Presented by the UTA English Writing Center Brainstorming Presented by the UTA English Writing Center Last Updated 6/16/2016 LT

Hosted by English Writing Center www.uta.edu/owl uta-wci@uta.edu A Program Sponsored by the Department of English www.uta.edu/owl

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Workshop Overview Brainstorming, or invention, is a part of the writing process meant to help writers: discover ideas sharpen the focus of their essays experiment and play with ideas without necessarily committing to them provide a way past writers block Though it can be used at any stage in the writing process, today we will be employing brainstorming exercises as a way to begin writing. www.uta.edu/owl

Discussion: Writing Process www.uta.edu/owl

Charts or Shapes Use phrases or words that are central to your topic and try to arrange them spatially in a graph, grid, table, or chart. How do the different spatial representations help you see the relationships among your ideas? If you can’t imagine the shape of a chart at first, just put the words on a page and draw lines between or around them www.uta.edu/owl

Primary Invention Guide Assignment Prompt Primary Invention Guide http://bogglesworldesl.com/indefinitearticles4.htm www.uta.edu/owl

Assignment Breakdown What does the assignment as me to do? What am I being asked to think about in the assignment? What questions are I expected to answer? For what will my readers be looking? How broad or narrow should my focus be? Are there any terms or phrases repeated in the assignment or in the course material? http://bogglesworldesl.com/indefinitearticles4.htm www.uta.edu/owl

Listing List all the ideas you can think of that are connected to the topic or the subject you want to explore. Consider any idea or observation as valid and worthy of listing go for quantity at this point List quickly and then set your list aside for a few minutes. Come back and read your list and then do the listing exercise again. www.uta.edu/owl

Freewriting Set yourself a specific time limit and stick to it Ours will be 4 minutes Write whatever ideas, words, phrases, or sentences come to mind Don’t stop writing for any reason No corrections No erasing No crossing out No rewording (When you are finished, read through your draft and underline or circle ideas that might lead you to a thesis or main points for your paper.) www.uta.edu/owl

Looping After freewriting or initial idea generation Select an effective idea, from what you have previously written, that clearly respond to the prompt Write this at the top of a new sheet of paper and use it to guide a new freewriting Repeat several times The more you write and select, the more you will be able to refine your ideas. www.uta.edu/owl

Talk to Yourself “I know what I want to say. It’s just that I can’t figure out how to put it in writing.” try dictating your thoughts on a digital recording device (most smartphones have this capability) After several minutes listen to what you’ve recorded write down ideas you want to incorporate into your paper If you can’t record, you might ask a friend to write down your main points as you talk In this example, the nouns cat, fence, and mouse take an indefinite article, but only when they are introduced for the first time. After they are introduced, we use the definite article in every instance. This pattern, or rule, covers a lot of basic instances of concrete nouns, especially in story telling. This rule can extend over long periods of time and interrupted dialogue so that I can ask you to buy a pen and then several hours later I can ask you if you bought the pen. www.uta.edu/owl

Defining Terms In your own words, write definitions for key terms or concepts given in the assignment. Find other definitions of those terms to compare to your own in your course readings the dictionary through conversations and then compare the definitions to your own. Keep these definitions in mind as you begin to write your essay. This exception also applies to ordering (ordinal numbers used as adjectives) where it is presumed that the ordering is unique: the second time, the third example, the fourth person to call. In other words, once you place an order on objects they hold a unique position in that order. This exception applies to named things (which through naming become unique): The Rocky Mountains (a mountain range)The New York Islanders (a sports team)The Amazon River (a river in South America)The Pacific Ocean (an ocean)The Steelworkers Union (an organization)The Great Plains (a geographic locality)The Washington Monument (a statue)The Number Four Bus However, this application is imperfect as some things such as named lakes and islands take no articles (Buttle Lake, Skull Island) except in plural instances (the Great Lakes, the Galapagos islands). www.uta.edu/owl

Summarizing Positions Summarize the positions of relevant authors from your course readings or research. Do you agree or disagree with their ideas, methods, or approaches? How do your interests overlap with the positions of the authors in question? Try to be brief in your descriptions. Write a paragraph or up to a page describing a reading or a position. www.uta.edu/owl

Topic Swap Get together with a group of classmates Have each person write down her or his tentative topic or thesis at the top of a blank sheet of paper Pass the sheets around from left to right Have each person write down a thoughtful question or suggest related ideas to think about www.uta.edu/owl

Compare/Contrast If your assignment asks you to compare or contrast two concepts, texts, subjects, etc. Organize your thoughts in a compare/contrast matrix focus on the attributes you will consider in your draft. Establish the key points of comparison or contrast with which you will deal in your essay Important www.uta.edu/owl

What works for whom? Reactions www.uta.edu/owl http://bogglesworldesl.com/indefinitearticles4.htm www.uta.edu/owl

2Qs Question 1: What is the most important thing you’ve learned about writing today? Question 2: What questions or concerns do you still have regarding writing? http://bogglesworldesl.com/indefinitearticles4.htm www.uta.edu/owl