Brainstorming

Brainstorming is an effective tool used to help formulate ideas in order to reach a solution. Brainstorming is generally used in the beginning of the writing process to generate and form the strongest details that support the conclusion. Although some choose not use brainstorming in their own personal writing process, it is an effective way to get ideas down on paper. In English 101, the students will use different types of brainstorming including, Free Writing, Looping, and Mind Mapping. Students will also be asked to brainstorm individually and in groups. Although it is not collected in class, it is graded.

Free Writing
Free writing is a timed event, in which a person continuously writes down every thought that enters their mind. The duration of free writing depends on the writer. The form of time can be real time or you can set a goal of pages to fill up before concluding the brainstorm session. The more practical and beneficial technique is using an actual timer. Writing until they complete a certain number of pages has less pressure and it will not result in unconscious, raw thoughts. Technical things like grammar, punctuation, spelling, and complete thoughts are not important during this form of brainstorming. This allows the writer to be open and write ideas down confidently. The content on the paper does not matter, just as long as they write during the entire duration. When the time allotted is up, the writer will want to read over their work, isolating the most significant ideas by writing them on a separate paper. [4][5]

Looping
Looping is an extension of free writing. Looping is the connection of thoughts or ideas originating from drafts of previous freewriting for the sake of further expanding the idea. After the first draft of free writing, the writer reads through their paper, and circles the most important idea on the paper. The detail is then written on a separate piece of paper, and the free writing process begins again. Some writers suggest taking a couple ideas or sections from the first free write and expand off of those, but other writers suggest taking one single idea. Transferring the single idea on to a clean page and starting the freewriting process again, produces more focused, expanded thoughts on the topic of choice

. This process continues as many times as the writer wants it to. It is recommended to complete this task four to five times. In the end, you will have numerous ideas, connected, calculated, and more specific that of the original thought. [5]

Mind Mapping
Mind Mapping is a way of notetaking and outlining the ideas in your head. Mind mapping is a technique used to convert a list of information into a brain friendly diagram. All mind maps start in the center with the main idea. [1] From there, the ideas spread out into categories, called branches, and subcategories, called twigs. The twigs of the diagram are of less importance. [2]It is also helpful and more user friendly to draw images within the map as well. By making each branch and twig one word or a single picture, it will make the map more efficient and effective. To emphasize topics of importance within the diagram use different fonts, thickness of words, or do things like underline or write it in red. [2]

Brainstorming Individually
Individual brainstorming is the generation of ideas solitarily. Brainstorming individually is efficient in the fact that the writer can specify his thoughts and tailor them to his liking. Many types of brainstorming available to individuals include many techniques not excluding, free writing, looping, and mind mapping. There are pros and cons to individual work. Some benefits include producing more ideas and having more brainstorming techniques to choose from. Disadvantages to working by yourself include, writer’s block, the condition in which an author loses the ability to produce new creative thoughts, and there is only a single flow of ideas. [3]

Brainstorming in Groups


Group brainstorming is a group of people come together to collectively look for a conclusion. Mind mapping or simply listing thoughts are common brainstorming techniques used in groups. Advantages to group collaboration are different ranges of creativity, developing thoughts in depth, everyone feels as if they contributed some portion to the solution. Disadvantages include too many people in the group leads to less productivity and some suggestions may get pushed to the way side. [3]