The Challenge: Apply one of these moves to your own writing: add, limit, switch, or transform.
ADD (expand the scope) | LIMIT (narrow the focus) | SWITCH (change perspectives) | TRANSFORM (change the genre or medium) |
●Brainstorm off key words ●Talk back to yourself with double entry notes or margin notes ●Ask questions (5Ws & H?) ●Create a metaphor to explain a tough concept | ●Create a sentence outline (says/does) ●Draw a flow chart or storyboard ●Save one sentence (paragraph or sentence) ●Start with your conclusion ●Look through a one-inch frame | ●Start in a new place ●Create a dialogue ●Shift from 1st to 3rd person (3rd to 1st) ●Believe or doubt. Write a contrasting paragraph for every assertion. ●Try a PACT analysis | ●Change the audience ●Change the purpose ●Change the genre or medium ●Tear down and rebuild. Save just one sentence or section. ●Last to first: use your conclusion to begin again. |
ADD: Revise to Develop Ideas (Expand and Amplify)
●Try brainstorming off key words or ideas, burrowing for more detail.
●Try double-entry / margin notes to yourself about your current draft: where do you want
to hear more?
●Ask journalistic questions (who, what, where, when, why, how).
●Add a paragraph between each paragraph that already exists. If you only have one
paragraph, add a new sentence between each old sentence.
●Create a metaphor to explain a tough concept.
●Write two new introductions or two new conclusions.
LIMIT: Revise to Improve Organization and Focus (Narrowing In/Clarifying Purpose)
●Try a sentence outline (what does each paragraph say or do? Take a new page and list
those sentence descriptions in order. Does anything seem out of place?)
●Highlight the “center-of-gravity” sentence in each paragraph. Look for the sentence that
calls attention to itself, or the one that makes your point best. Do they all fit together?
Try rearranging the sentences.