I know writing is hard for the college student. This especially holds true if you are not used to telling people what “you think” as opposed to just regurgitating the information in a paper written for a high school history or English class. In college, you write analytically. Meaning, you analyze what you read and make connections to your own ideas or connect them to another author’s ideas.
That said, when you enter your first year college writing course your professors are going to give you texts that on the outside may have nothing in common. Trust me, there’s a method to their madness. Professors aren’t going to give you an apple and an orange and ask you to make lemonade. The texts they assign for first year writing courses are designed to make you “think analytically” about the texts in question.
Here are some helpful pre-writing strategies, or journaling, to get you started before you tackle the rough draft of your essay. Now, this is the method I’ve tried and I’ve suggested to others. As with most learning and writing skills, there’s no one size fits all method. However, by taking the time to process what you’ve read, when you go to write your essay you can refer back to “journaling” you did for guidance when you go to write the essay.
Step One
Write in your book!! If you don’t want to write in it because you want that money at the end of the semester, fine. Take a dollar or so and find a copy machine and photocopy the article.
Step Two
When you read, read with a dictionary, a pen (or pencil), and a highlighter. Why the dictionary? If you know what lubitorium means, all the more power to you. But I’m guessing you don’t, so now you know why you need a dictionary!
Step Three
Mark passages that are difficult to understand. If you are stuck on what a passage means, ask your professor; however a passage’s meaning may come clear as you read through the article. Also, mark passages that are exciting to you or as I say: HAVE THE KNOCK MY SOCKS OFF feel. Under the key words in the passage and write them down on a piece of paper. (You can use a computer if you want.)
Step Four
When you are done reading (and read, don’t hurry through it), take a few moments and write 200 or 300 words about the essay. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation or structure. No one is going to see this but you. Address the key ideas or themes that the author addresses or brings up in his/her essay. Even throw in your reaction. The word-limit is not a hard and fast rule and if you go over it, so what.
Step Five
Find the keywords you underline: DEFINE those keywords according to the author’s usage and what he or she means. For example, are they using the word’s direct meaning, or is the author using it to mean something completely else.
POST IT TIP: If you are unsure what constitutes a keyword, look for nouns (like culture, myth, etc) the author uses over and over again.
Step Six
Look at the passages that you underlined (or highlighted). If you chose one big paragraph or several sentences, find the one sentence that you either have the most difficulty with or have “wow” factor. Rewrite that statement three to five times using synonyms of the keywords.
Now, I know this sounds like a lot of work. But writing is work and that is why so many people struggle with it. However by taking the time to write down the ideas and passages from the assigned readings will make things go a lot smoother.
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