PRE-WRITING FOR OUR PAPERS

To prepare to write your paper and to prepare for your two minute presentation, I would like for you to write an unedited full page of text in which you explore your topic without any intention of using any of the words, sentences, or paragraphs in this page in the final product. The goal is to sit down and write out the ideas that make you want to write about your topic.

Start by opening your word process, and type, "I want to write about _______ [which can be a theme you see in the course, a specific text, etc.] because I was really interested in ______." You can then write about why that's interesting and what you think it means in order to start building an argument about what specific interpretation you are going to use as a thesis. Write about specific details that you think are important to process as part of your argument, and chase down a line a thought about what a line or an idea really means. Don't worry about it making sense, about it being grammatically correct, or any of the other concerns we bring to most formal writing experiences. The goal is to give you a chance to pour out a variety of thoughts that you can then review and harvest for your actual paper.

When you are done, post it to the appropriate forum on the discussion board as both a copy and paste AND attachment.