explored what you know about it, you can use pre-writing techniques to help you formulate the idea or opinion that you want to express about that topic. In addition, you can use pre-writing as a tool to help you begin to sort through your thoughts about the topic so that you can determine which of those thoughts you want to include in your essay.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a widely used and effective way of getting ideas flowing. These ideas may be ideas for actual content, or ideas for organizing the content. Carried out individually, or better still, among a group of people, brainstorming involves thinking quickly and without inhibition so as to produce as many ideas as possible in a given area or on a given topic or problem.

Some of the ideas you write will be good. Others will not be useful. After you brainstorm you should read your ideas and choose the ones that you want to use in your writing.

Brainstorming is best done in a group, and it therefore both benefits from and contributes to a cooperative approach to learning. By using it, pupils learn that writers can profit from drawing on other people’s ideas as well as their own.

Brainstorming can be used to:

• choose a topic

• identify a reason or purpose for writing

• find an appropriate form in which to write

• develop a topic

• work out a plot

• develop the organization of ideas

Graphic Organiser

A graphic organizer is a drawing that shows ideas connected to each other in different ways. The purpose is to write down as many connected ideas as possible.

The advantage of a graphic organiser as an organizing strategy, particularly with descriptions, is that all the aspects of a topic can be seen in relation and in proportion to each other, and possible links between paragraphs or sections of an essay become easily apparent.

Source: Fellag, L.R.(2002) Write ahead. (p.4)

You can organize your notes with a graphic organizer like the one below.

[pic]

Listing

An idea generation list looks just like your shopping list: It is a vertical listing of things that occur to you, written in phrases rather than sentences.

To be successful at listing, you must not censor yourself; write down everything that occurs to you. Even if you are sure an idea is perfectly rotten, get it down anyway because it may prompt you to think of another, more worthy idea. Here is an idea generation list for staying healthy:

do not smoke cigarettes

exercise regularly

eat plenty of vegetables

get a medical check up

After listing, look over what you have and cross out ideas you do not want to use and/or add new ideas that occur to you.

A benefit of listing is that by numbering the ideas in the list in the order you want to treat them in your draft, you can easily develop a scratch outline.

Sometimes you may wish to write a second list focusing only on one of the points in your first list.

Imagine you are a tourist guide and you want to include some information about your friend’s hometown in a travel brochure. Talk to your partner about his or her hometown. Follow these steps.

Activity A

Make a list of questions to ask your partner. Here are some suggestions.

• Where is it located?

• What is the name of your hometown?

•

•

•

Activity B

Based on your discussion, identify the topic sentence and the details.

Topic sentence – Name of your friend’s hometown

Details -

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear ________________,

I was so happy when you called to tell me you were planning to come to ____________________ to visit me. There are lots of places to go and things to see and do here. We can ______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Love,

_______________

Your brother is away studying overseas. His room is vacant and you would like to rent it out. Look at the picture of your brother’s room. Then, write a short description of his room that you can put in the advertisement section of the newspaper.

(Describe the room clockwise).

Activity A

In small groups, discuss the picture and make a list of the things in the room. Develop a word bank and list down the things that are in the room.

Read this telephone conversation.

Amy: I am so glad you called. I have a big problem and I hope you can help me.

Ros: What’s the problem? I’ll help if I can.

Amy: My cousin is coming home tonight from his trip to Sabah and I’m supposed to pick him up at the airport at 7 o’clock. The problem is that I just found out I have to work late tonight. Can you pick him up for me?

Ros: Sure. What airline is he taking?

Amy: Malaysian Airlines. Flight MH214.

Ros: OK. But how will I recognize him?

Amy: Well, he’s quite tall and slim. He wears glasses, and he wears jeans and T-shirt. He also has black curly hair and a beard.

Ros: What’s his name?

Amy: Peter Tay.

Ros: OK, no problem. I’ll find him.

Amy: Thank you so much.

Adapted from: Blanchard, K. & Root, C. (2003). Ready to write (p. 70)

Name : Mike

Age and gender : 15- year- old male

City : Penang

About me : I am a student in SMK Mahkota. I love listening to music and

swimming. I am a friendly person. In school, I like Biology and English.

Looking for: I want to find a pen pal, male or female, who is about my age. I like to to correspond with someone who is outgoing and who is interested in talking about

all sorts of things.

Adapted from: Fellag, L.R. (2002). Write ahead. (p. 27)

Kuala

Lumpur

Transport

Shopping

Sight-

seeing

Famous

Buildings

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