Heuristics: What They Are and How to Use Them

I. What are heuristics and why use them?

Heuristics: A fancy name for prewriting strategies that are used for exploratory purposes.

Exploratory writing:

• Allows students to discover ideas in a non-evaluative, non-structured, no-risk situation
• Helps students get over the fear of the blank page

II. Kinds of prewriting strategies:

Listing: Think of a character in a book or story you are presently working on in your classes.

Take out a sheet of paper and make a list of ideas that come to their minds when they think of a character in a novel they are presently reading

Clustering: Do a cluster on the "doors" this character enters or decides not to enter during the course of the story.

Focused Freewriting: Question: Does this character go through a “door?” Why or why not?

Take ten minutes to write about how this character goes through or does not go through a door during the course of the story.

Looping: Take your focused freewriting and find a “hot spot” that can be expanded further or developed in more depth. Write the word, phrase or sentence at the top of another sheet of paper, and use it as the focal point of another ten-minute focused freewriting.

Cubing: Analyze this character from six different angles.

Dialog Writing: Have a dialog with this character about his/her decision to go through or not go through the door. Write out the dialog.

III. Always follow prewriting activities with class debates or discussion

Workshop Assignment

For our next meeting,

1. Take a formal writing assignment which you will be giving to your students in the next few weeks.
   
   
2. Develop two prewriting activities for it. You may choose two from the list above or develop two new ones on your own.
   
   
3. Do the prewriting activities yourself, and then explain how you plan to follow-up on the prewriting.