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In my last blog post (https://community.pennfoster.edu/community/blogs/language-matters/blog/2012/07/25/the-writing-skills-writing-assignment-getting-it-right-the-first-time), I wrote in depth about the requirements and expectations for Written Communication exam 007868, The Writing Skills Writing Assignment. Since I received a good deal of feedback thanking me for clarifying some points and even more asking me how to begin, I thought it might be a good idea to use this week’s post to address some strategies for tackling this assignment.
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Topic Choice
Your very first step is to choose a topic. This sounds simple; however, as many of you may already know, this step can be incredibly tricky. You will need to choose a topic that centers around your direct experience AND one that will merit at least 750 words of explanation. My best advice would be to ask yourself some questions….
- If someone didn’t know you, what one story would you choose to tell that person about your life so that he or she could understand a bit more about who you are?
- If you were asked to summarize the best day or event of your life, which event would you choose to discuss? Why?
- If you were asked to summarize the worst day or event of your life, which event would you choose? Why?
- If you had to choose the most important day or event in your life, good or bad, what would it be? Why?
- If you had to choose the most significant relationship in your life, which relationship would you choose? How are this person and your relationship significant to who you are today?
- If you were asked to relay the most vivid memory from your childhood, what would it be? Why do you think your memory of this event is so clear?
- If you were asked by a stranger why you are not enrolled in a traditional high school, what would you say? How did you come to be enrolled with Penn Foster?
Prewriting
Once you have a topic in place, you’re ready to start prewriting. Whether you choose to brainstorm, create an idea web, or freewrite, prewriting is an important part of the writing process and should not be overlooked. This stage of writing will allow you to sort through all of your ideas and choose the events and details that are most pertinent to your story.
For help with prewriting, I would suggest using this site. Bubbl.us is a graphic interface that will allow you to create word maps so you can visually discern with which topics the bulk of your information exists. After mapping out your ideas on Bubbl, you may decide to change the focus or direction of your story to include the angle that will allow the most details (and, subsequently, merit the most words).
Planning
When you have completed the prewriting exercise(s) of your choice, you are ready to move on to the planning stage of your project. Whether you create an outline or a map is up to you; however, I would encourage you to NOT skip this step. Outlining and mapping will allow you to see how your essay will flow from one topic to the next, letting you easily figure out where breaks may exist in information. The more errors you can eliminate before the final draft, the better.
For help with planning, I would suggest using this site. The graphic organizer from ReadWriteThink.org allows you to map out your essay. This site is great in that it prompts the user to enter specific information, then puts it all together so that you are able to see how the document will flow from introduction to conclusion. Also, after you have entered all of your information, this site will allow you to print, save, or share your map. You may immediately begin work on your final draft or save your map for future use.
I hope that this information will help those of you who are struggling with this assignment. For my next post, I will be instructing you on how to move from planning to actual writing. Stay tuned!
~Alanna