Writing Center: Brainstorming and Planning

Before you begin researching or writing, it is important to understand the assignment you have been given. Answering the questions below will help put you on the track to success in any writing situation. 

Subject

1. Has your subject been assigned to you, or are you free to choose your own?
2. Why is your subject worth writing about?
3. What questions would you like to explore?
4. Do you need to narrow your subject to a more specific subject?

Purpose

1. Why are you writing?

•  to inform readers?
• to persuade readers?
• to call your readers to action?
• another reason?

2. What is your desired message?

Audience

1. Who are your readers? (Consider their level of knowledge on the topic, their interests, and their motivations)
2. What information do your readers need to understand your ideas?
3. What objections do you anticipate from your audience that you will need to counter?

Genre

1. What genre/type of writing is required?

• essay?
• report?
• analysis?
• argument?
• another option?

2. What are the expectations of your genre? (i.e. What kind of evidence is typically used)
3. Does your genre require specific organization or design features?

Length and Format

1. What are the length and formatting requirements for this assignment?
2. What documentation style is required? (MLA, APA, Chicago, or something else)

Deadline

1. What is the rough draft due date? Final draft due date?
2. How will you submit your assignment? (Canvas, in class, another option)

Adapted from A Writer's Reference (pg. 3-6).

Before diving immediately into research or outlining, you need to understand your subject and the information surrounding it. 

Strategies for exploring your subject:

Sentence Starters: fill in the blanks of these sentence starters to understand what you are thinking about your subject. These answers can provide you starting points from which to write or research.

• I would like to understand _________________________ about my subject. 
• I do not understand _________________________ about my subject.
• This is another angle to consider my subject: _________________________.

Brain Map: Get out a blank piece of paper and write down all the words that you can think of associated with your topic. Then write down words that are associated with those words. This will provide you with good vocabulary for typing into databases when you research. 

Asking Questions: Questions drive writing as they spark new ideas. Think about what puzzles you regarding your topic and ask and answer those questions. Use words such as why and how to generate more complex questions that cannot be answered with yes or no. Use these questions to focus your writing and launch your research. 

Talking and Listening: Talk about your subject, your ideas, and your questions outloud, alone or with a partner. If you have a partner, ask what they are curious about regarding your topic and whether they agree with your position. This is a great way to test out your ideas with a preliminary audience as well as gather further information for research and content. 

Free writing: Get out a piece of paper or pull up a blank document on your computer and begin to write freely about your topic. Do not worry about grammar or syntax at this point, simply let ideas flow from your mind to the page via word fragments, statements, and questions. This is a good way to get your preliminary thoughts out in the open. Then you can use these thoughts for further brainstorming, for research, or even to begin an outline. 

Entering a Research Conversation:

For researched writing, you need to evaluate how your subject fits into a larger conversation. 

1. Identify the experts and common ideas within the conversation surrounding your subject. 

• Who are the major writers and influential people researching my subject?
• How and why do the experts agree and disagree?

2. Identify any gaps in the conversation.

• Where are there gaps in the existing research?
• What questions have not been asked yet?
• What positions need to be challenged?

3. Try using these sentence starters to find a point of entry.

• One side of the debate is X, the other side of the debate is Y, but there is a middle position: _________________________.
• The conventional view about the problem needs to be challenged because _________________________.
• There are key details in this conversation that have been overlooked, such as _________________________.
• Researchers have drawn conclusion X from their evidence, but another conclusion could be drawn: ________________________.

Partially Adapted from A Writer's Reference (pg. 6-7, 110). 

Now that you have ideas and/or research on your topic, try to organize your ideas, formally or informally. This will help you focus your thinking and develop a thesis statement. 

Informal Outline

An informal outline can be drafted easily and quickly. It is usually just for you to figure out your tentative structure, will change often as you write, and can take on many forms. Typcially, an informal outline is just your thesis statement followed by a list of major ideas. 

Example:

Working Thesis: Animal testing should be banned because it is bad science and doesn't contribute to biomedical advances.

• Most animals don't serve as good models for the human body.
• Drug therapies can have vastly different effects on different species--92% of all drugs shown to be effective in animal tests fail in human trials.
• Some of the largest biomedical discoveries were made without the use of animal testing. 
• The most effective biomedical research methods--tissue engineering and computer modeling--don't use animals. 
• Animal studies are not scientifically necessary. 

Formal Outline 

The main difference between an informal and a formal outline is that a formal outline includes more details and structure. It usually includes topic sentences, evidence, and an attempt at the proper structure for the paper. Thus, formal outlines are harder to revise, but more helpful when you go to draft your paper. Formal outlines can be just for you as you prepare to draft, but they also may be a required assignment for a class. 

Example: See A Writer's Reference (pg. 12-13). 

Partially adapted from A Writer's Reference (pg. 12-13). 

Essay Wheel Video!

Below are a few essays that can help you understand how to approach your specific writing assignment and what the professor expects of you.