3. Generating Ideas
Brainstorming
Brainstorming involves listing important details or examples or points
that you want to make in a piece of writing. For example, if you are writing
an argument, you could list possible objections that readers might have
and then show how those readers’ objections are off base or illogical. If you
are writing a descriptive essay about a place that is important to you, you
could list specific and concrete details, painting a verbal picture for your
readers and making them see, hear, and smell that place so they feel like
they are there.
These are some of brainstorming techniques:
1-Key Word Clustering/Mapping:
Write down key words or phrases relevant to your topic of interest. Draw lines to
identify connections between them.
2-Listing:
Make a list of ideas and/or quotations about your potential topic. For each idea or
quotation, write a question you would like your paper to answer, according to your
interests.
3- Asking Questions:
Write down every question you have about your topic. Circle the ones you want to
address in your paper.
4-Making a Recipe:
Write a recipe that lists all of the ingredients or basic ideas of your paper.
5-Writing Dialogue:
Write a dialogue where person A agrees with your point of view and person B disagrees.
Try to be objective.
6-Writing Letters:
Write a letter to someone explaining why you agree or disagree with a particular point.
Write another letter taking the other side. Write a letter to the author of the text you are
working with. What questions do you have about the text?
Freewriting
A method both college and professional writers use is free writing. When
free writing, you should not get caught up in correcting grammar or spelling.
Nor should you try to organize or stop to judge the worth of the ideas
as you write them down. You just write quickly to get ideas onto the page or
screen. You should write non-stop, meaning that whatever is going through
your head goes onto the page or screen. If you are thinking, “I don’t know
what to say,” for example, you should literally write, “I don’t know what to
say” because that is what is in your mind.
This chaotic and messy writing process, in many cases, helps you free
up your creativity and discover ideas you might not have discovered if you
were carefully crafting a piece of writing. Usually, you should freewrite for
anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, and then go back and read what you
have written. As you read, underline or circle valid, important, or interesting
sections of writing that you might use in your paper. Most of the freewriting
may look quite ugly in places, but the point is for you to get ideas
out there.