Autobiographical Poster: Prewriting

Autobiographical Poster: Prewriting

The first step of the writing process is brainstormingor prewriting. This involves thinking about what to write about, jotting down all ideas, and then sorting them to better organize the piece of writing. Many times, writers will create pictures, maps, or other organizers to represent everything on their minds, and then they go back later to organize, reorganize, and delete ideas that don’t fit at all before they begin writing.

Let’s begin by brainstorming ideas about you…

Autobiographical Poster: Drafting

The second step of the writing process is called drafting. This involves taking the information that you brainstormed earlier, and writing it in sentences and paragraphs.

Look back at your brainstorming practice. Notice how each set of questions is divided into sections? There is a section for basic information about you, one for your interests, and another for memorable life moments. This would be a logical way to organize an autobiographical piece: one paragraph with basic information, one paragraph with interests, and a final paragraph with important memories that represent you.

Now, you can begin to take the information you’ve written about yourself, and put that information into paragraphs…

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Autobiographical Poster: Revising

The third step of the writing process is called revising.This part of the writing process means that you read what you have written again and make it better. Consider what others have said about your text. Can words or sentences be rearranged to make better sense? Has something been left out or should something be deleted? What can you add to be clearer about what you mean to say? During this step, the writer should be concerned with the content of his or her work, rather than grammatical mistakes.

Now, have a peer read your paper. Consider having him or her read the paper aloud, and listen for obvious omissions or areas that need work. Is the main message of each paragraph clear to the reader? Repeat with more than one partner if necessary. You and your partner can make additions or suggestions using a colored pen or post it notes.

Record three additions or deletions that would help improve your writing here:

At this stage in the writing process, the writer should go back to the original copy and add in any corrections that need to be made. This new copy is called a second draft.

Autobiographical Poster: Editing

Now that the content of your paper is focused, organized and clearly supported, it’s time to check for grammatical mistakes, which is called editing. It’s important to save this step until all content has been added or deleted, because as you make changes, you may accidentally ADD more grammatical mistakes. That is why writers save this step until the end.

Use a peer editor and the chart below to review your paper for these common grammatical mistakes:

Make these corrections to your paper, and reread the work one final time to prepare it for publishing.

Autobiographical Poster: Publishing

Publishing is the final step of the writing process. This involves taking the final, error-free piece and displaying it in the required format. In some cases, this may be a magazine article that needs to be added to the magazine or a story that is added to a book. Your work will be published on a poster.

Using the space below, decide where you will place your finished work on the poster you will create. All other pieces of the poster (pictures, drawings, lists) can then be placed, depending on the location of your writing. You can use the space below to place other items you know you will add to your poster as well.

Don’t forget other items that will need to be added to your autobiographical poster include:

~a title

~picture

~memoir

and TWO of the following:

~Interview

~Animal with description

~Movie poster or book cover

~Prized possessions

Don’t forget! You should use the FIVE steps of the writing process for any of the above items that require writing, too! This will ensure a wonderful, error-free poster that represents YOU!