Pump - Primer Techniques

Listing

Try jotting down all the ideas that pop into your mind. Do not correct or delete anything.

A quick list on trekking might look like this:

• On hilly tracks
  
  
• Beside the river
  
  
• Fun
  
  
• Healthy
  
  
• Good way to spend vacation
  
  
• Rough it out
  
  
• Pitching a tent
  
  
• Walking long distances
  
  
• Blissfully tired
  
  
• Ruck sack
  
  
• Sleeping bag
  
  
• Compass
  
  
• First aid kit
  
  
• Sleeping outdoors
  
  
• Sensitization to nature
  
  
• Camping
  
  
• Cooking
  
  
• Sense of satisfaction
  
  
• Freely associate. Do not hold back anything. Try this for at least five minutes.

As you read the list, look for connections between ideas or one large idea that encompasses several small ones.

Clustering

This is also called mapping. Place your general subject in a circle in the middle of a blank sheet of paper and begin to draw other lines and circles that radiate from it. Fill in words associated with the subject. Cluster those ideas that seem to fall together. At the end of five minutes see if a topic emerges from any of your groups of ideas.

Cubing

Imagine a six-sided cube. Mentally, roll your subject around the cube and free-write the answers to the questions that follow. Write whatever comes to your mind for about five minutes. Do not concern yourself with the correctness of what you write.

Describe it

What does your subject look like? What size, colours and texture does it have? Any special features worth noting?

Compare or contrast it

What is your subject similar to? What is your subject different from? In what ways?

Free - associate it

What does this subject remind you of? What memories does it conjure up?

Analyze it

How does it work? How are the parts connected? What is its significance?

Argue for or against it

What arguments can you make for or against your subject? What advantages or disadvantages does it have? What changes or improvements should be made?

Apply it

What are the uses of your subject? What can you do with it?

After you have written your responses, see if any one or more of them give you an idea of a topic to write.

Sketching

If, on occasion, you are stuck for words, try drawing or sketching or even cartooning the pictures in your mind. This is especially useful if you are a visual learner - that is, you respond better to pictorial representations of material than to written descriptions or explanations.

Limit Your Topic

Finding the right topic is usually the hardest part of writing. You may have chosen a broad topic like 'Sports'. Now you will have to limit it to, say, 'Sports at School' or 'The Importance of Sports in My Life' or 'My Favourite Sport - Cricket'. But even these topics are too big. Keep making the topic smaller- 'Being on the School Cricket Team' and smaller 'My First Interschool Cricket Tournament'. Or you could make it even more specific -- 'My Final Game in the Interschool Cricket Tournament'.

Usually, the more you limit your topic, the better your composition will be, for then, you will be able to add more specific details. And it is these specific details that make the reader interested in what you are saying.

Write a Thesis Statement

A THESIS STATEMENT MUST BE A SENTENCE (not a topic)
TOPIC	THESIS
Saving trees Child labour	We need to conserve paper to save our forests Employing children should be made a criminal offence

All good writers have a thesis in mind, a single idea which they want to present to their readers, before they start writing. So whether you are writing a paragraph or a longer piece of writing, you must have in mind a single idea that you want to express to the reader. In a paragraph, this is called a topic sentence, and in a longer writing piece, it is called a thesis statement.

'My Final Game in the Interschool Cricket Tournament' is the topic. The thesis statement could be, 'Winning that Final Game Gave Me New Confidence' or 'Losing that Final Game Made Me More Determined than Ever', or 'Winning that Final Game Made Me take it up as a Serious Career Option'.

A THESIS STATEMENT MUST BE A SENTENCE YOU CAN EXPLAIN OR DEFEND (not simply a fact no one can deny)
FACT	THESIS
Some students cheat Hockey is our National game	Innovative tactics should be used to prevent students from cheating Hockey, our National game, does not have glamour that cricket has

Support Your Thesis with Reasons or Points

Convince your reader that your thesis statement is true for you by giving supporting points. You may write reasons like,

'Being the member of the team that won the final game gave me new confidence because:

• I scored more runs than the other more experienced players
  
  
• I discovered I could play well under pressure
  
  
• I found that the rest of the team looked up to me to provide encouragement and leadership'.
• The points supporting a thesis could also be examples (to make your thesis clear), steps (in a how-to composition), descriptions (in a descriptive composition) or anecdotes (in a narrative composition).

Organise Your Composition from Your Thesis

ORGANISE YOUR COMPOSITION FROM THESIS
Paragraph 1 Paragraph 2 Paragraph 3 Additional Concluding	Introduction-arousing your reader's interest and indicating your thesis First supporting point Second supporting point Paragraph for additional supporting points Paragraph

Once you have worked out a good thesis with supporting points, organizing your composition will be easy.

First, you need an introductory paragraph. It should catch your reader's interest and should either include or suggest your thesis statement.

Your second paragraph will present the first supporting point- everything about it and nothing more.

Your third paragraph will be about your second supporting point - everything about it and nothing more.

Each additional paragraph will develop another supporting point.

Finally you will need a brief concluding paragraph.

In a short composition, it is not necessary to repeat all the points. Even a single clincher sentence to summarize the composition may be sufficient.

Organise Each Paragraph

Organising a paragraph is similar to organising the entire composition.

It is done this way.

Topic sentence

First supporting detail or example

Second supporting detail or example

Additional supporting detail or examples

Concluding sentence, if needed.

You should have at least two or three points to support your topic sentence. If you find that you have little to say after writing your topic sentence, ask yourself what details or examples will make your reader see that your topic sentence is true for you.

The topic sentence does not have to be the first sentence in the paragraph. It may come at the end or even in the middle, but having it first is the most common way.

Each paragraph should contain only one main idea, and no detail or example that does not support the topic sentence should be allowed to creep in.

Write and Rewrite

Great writers complete their books in a first draft. If possible, write your composition several days before it is due for submission. Reread it a day later, you may see ways to improve it. After rewriting it, put it away for another day, and again try to improve it. Do not consider any composition completed until you have worked through it several times. Rewriting is the best way to learn to write.

Proof Read Aloud

Finally, read your finished essay aloud. If you read it silently, you are sure to miss some errors. Read it aloud slowly, word by word, to catch omitted words, errors in spelling, punctuation and so on.

NOTE

Different topics demand different styles and formats of writing. You will understand this once different types of writing exercises are taken up.