In-Class Writing Exercises

If you find yourself wishing that your students would write more thoughtful papers or think more deeply about the issues in your course, this handout may help you. At the Writing Center, we have found that giving students targeted writing tasks or exercises encourages them to think through problems, generate ideas, and communicate more fully. Here you'll find targeted exercises and ways to adapt them for use in your course or with particular students.

Writing requires making a series of choices. We can help students most by teaching them how to recognize when a choice must be made, whether the student needs to choose a topic, interpret the requirements of an assignment, decide how to start writing, select evidence, pick the right word, or determine which sentences need revision. We can introduce students to a process of generating and sorting ideas by teaching them how to use exercises to build ideas. With an understanding of how to discover and arrange ideas, they will have more success in getting their ideas onto the page in clear prose.

Through critical thinking exercises, students move from a vague or felt sense of course material to a place where they can make explicit choices about how words represent their ideas and how they might best arrange them. While some students may not recognize some of these activities as "writing," they may see that doing this work will help them do the thinking that leads to stronger papers.

Exercises

Brainstorming

In order to write a paper for a class, students need ways to move from received knowledge of the course material to a separate, more synthesized or analytical understanding. For some students, this begins to happen internally, through what we call "thinking": unvoiced mulling, sorting, comparing, speculating, applying, etc. that leads to new perspectives, understanding, questions, and reactions. This thinking is often furthered through class discussion, and some students easily move from these initial sortings of ideas into complex, logical interpretations of material. But many students' thinking will remain unorganized and vague. They may have trouble moving beyond a simple reaction or vague sense towards ideas that are more processed or complex. We can foster the move to a deeper understanding by providing opportunities for students to externalize and fix their ideas on paper so that they can more easily see their ideas and begin to identify the relationships among them. Completing the following activities will help students both generate and clarify initial responses to course material:

Brainstorming Exercises

Free-writing Find a clock, watch, or timer to help you keep track of time. Choose a topic, idea, or question you would like to consider. It can be a specific detail or a broad concept—whatever you are interested in exploring at the moment. Write (on paper or on a computer) for 7-10 minutes non-stop on that topic. If you get stuck and don't know what to say next, write "I'm stuck and don't know what to say next…" or try asking yourself "what else?" until another idea comes to you. Do not concern yourself with spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Your goal is to generate as much as you can about the topic in a short period of time and to get used to the feeling of articulating ideas on the page. It's o.k. if what you write is messy or makes sense only to you. You can repeat this exercise several times, using the same topic or a variety of topics connecting to your subject. Read what you have written to see if you have discovered anything about your subject or found a line of questioning you'd like to pursue.
Clustering/Webbing Find a clock, watch, or timer to help you keep track of time. Put a word you'd like to explore in the center of a piece of paper and put a circle around it. As fast as you can, jot down anywhere on the page as many words as you can think of associated with your center word. If you get stuck, go back to the center word and launch again. Speed is important and quantity is your goal. Don't discount any word or phrase that comes to you; just put it down on the page. Jot words for between 5-10 minutes. When you are finished, you will have a page filled with seemingly random words. Read around on the page and see if you have discovered anything or can see connections between any ideas.
Listing On a piece of paper, list all the ideas you can think of connected to subjects you are considering exploring. Consider any idea or observation as valid and worthy of listing. List quickly and then set your list aside for a few minutes. Come back and read your list and do the exercise again.
Cubing This technique helps you look at your subject from six different points of view (imagine the 6 sides of a cube and you get the idea). Take your topic or idea and 1) describe it, 2) compare it, 3) associate it with something else you know, 4) analyze it (break it into parts), 5) apply it to a situation you are familiar with, and 6) argue for or against it. Write at a paragraph, page, or more about each of the six points of view on your subject.
Journalistic questions Write these questions down the left hand margin of a piece of paper: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Think about your topic in terms of each question.
What? So what? Now what? To begin to explore an idea, first ask yourself, "What do I want to explore?" and write about that topic for a page or more. Then read what you have written and ask, "So what?" of the ideas expressed so far. Again, write for a page or more. Finally ask yourself, "Now what?" to begin to think about what else you might consider or where you might go next with an idea.
Defining terms Although this suggestion is simple and may seem obvious, it is often overlooked. Write definitions for key terms or concepts in your own words. Find others' articulations of the terms in your course readings, the dictionary, or through conversations and compare the definitions to your own. Seek input from your instructor if you can't get a working definition of a term for yourself.
Summarizing positions Sometimes it's helpful to simply describe what you know as a way to solidify your own understanding of something before you try to analyze or synthesize new ideas. You can summarize readings one author or article at a time, or you can combine what you think are similar perspectives into a summary of a position. Try to be brief in your description of the readings. Write a paragraph or up to a page describing a reading or a position.
Metaphor writing Metaphors or similes are comparisons sometimes using the words "like" or "as"— for example, "writing is like working out" or the "sky is as blue as map water" or "the keyboard swam with ideas." When you create a metaphor, you put one idea in terms of another and thereby create a new vision of the original idea. Sometimes a metaphor or simile may help you understand your view of an idea before you can express it fully in sentences or paragraphs. Write a metaphor or simile and then explain to someone why your metaphor works or what it means to you.
Applying ideas to personal circumstances or known situations Sometimes ideas come clearest when you can put them in a frame that is meaningful to you. Take a concept from your reading assignments and apply it to a situation in your own life or to a current event with which you are familiar. You may not end up using this application in your final draft, but applying the concept to something you know will help you to understand it better and prepare you to analyze the idea as your instructor directs.

Organizing

Once students have something on the page to work with, they can begin the decision-making process crucial to developing a coherent idea or argument. At this point, students will choose which ideas most appeal to them, which ideas seem to fit together, which ideas need to be set aside, and which ideas need further exploration. The following activities will help students make choices as they shape ideas:

Organizing Exercises

Drawings and diagrams Sometimes it helps to look for the shape your ideas seem to be taking as you develop them. Jot down your main ideas on the page and then see if you can connect them in some way. Do they form a square? A circle? An umbrella with spokes coming down? A pyramid? Does one idea seem to sit on a shelf above another idea? Would equal signs or greater/less signs help you express the relationships you see among your ideas? Can you make a flow chart depicting the relationships among your ideas? Common diagrams include timelines and comparison/contrast charts.
Making piles Try sorting your ideas into separate piles. You can do this by putting ideas on note cards or scraps of paper and physically moving them into different piles. You can also do this on your computer by cutting and pasting ideas into a variety of groups on the screen (perhaps sorting them under different headings).
Scrap pile Be prepared to keep a scrap pile of ideas somewhere as you work. Some people keep this pile as a separate document; others keep notes at the bottom of a page where they store sentences or thoughts for potential use later on. Remember that it is sometimes important to cut out some ideas as a way to clarify and improve the ones you have decided to develop.
Shifting viewpoints (role-playing) When you begin to feel you have some understanding of your idea, it sometimes help to look at it from another person's point of view. You can do this by role-playing someone who disagrees with your conclusions or who has a different set of assumptions about your subject. Make a list or write a dialogue to begin to explore the other perspective.
Applying an idea to a new situation If you have developed a working thesis, test it out by applying it to another event or situation. If your idea is clear, it will probably work again, or you will find other supporting instances of your theory.
Problem/solution writing Sometimes it helps to look at your ideas through a problem-solving lens. To do so, first briefly outline the problem as you see it or define it. Make sure you are thorough in listing all the elements that contribute to the creation of the problem. Next, make a list of potential solutions. Remember, there is likely to be more than one possible solution.
Theory/application writing If your assignment asks you to develop a theory or an argument, abstract it from the situation at hand. Does your theory hold throughout the text? Would it apply to a new situation, or can you think of a similar situation where it would work in the same way? Explain your ideas on paper or to a friend.
Defining critical questions You may have lots of evidence or information and still feel uncertain what you should do with it or how you should write about it. Look at your evidence and see if you can find repeated information or a repeated missing piece. See if you can write a question or a series of questions that summarize the most important ideas in your paper. Once you have the critical questions, you can begin to organize your ideas around potential answers to the questions.
Explaining/teaching an idea to someone else Sometimes the most efficient way to clarify your ideas is to explain them to someone else. The other person need not be knowledgeable about your subject—in fact, it sometimes helps if he or she isn't familiar with your topic. This person should be willing to listen and interrupt you when he or she doesn't follow you. As you teach someone else, you may begin to have more confidence in the shape of your ideas, or you may be able to identify and fix the holes in your argument.
Lining up evidence If you think you have a good idea of how something works, find evidence in your course material, through research in the library, or on the web that supports your thinking. If your ideas are strong or accurate, you should be able to find evidence to support them.
Rewriting an idea Sometimes what helps most is rewriting an idea over the course of several days. Take your central ideas and briefly explain them in a paragraph or two. The next day, without looking at the previous day's writing, write a new paragraph explaining your ideas. Try it again the next day. Over the course of three days, you may find your ideas becoming clearer, becoming more complex, or developing holes. In all cases, you will have a better idea of what you need to do next in writing your draft.

Drafting

As students work with their ideas, they gradually become prepared to present those ideas in a more complete, coherent form: they start to feel "ready to write." For most students, the tough moments of "really writing" begin at this point. Many will report that they have ideas but are having trouble getting them on the page. Some will suddenly be thrust into "writing a paper" mode and be both constrained and guided by their assumptions about what an assignment asks them to do, what academic writing is, and what prior experience has taught them about writing for teachers. Doing these exercises may ease students' entry into shaping their ideas for an assignment:

Drafting Exercises

Clarify all questions about the assignment Before you begin writing a draft, make sure you have a thorough understanding of what the assignment requires. You may be able to do this by summarizing your understanding of the assignment and emailing your summary to your TA or instructor, or you may be able to ask about the assignment in class or during office hours. If you have questions about which points to emphasize, the amount of evidence needed, etc., get clarification early. You might try writing something like, "I've summarized what I think I'm supposed to do in this paper. Am I on the right track?"
Write a letter describing what the paper is going to be about One of the simplest, most efficient exercises you can do to sort through ideas is to write a letter to yourself about what you are planning to write in your paper. You might start out, "My paper is going to be about…." Then you can go on to articulate what evidence you have to back up your ideas and what parts of your argument still feel shaky or rough. In about 20 minutes, you can easily have a good sense of what you are ready to write and of the problems you still need to solve in your paper.
Write a full draft Sometimes you don't know what you think until you see what you've said. Writing a full draft, even if you think the draft has problems, is sometimes important. You may find that your thesis appears in your conclusion paragraph.
Turn your ideas into a five-minute speech Pretend you have to give a five-minute speech to your classmates. How would you begin the speech? What would be your main point? What key information would you include? How much detail would you need to give the listener? What evidence would be most convincing or compelling for your audience?
Make a sketch of the paper Sometimes it helps to literally line up or order your evidence before you write. You can do so quickly by making a numbered list of your points. Your goal is something like a brief, informal outline—first, I am going to say this; next, I need to include this point; third, I need to mention this idea. The ideas should flow logically from one point to the next. If they don't—if you have to backtrack, go on a tangent, or otherwise make the reader wait to see the relationship between ideas—then you need to continue tinkering with the list.
Make an outline If you have successfully used formal outlines in the past, use one to structure your paper. If you haven't successfully used outlines, don't worry. Try some of the other techniques listed here instead.
Start with the easiest part If you have trouble getting started on a draft, write what feels to you like the easiest part first. There's nothing magic about starting at the beginning—unless that happens to be the easiest part for you. Write what you know for sure, and a beginning will probably emerge as you write.
Write the body of the paper first Sometimes it's helpful to deliberately NOT write the beginning or introductory paragraph first. See what you have to say in the bulk of your draft and then go back to craft a suitable beginning.
Write about your feelings about writing Sometimes it's helpful to begin a writing session by spending 5-10 minutes writing to yourself about your feelings about the assignment. Doing so can help you set aside uncertainty and frustration and get motivated to write your draft.
Write with the monitor/display turned off If you are really stuck, turn the computer monitor off and type your ideas. Since you can't see what you have written, you won't get caught up in editing or critiquing your writing as you first produce it. You may be amazed at the quantity and quality of ideas you can produce in a short time. You'll have to do significant cleanup later, of course, but it may be well worth it if this technique allows you to bang out a draft.
Write several alternatives (postpone decision-making) You may need to test out more than one idea before you settle into a particular direction for a paper. It can actually be more efficient to spend time writing in several directions—that is, trying out one idea for a while, then trying out another idea—than it is to try to fit all of your ideas into a single, less coherent draft. Your writing may take the form of brief overviews that begin, "If I were going to write about XYZ idea, I would…" until you are able to see which approach suits the assignment and your needs.
Write with a timer Sometimes what you need most is to get a lot of ideas out on paper in a single sitting. To do so, pretend you are taking an essay exam. Set a timer for an appropriate amount of time (1 hour? 3 hours?) depending on the amount of text you need to produce today. Assume that it will take you approximately 1 hour per page of text. Set a goal for the portion of your draft you must complete during the allotted time, and don't get up from your seat until the timer goes off.

Revising

As students use language to shape ideas, they begin to feel the need to test their ideas or move beyond their own perspectives. Sometimes we have ideas that make good sense to us, but when we try to voice them, they seem to confuse our readers or listeners. Once students have a complete draft of a paper, they need opportunities to share their thoughts so they can identify points where their ideas need further development. With feedback from an audience, students are better able to see the final decisions they still need to make in order for their ideas to reach someone. These decisions often concern word choice, organization, logic, evidence, and tone. Keep in mind that this stage of the writing process (getting feedback and revising) can be unsettling for some students. Having made lots of major decisions in getting their ideas down on the page, they may be reluctant to tackle yet another round of decision-making—but that is what is required for revising or clarifying ideas or sentences. Remind students that ideas don't exist apart from words, but in the words themselves. They will need to be able to sell their ideas to a specific audience through words and the arrangement of those words on the page.

Revising Exercises

Talk your paper Tell a friend what your paper is about. Pay attention to your explanation. Are all of the ideas you mentioned actually in the paper? Where are they? Point to them on the page(s). When you were talking, where did you start in explaining your ideas? Is that the most logical place to start? Does your paper match your oral description of it?
Ask someone to read your paper out loud to you Ask a friend to read your draft out loud to you. What do you hear? Where does your reader stumble? Sound confused? Have questions? Did your reader ever get lost in your text? Did your ideas flow in the order the reader expected them to? Was anything missing for the reader? Did the reader need more information at any point?
Share your draft with your instructor If you give them enough notice, many instructors are willing to read a draft of a paper. It sometimes helps to include your own assessment of the draft when you share it with a teacher. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the draft, as you see it, to begin a conversation. If an instructor cannot read your entire draft, he/she may still be able to read a particular paragraph or section about which you have an important question.
Share your draft with a classmate Arrange to exchange papers with a classmate several days before the due date. You can do so via email and make comments or ask questions using Word's comment function (Track Changes).
Look at your sentences Often you will need to analyze your draft at the sentence level. To do so, break your paper into a series of discrete sentences by putting a return after each period or end punctuation. Once you have your paper as a list of sentences, you can more easily see and solve sentence-level problems, like weak word choice, awkward sentence structure, and errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Try reading the sentences starting with the last sentence of the draft and moving backwards; doing so will take each sentence out of context and force you to see it as an individual bit of communication rather than gloss over it because it is part of a familiar argument or point.
Discuss key terms in your paper with someone else After you have completed a draft, it's sometimes helpful to look back at the key terms you are using to convey your ideas. It's easy, in the midst of thinking about an idea, to write in loaded language or code in which certain key words come to have special meanings for you that aren't necessarily shared by a reader. If you suspect that this is the case in your writing, talk about your key terms with a friend and ask that person to read your draft to see whether each idea is adequately explained for the reader.
Outline your draft After you have a complete draft, go back and outline what you have said. Next to each paragraph, write a word or phrase that summarizes the content of that paragraph. You might also look to see if you have topic sentences that convey the ideas of individual paragraphs. If you can't summarize the content of a paragraph, you probably have multiple ideas in play in that paragraph, and the paragraph may need revising. Once you have summarized each paragraph, turn your summary words into a list. How does the list flow? Is it clear how one idea connects to the next? Do you see any unnecessary repetition or jumping around? Are there gaps that need to be filled?
Underline your main point Highlight the main point of your paper. It should probably be in one sentence somewhere on the first page (though this depends on the assignment). If it's not, the reader will likely be lost and wondering what you paper is about as he or she reads through it. Your draft should not read like a mystery novel in which the reader has to wait until the end to have all the pieces fit together. Academic readers generally want to know what you are going to argue or present right away.
Ask someone without knowledge of the course to read your paper You can tell whether your draft works by sharing it with someone outside of the context. If that person can follow your ideas, someone inside the class should be able to as well.
Ask a reader to judge specific elements of your paper Share your draft with someone and ask them to read for something specific, like organization, punctuation, or transitions. A reader will give more specific feedback to you if you ask him/her some specific questions about the draft.

Implementing exercises

Many of these exercises can be used in short in-class writing assignments, as part of group work, or as incremental steps in producing a paper. If you've assigned an end-of-semester term paper, you may want to assign one or two activities from each of the four stages—brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising—at strategic points throughout the semester. You could also give the students the list of exercises for each stage and ask them to choose one or two activities to complete at each point as they produce a draft.

If you'd like to discuss how these exercises might work in your course or talk about other aspects of student writing, contact Vicki Behrens (vicki@unc.edu) at the Writing Center.