Chapter 6: From Brainstorm to Topic ENG 113: Composition I

From Brainstorm to Topic Which idea are you most interested in spending more time with? Which idea are others most likely to be interested in reading about? Which ideas in combination create the most interesting new idea?

Orient Yourself to Your Topic What do you already know about this topic? What are your gut feelings about it? What do you suspect is true or false? Where did you get these ideas? Are your ideas reasonable? Do you have a personal bias that might stand in the way of your ability to be reasonable? Are your ideas based on sound and verifiable information, or do you need to learn more?

Focused Freewriting Idea Generation Much more focused than brainstorming Provides longer, more developed ideas Focused freewriting is NOT a first draft! Contains ideas that you can build on for your first draft

Focused Freewriting Start with a single, focused question from your brainstorming activities Set a timer for five minutes Start writing everything that comes into your mind Don’t stop writing until the timer goes off Repeat for each question (work for about 30 mins)

Focused Freewriting Have your questions ready to go before you start Set up your workspace so that there are as few distractions as possible Set a timer for five minutes so you can focus on thinking about what you’re writing rather than on how long you’ve been writing Do not stop writing until the timer buzzes, even if you can’t think of anything else to say. It’s okay to write “I can’t think of anything else to say until you think of something When the timer buzzes, you can finish the thought you’re on, but then you have to stop Allow yourself at least a minute or two to clear your head between freewrites

Stay on Track with Your Topic Are your ideas still relevant to the assignment you were given? Are you staying on task? Do you have valid information about this topic, or are you making things up? If you do have valid information, how do you know it’s valid? Is the information you have enough, or should you become better informed? If you are making things up, where can you go to gain the necessary knowledge?

How to Stay on Track Read Gather information Lecture notes Articles Books/sections of books Gather information Observation Memory Experimentation

Stay on Track with Your Information Are you required to do research? Are you expected not to do research? Are you allowed to write about personal experience? Are any types of information off limits for the assignment?

Stay on Track with Your Information Take Notes Do not assume that you will remember what you read or saw or imagined when the time comes to include it in your paper because you won’t Saves time Take good notes Look for important information as you read Write it down Make sure that your notes clearly state exactly where the information came from (author, title, facts of publication) Any information that is word for word from a source should be placed in quotation marks

Stay on Track with Your Information What do you know now that you didn’t know yesterday? What do you think, now that you are better informed? If others have ideas different from yours, why might that be? Is somebody being unreasonable, or are you perhaps both just thoughtful people who disagree? Are you perhaps tempted to reexamine your initial ideas in response to what you have learned?

Prewriting Steps Understanding the assignment Brainstorming Orienting yourself to your topic Focused freewriting Checking whether you’re still on track

Focusing Your Ideas Orient yourself to your topic by asking and answering questions about your thoughts and feelings Freewrite until you discover some promising bits of content to explore further Review your freewriting to make sure your topic is still on task with your assignment Reexamine your method of information gathering to ensure that it meets your assignment