PART 1.

Instructions

Demonstrate: Writing Preparation

Evaluation Title: Pre-writing and Outlining

For this assignment, you prepare to write a This I Believe essay by generating ideas and planning how to organize your essay.

Complete a 5-minute free write

• Consider this question: “What are your most cherished beliefs?”
  • When you freewrite, you write without stopping for a set period of time.
  • Do not worry about spelling or grammar.
  • Do not censor your ideas, just keep writing.
  • If you get stuck, repeat a prompting question or the topic until something comes to you.
  • Freewriting is about quantity rather than quality.
  • We’ll reverse that philosophy when we start writing your essay, but for now focus on generating as many ideas as you can.
  • When freewriting, you are not evaluated on how good your ideas are – just that you have a lot of writing and thoughts to work with.

Create an outline or skeleton draft for the This I Believe Essay

• Include clear direction for each paragraph of your essay.
  • An outline follows a specific format for organizing your ideas into paragraphs with some details mapped out.
  • A skeleton draft is writing what you imagine the first sentence of each paragraph will be to get a picture of your essay sub-topics from start to finish.
  • You do not need to write the full essay, just map out a few of the ideas for each paragraph.

Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 30 minutes
See a sample of what this assignment looks like here: Sample prewriting and planning assignment [Word document]

Step #1: Prewriting

Chosen Method: Freewriting for five minutes

What beliefs influence my daily actions? Well, I try to be passionate about everything I do. There sare some things in life we just have to do, but we need to try to make even those boring things fun. Or funish. When I was a kid, and I had to clean, I would pretend I was Cinderella and my bossy stepsisters were ordering me to clean faster. It helped me get through my chores having a (somewahat) godo time. I don’t really pretend like that anymore but I do try to find a way to get into the things I’m not into at first. I have to take a stats clas right now and I have always been indimidated by math so I was worried about being able to do well in the calss and find it interesting. But, I eended up finding ways to make it relevant to my life. I have to read a lot of scholarly articles, so I look at how the statistics relate to articles I have read. I also think about how stats play a part in… It doesn’t make me love statistcs, but it makes getting through the calss easier than I thought it would be. I am trying to think of another belief that impacts my daty to day actions. I believe in being kind. I think it takes more work to be mean or to resent or hold a grudge. I feel better and live my life easier when I am kind and considerate. I don’t know if that’s kind of trite, but I try to be kind . My son and I wrote a list of guiding principles when he was younger. Theary are good beliefs to live by. The y are be respectful, be kind, practice patience, be honest, don’t be wasteful, listen to the grown ups in charge. I believe in being open. I think be honest is one of the principles I believe in most. I guess sometimes I shouldfilter a little more, but I woul rather be true and genuine although that can bring judgement or consequences at times.

Step #2: Planning

Option 1: Outline

Making My Own Fun

I. Introduction paragraph

a. Chores as a kid

b. Playing Cinderella

II. My experience in school

i. Find the relevance

ii. Social element

III. My experience in work

i. Social element

ii. Find passion in helping others

IV. Passing on the fun concept to my son

i. Modeling making chores fun

ii. Modeling helping others

V. Conclusion – Make my own fun… Return to childhood example…

Or

Option 2: Skeleton Draft

Making My Own Fun

I believe having fun is a choice.

As a child, I found ways to make classes in school fun.

I also find ways to make work fun.

Now I am passing on the concept of having fun to my son.

In the future, I know my ability to make the most of situations will continue to be beneficial.