Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville
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| Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville
URL:
http://www.siue.edu/IS/WRITING/
Published by: Instructional
Services Department
Last Updated: August 22, 2005
Contact: Webmaster
© Copyright 2005, SIUE Online Writing Center |
Come
up with plenty of ideas and raw material when beginning a paper. Try to stop
yourself from doing this too quickly, but don’t hold back during brainstorming
to edit yourself. Ideas should only be evaluated once the brainstorming session
is over. One way to brainstorm is to make a list of all words
and ideas relate to the topic you plan to write about. Have fun, and try to
come up with as many ideas as possible, even impractical ones. For more visual
learners, you can spread out your words all over a page.
Once you’ve run out of steam, look back at your list and see if any of
the words relate to each other. Can you connect words to each other? Does one
word cause you to think of another? Could your list be divvyed up into categories?
If you are still short on ideas after this, repeat the process. Another way
to make lists is with categories, such as a for and against list. This is especially
helpful when writing a comparison essay.
