Recommends a series of questions, activities, and guidelines to make free writing more productive and generative. (MS)

Discusses the prewriting process in terms of forces that affect prewriting, prewriting as rehearsal, and eight signals that tell writers that a piece of writing is near. (DD)

Describes a method for teaching students to connect their ideas causally or logically in their writing by talking about the ideas before beginning to write. (HTH)

Suggests the value of a prewriting sheet which asks remedial students to specify an occasion, audience, and purpose for each of their one-paragraph papers. (DD)

Suggests clustering can help students of any ability level draw upon latent images and ideas, generate more original sentences, and experiment with metaphor and simile. (MS)

Describes the advantages of using computers during the invention stage of composition. Discusses programs designed for that purpose and explores characteristics of an ideal prewriting computer program. (HTH)

Presents results of an informal study indicating that (1) external contingencies that force writing productivity regardless of mood seem to facilitate rather than impede the appearance of creative ideas for writing, and (2) productivity precedes creativity. (HTH)

Presents an evaluation method designed to help students at each stage of the writing process. The process includes a student self-evaluation scale for the prewriting stage, an analytic scale for descriptive writing used by peer evaluators and the instructor, and an outline of the evaluation strategy. (HTH)

Stresses the virtues of one technique and the limitations of another technique for focusing on a writing topic. (RL)