1.3 Generating Ideas

For many writers, the process of advancing a thesis begins with recording events, observations, ideas, facts—anything they want to remember—in a journalA personal record of events and ideas.. About keeping a record of experiences and reflections, Virginia Woolf wrote, “The advantage of the method is that it sweeps up accidentally several stray matters which I should exclude if I hesitated, but which are the diamonds of the dustheap.” Think of your journal as a private reserve of ideas that you can excavate and develop into more thoroughly organized essays.

Several prewriting strategies can help you generate topics for an essay. You might begin by brainstormingGenerating a list of ideas about a subject. with a group of colleagues or friends, a technique designed to generate a list of words or ideas to open fresh ways of thinking about a subject.

Some writers use a mind mapA diagram of connecting words for the purpose of seeing the relationships among ideas., a diagram of connecting words to associate ideas and see the relationships among them. To create a mind map, begin in the center of the page with your main idea and branch outward in all directions with key words and images.

In the depicted mind map, the writer has begun with the word graffiti and has connected thoughts as they occur. For example, the word graffiti calls to mind the word expression, which in turn triggers the words art and subversive. As a result, the writer’s understanding of graffiti is already generating insight.

Many authors find the practice of freewritingWriting for a designated period of time without regard to grammar or spelling for the purpose of generating ideas without inhibition. useful for getting started. The idea is to write without stopping for a certain length of time, say, five minutes. Do not worry about spelling, grammar, word choices, or organization. Plant those words on the page as quickly as possible, and they will be there for you to cultivate later.

When you write, you wear two hats—that of the creator and that of the critic. If you start writing, delete what you have written, and then repeat this self-defeating exercise, you are letting the critic interfere with the work of the creator. Let the creator in you have a chance before you unleash the critic. Rather than stare at a blank page (or a blank screen), write whatever comes to mind, without inhibition. Later, the critic in you can begin the task of shaping, organizing, and, yes, deleting.

Once you have an appropriate list of topics for the writing task at hand, share your choices with your instructor and classmates to learn which topics seem the most interesting to them. Researchers often use such focus groupsA group of people who will give their reactions to a proposal. to assist them in assessing their audience’s needs and preferences.