Exercise 1
Step 1
In this exercise the assignment is to write down whatever comes to your mind when given a topic.  In the first exercise the criteria  is to choose a statement that I think is false.  I chose is to know the thesis before you start.
When writing about a topic I believe that a person should know what topic they are writing about before they begin their paper.  I say this in regards to knowing what to write about so you can know what to make your thesis into and what context to have in your body paragraphs.  Although I believe that a person should have a topic before they start they do not have to have a thesis going into the paper.  Me personally, I usually do not have a thesis when I begin and the introduction paragraph the ideas that I am putting down help me think of what my key points should be focused on.  The best ideas come when your mind is flowing and coming up with ideas that break off from others.  By doing this in the introduction you are able to come up with a thesis instead of making yourself slap together a thesis that won't help your paper in any way.

Step 2
Step two was to choose another statement that I thought was false and do another fastwrite about it.  This time it focused more on the facts and information side of researching.  I choose to focus on the big difference between facts and opinions.
When writing a paper you have to be careful about putting in your opinions in with other facts.  Facts differ from opinions and can lead someone to the wrong conclusion.  Facts are concrete, statements that cannot be argued.  Such as that the sky is blue with clouds today.  A person can look up and see that there are clouds covering parts of the blue sky but and opinion of this would be different to each individual person.  Someone could say that the sky looks best with puffy clouds and another person could say that the sky with gray clouds blocking out all the sun is the best type of day. Neither person is right about anything.  These cannot be the right answer because the way someone likes the sky is always different and cannot be proven into one fact.