PREWRITING PROMPTS
If you have trouble getting started, one or more of the following questions may be useful to you in unpacking the content
of the reading. (They’re intended as prompts for your pre-writing rather than
as required content for the essay itself.)
- What are the key points, and how does the writer support the argument?
- What terms or concepts do you need to understand in order to follow the
argument?
- What in the article is particularly striking—tone? word choice? method
of argument? approach to the topic?
- What roles do fact, opinion, theory, and ethical or political commitment play in the
article, and how would you account for these roles?
- What is not there in the article, but either implied or ignored by
the author? What questions do these absences raise in your mind? What kinds
of information or analysis are needed to address these questions?
- Are there "strange" aspects of the article that may relate to a
social context different from your own? What are these, in what ways are
they strange, and how do you respond to the strangeness? Or, are there very
familiar aspects that speak to something in your experience?
- Which passages in the text strike you as most important? Choose
three or four passages and write in detail about why they interest you and
what questions they raise.