Techniques for Brainstorming Great Ideas

Introduction

There are moments when your brain is too chaotic, and you need to introduce some conscious order. Using a brainstorming technique, you can get some solid phrases or schemas that you can then organise logically by forcing the mental turmoil and random thoughts to pour out onto the page.

Let’s look at some of the classic brainstorming techniques.

Freewriting

When you write in a freestyle, you allow your ideas to come to you as they may, placing pen to paper and recording anything comes to mind. You don't look at how good your writing is, and you don't care about things like style or small things like spelling, grammar, or punctuation. If you can't put it into words, you should definitely write it down. The advantage of utilizing this methodology is that it permits you to relinquish your internal manager and compose things you in any case might not have had the option to.

When you're freewriting, you can set a time limit for yourself with an alarm clock or a timer, or you can set a space limit, like deciding to write at least 5 pages a day no matter what. This promotes quickness and independence of thinking and may be done on a computer, on paper, or even with your eyes closed or the monitor off.

Divide the subject into levels

When you are presented with a course assignment, you could brainstorm −

A general topic, such as "The relation between coffee and alertness."

Or, a needed question or a particular subtopic, such as “How did coffee become a popular drink in India and what is the science behind it helping boost someone’s level of alacrity?”

Also think about a single word or phrase that you feel you've used excessively throughout the report.

Listing/bulleting

Using this method, you make lists of words or phrases related to a specific subject. Your list can be based on −

the broad subject

A term or notion that is completely at odds with your initial word or idea is claimed in one or more places in your specific thesis.

You could brainstorm two different lists to make sure you are covering the subject in-depth and that your thesis will be simple to prove, for instance, if your general assignment is to write about the changes in inventions over time and your specific thesis states that "the 20th century presented a large number of inventions to advance US society by improving upon the status of 19th-century society."

The first list may be based on your thesis; you would include as many inventions from the 20th century as you could, provided you were aware of their good social benefits. In the second list, you may make the opposite argument and list innovations that you believe have contributed to the degradation of that society. The same two lists for innovations from the 19th century might be created, and the evidence from all four lists could then be compared.

You may gain a wider view on the subject and make sure that your thesis is rock-solid, or, oh no, your thesis is full of holes and you'd best change your claim to one you can verify, by using numerous lists.

3 Viewpoints

Something can be seen more fully, or at least in a completely different way, when seen from various angles, similar to how lying on the floor alters how your desk appears to you. To employ this technique, respond to the questions from each of the three perspectives, then search for intriguing connections or discrepancies you may investigate −

What is it? Clearly describe your topic. What's the subject? What make up its parts? What are its intriguing and distinctive characteristics? What riddles does it pose? Differentiate your topic from others that are comparable to it. What distinguishes your topic from others?

Follow it − What is the background of your topic? How has it evolved throughout time? Why? What important occasions have impacted your subject?

Map it − What is the context of your topic? What influences it, and how? How? What is affected by it? How? Who is interested in your subject? Why? What disciplines do you use to research your subject? Why? How have others tackled your topic? What connection does their work have to yours?

Cubing

Cubing allows you to think about your issue from six various angles, creating six "sides" or approaches to the topic, just like a cube has six sides.

Take a sheet of paper, think about your subject, and answer the following six questions −

Explain it.

Contrast it.

Connect it.

Examine it.

Utilize it.

Defend and argue against it.

Review what you have written. Do any of the comments provide any novel suggestions about your subject? What relationships between the "sides" do you notice? Do you see any recurring patterns or a developing theme that you may utilise to approach the subject or formulate a thesis? Does one side appear to stimulate your mind more than the others? Could you possibly jot out your thesis statement using that one side? Utilize this strategy in a way that supports your theme. It ought to at the very least increase your understanding of the complexity of the subject, if not help you concentrate more intently on your intended use.

Using Original Thought

Even when you are writing in a certain academic field, you might benefit from your previous academic expertise from other departments' courses. Take the example of writing a paper for an English class.

You could think to yourself, "How might I perceive or comprehend it differently if I were writing about this very same issue in a biology course or using this phrase in a history course? Are there different definitions of this notion found in fields like philosophy or physics, for example, that would inspire me to consider this phrase from a fresher, more nuanced perspective?”

You may, for instance, utilise the definition of "culture" that is widely used in the biological sciences to discuss "culture" in your English, communications, or cultural studies course. Recall the little Petri dishes you used for your high school science experiments? In such dishes, chemicals are "cultured" for bacterial growth and analysis, am I correct? Consider "culture" as a medium in which certain things will grow, develop in novel ways, or even flourish beyond your wildest dreams, while the growth of other things may be stunted, dramatically altered, or even completely stopped. How may this help you write your paper?

Using Graphs or Shapes

Instead of using word lists or phrases to try to mould or explore a concept, if you are more visually oriented you may make charts, graphs, or tables. Use the same phrases or words that are essential to your subject and experiment with other spatial arrangements, such as in a graph, on a grid, in a table, or in a chart. You may even use the tried-and-true flow chart. Here, it's crucial to move beyond the confines of language alone and consider how other spatial representations could aid in your understanding of the connections between your thoughts. Simply write the words on the sheet, then draw lines between them or around them if you first have trouble visualising the shape of a chart.