Brainstorming is an essential part of writing. It allows you to develop your ideas concerning the subject you will be writing on and helps you organize it into a readable format. Failing to brainstorm leads to a disorganized paper filled with weak reasoning and logical fallacies. Spending time to make sure you understand your subject completely will allow you to assess the subject and identify areas of weakness in your argument. A paper that has been carefully thought out can then be written in a way that poignantly conveys meaning to the reader.

You can brainstorm several times throughout the writing process. You can do an initial brainstorm to help you identify the subjects you need to study. Once you have studied on the subject you can use brainstorming to help you organize the information you have gained. If you get stuck any time throughout the writing process, you can stop and brainstorm to help you identify the information you need.
There is more than one way to brainstorm and different methods can help you in different ways. Most people use more than one method to help them with different struggles they are having. This article contains several ideas to give you a starting point, but you will probably find that as you write you develop your own unique method of brainstorming. You will also need to spend less time brainstorming as you get used to organizing your thoughts and relating them on paper.

Free Writing

Free writing can help you identify and shape your thoughts. It’s helpful when you only have a vague idea of what you want to write or need help fully understanding the subject. To free write, simply begin to write and continue writing any ideas that come to your mind on the subject. Don’t worry about organization or punctuation; just keep the flow of ideas coming. This is the time to let your mind go off on tangents. You can review your notes later and throw out anything not relevant to the topic. Continue to free write until you have covered all your thoughts on a subject.

Asking Questions

Asking yourself questions about the topic can help you identify areas where you don’t fully understand the subject and help you fully develop your ideas. Identify your main topic and ask yourself questions about it. Go through the six question starters: who, what, why, where, when, how. Create questions out of any of these words that are pertinent to the subject. If you struggle to answer a question then first ask yourself if it is really relevant to the topic, and if so, go back and do a little more research in the area. Fully answer each question and keep asking questions until you have thoroughly covered the subject.

Bubble Chart

Using the bubble method of brainstorming is especially helpful for those who need help identifying their main topic and sorting their ideas into categories. To create a bubble chart, you summarize your topic in one word or phrase, write it on a paper, and circle it. Then you write down all ideas associated with it around the main topic. Circle each of these ideas and draw a line from them to the main topic. Do the same thing with each of the additional ideas, making sure that you stay within the scope of the main topic. Write down each of the additional ideas that each idea brings to mind, circle them and draw a line back to the first idea that brought that one to mind. When you are through, your paper should look like this:

Listing

A similar brainstorming technique involves making lists of words or phrases under main categories. Write the main topic at the top of the page and underline it. Make a list of all the ideas associated with the main topic in a row beneath the main topic. Then list additional ideas for each of those in lists beneath these ideas. This method of brainstorming also helps you group your ideas into different subtopics.

Charts

Organizing your information into charts can help you group topics and organize data. You might want to create a timeline, a flowchart, or any number of other charts to help you make associations among your facts. Your completed charts can later be used in your paper for visual aids.

Using your Brainstorm Ideas

Once you have thoroughly brainstormed your subject, you can use your brainstorming notes to create an outline. Both the bubble method and the list method can be easily transformed into an outline. Create your thesis statement using the main topic. All the ideas associated with the main topic can be made into the main points and the relating points can be listed under each of these main points. The other methods of brainstorming won’t be as easily developed into an outline, but brainstorming will still make it much easier to create an outline because you will already have a good idea of how you want to write your subject.

Remember that you don’t have to use all of the ideas that you come up with when you brainstorm. In fact, brainstorming provides you with an excellent chance to narrow down your topic. Once you have all your ideas down on paper, you can go through and cross out any that don’t closely relate to the main topic. You may also want to narrow down your subject because you don’t want to write such a long paper.

Effective brainstorming is essential for an effective paper. You have to understand your subject if you intend to organize it into a coherent paper. Brainstorming also allows you to include your own insight into a subject based on your own studies. Failing to brainstorm means failing to think. Make your paper strong by thoroughly thinking through and organizing your subject.