12:46 morning - Just what I want to do in the morning - If you can't think of *mething to say, just write about anything. Right! Time to get this over with 10 of 21 experience - should have talked - I can think of plenty of times I should e kept quiet! I should have brought a bottle of water to class. I wonder what the people next to me are writing about. That reminds me. Next to me. Jeff Servin in chemistry. The time I saw him cheating. I was mad but I didn't do anything. 38 Invention I studied so hard and all he did was cheat. I was so mad. Nobody else seemed to care. What's the difference between now and then? It's only a year and a half....Honor code? Maturity? A lot of people cheated in high school. I bet I could write about this Before and after, etc. My attitude then and now. After some initial thought, Laura discovered an idea that could be the basis for her essay. Although her discussion of the incident still had to be devel- oped, Laura's freewriting helped her come up with a possible topic for her essay: a time she saw someone cheating and did not speak out. Exercise 5 Do a five-minute freewriting exercise on one of the topics you generated in Exercise 4 (page 36). Exercise 6 Read what you have just written, underline the most interesting ideas, and choose one idea as a topic you could write about in a short essay. Freewrite about this topic for another five minutes to narrow it further and to gener- ate ideas for your essay. Underline the ideas that seem most useful. Finding Something to Say Once you have narrowed your subject to a workable topic, you need to find something to say about it. Brainstorming and journal writing are useful tools for generating ideas, and both can be helpful at this stage of the writ- ing process (and whenever you need to find additional material). Brainstorming Brainstorming is a way of discovering ideas about your topic. You can brainstorm in a group, exchanging ideas with several students in your composition class and noting the most useful ideas. You can also brain- storm on your own, quickly recording every fact, idea, or detail you can think of that relates to your topic. Your notes might include words, phrases, statements, questions, or even drawings or diagrams. Jot them down in the order in which you think of them. Some of the items may be inspired by your class notes; others may be ideas you got from reading or from talking with friends; and still other items may be ideas you have be- gun to wonder about, points you thought of while moving from subject to topic, or thoughts that occurred to you as you brainstormed. Invention 39 A STUDENT WRITER: Brainstorming To a harania bruchan and find anmachine on a shave is Lau gordonstate.view.usg.edu 12:46 1 of 21 : 2 Invention Invention, or prewriting, is an important (and, frequently, the most neglected) part of the writing process. During invention, you discover what interests you about your subject and consider what ideas to develop in your essay. When you are given a writing assignment, you may be tempted to start writing a first draft immediately. Before writing, however, you should be sure you understand your assignment and its limits, and you should think about what you want to say. Time spent on these issues now will pay off later when you draft your essay. Understanding Your Assignment Almost everything you write in college begins as an assignment. Some assignments will be direct and easy to understand: Write about an experience that changed your life. Discuss the procedure you used to synthesize ammonia. Others will be difficult and complex: Using Jonathan Kozol's essay "The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society" as source material, write an essay using as your thesis the following state- ment by James Madison: "A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives." Before beginning to write, you need to understand exactly what your assignment is asking you to do. If the assignment is a question, read it care- fully several times, and underline its key words. If the assignment is given orally by your instructor, be sure to copy it accurately. (A mistaken word- analyze for compare, for example - can make quite a difference.) If you are confused about anything, ask your instructor for clarification. Remember that no matter how well written an essay is, it will fall short if it does not address the assignment. 30 J Invention Cattina Limite gordonstate.view.usg.edu 29

12:46 morning - Just what I want to do in the morning - If you can't think of *mething to say, just write about anything. Right! Time to get this over with 10 of 21 experience - should have talked - I can think of plenty of times I should e kept quiet! I should have brought a bottle of water to class. I wonder what the people next to me are writing about. That reminds me. Next to me. Jeff Servin in chemistry. The time I saw him cheating. I was mad but I didn't do anything. 38 Invention I studied so hard and all he did was cheat. I was so mad. Nobody else seemed to care. What's the difference between now and then? It's only a year and a half....Honor code? Maturity? A lot of people cheated in high school. I bet I could write about this Before and after, etc. My attitude then and now. After some initial thought, Laura discovered an idea that could be the basis for her essay. Although her discussion of the incident still had to be devel- oped, Laura's freewriting helped her come up with a possible topic for her essay: a time she saw someone cheating and did not speak out. Exercise 5 Do a five-minute freewriting exercise on one of the topics you generated in Exercise 4 (page 36). Exercise 6 Read what you have just written, underline the most interesting ideas, and choose one idea as a topic you could write about in a short essay. Freewrite about this topic for another five minutes to narrow it further and to gener- ate ideas for your essay. Underline the ideas that seem most useful. Finding Something to Say Once you have narrowed your subject to a workable topic, you need to find something to say about it. Brainstorming and journal writing are useful tools for generating ideas, and both can be helpful at this stage of the writ- ing process (and whenever you need to find additional material). Brainstorming Brainstorming is a way of discovering ideas about your topic. You can brainstorm in a group, exchanging ideas with several students in your composition class and noting the most useful ideas. You can also brain- storm on your own, quickly recording every fact, idea, or detail you can think of that relates to your topic. Your notes might include words, phrases, statements, questions, or even drawings or diagrams. Jot them down in the order in which you think of them. Some of the items may be inspired by your class notes; others may be ideas you got from reading or from talking with friends; and still other items may be ideas you have be- gun to wonder about, points you thought of while moving from subject to topic, or thoughts that occurred to you as you brainstormed. Invention 39 A STUDENT WRITER: Brainstorming To a harania bruchan and find anmachine on a shave is Lau gordonstate.view.usg.edu 12:46 1 of 21 : 2 Invention Invention, or prewriting, is an important (and, frequently, the most neglected) part of the writing process. During invention, you discover what interests you about your subject and consider what ideas to develop in your essay. When you are given a writing assignment, you may be tempted to start writing a first draft immediately. Before writing, however, you should be sure you understand your assignment and its limits, and you should think about what you want to say. Time spent on these issues now will pay off later when you draft your essay. Understanding Your Assignment Almost everything you write in college begins as an assignment. Some assignments will be direct and easy to understand: Write about an experience that changed your life. Discuss the procedure you used to synthesize ammonia. Others will be difficult and complex: Using Jonathan Kozol's essay "The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society" as source material, write an essay using as your thesis the following state- ment by James Madison: "A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives." Before beginning to write, you need to understand exactly what your assignment is asking you to do. If the assignment is a question, read it care- fully several times, and underline its key words. If the assignment is given orally by your instructor, be sure to copy it accurately. (A mistaken word- analyze for compare, for example - can make quite a difference.) If you are confused about anything, ask your instructor for clarification. Remember that no matter how well written an essay is, it will fall short if it does not address the assignment. 30 J Invention Cattina Limite gordonstate.view.usg.edu 29