Pre-Writing Strategy: Questioning Your Topic

"Questioning" is a brainstorming activity in which you think about your topic, pose questions, and then answer those questions.

•  Questioning is a great strategy to build up brain power. Your ability to concentrate on a topic and think up what people will need and/or want to know is imperative to your growth as a writer. 

• All of us can always get better at asking questions and pursuing that inquiry.

Questions for In-class Discussion and Pre-writing

1. Pose whowhatwhenwhywherehow questions on your topic to help develop:

• What do I want to remember?
• Why do I want to remember? 
• When/where will the device be usable?
• How will this device help me?
• How is the device memorable? 
• What type of person is this device good for?
• ...

2. Once I identify what my mnemonic device is, what else should I write about--what are my 2-3 sub points (body paragraph's topic sentence points) going to be?  What are 2-3 points I can make that will clarify to a general audience   how and when to use this device? 

•  (Always the first...) Rhetorical Considerations: 

• For each of these three below (PAC!), you will want to ask whowhatwhenwhywherehow questions to help you understand the type of details that can help develop your idea past a thesis statement (and help shape the thesis beyond a subject):

• Purpose
• Audience
• Context

• Example of a student's subject:  

• To be a good quarterback, one has to remember the three C's: cool, calm, collected.

• Now, as a class, let's look at this topic and discuss the above ideas...