How to Brainstorm for an Essay
YOUR FIRST STEP SHOULD BE TO.... Brainstorm what you want to write about first.
Come up with ideas and examples to include in your essay.
One brainstorming technique is mind-mapping. Take a piece of paper. Write down
your main question in the middle of the page. Circle it. Write lines going from that
circle to smaller circles, and put down ideas and points that you think could be used
with it. Make smaller connections (or points, like supporting details or an anecdote
you want to use with that point). Don't stop coming up with ideas and points until you
have around 15-20 lines and circles on the page with different ideas. Spend some time
going over the ideas. Group similar points together, and breakdown larger points into
smaller ideas and supporting details. At the end of this task you should have 5 or more
main points to discuss. Pick the 3 or 4 strongest ideas and use those as the main body
topics in your response.
Another brainstorming technique is just writing down all the
ideas you can think of after each other, on the topic...
freewriting. Think about the question. Start writing down the
How to Brainstorm for an Essay
ideas dealing with the topic, in any order, one after another...
as they come to your mind. Don't worry about grammar or
punctuation or anything like that... you are focusing on getting
down ideas, not making sure they look proper at this point.
After you have a page of ideas in point form, with arguments,
examples of what you might want to say, etc., go over what you
have written and group similar points and support ideas
together. Like the first method, you should have a number of
main points to choose from, and focus your response on.
AFTER YOU BRAINSTORM AND THINK OF IDEAS... You should start organizing your
points into similar points. Put like comments together, and examples which help
support them, together in groups. Each group will end up being one of your
paragraphs.
For instance, if you have a number of points or ideas that you put down in one section
of your brainstorming 'map' those will be the focus of one of your points in the essay.
How to Brainstorm for an Essay
Paragraph 01
Paragraph 02
.... AND SO ON....
AFTER YOU ORGANIZE YOUR IDEAS... Start writing out what you want to say in more
detail. Write a rough draft of your essay.
Your rough draft should be the first version of your essay. You should look at writing
and rewriting it a couple times before you are satisfied with the results. Each version
should be looked at to fix up different things. The first version is needed to get your
ideas and arguments "fleshed out" and on paper.
Go through it and make any major changes to the content of the
essay. Look for any obvious typos or grammatical mistakes.
Your essay should include a specific theme-- a specific argument
outlining your main points-- as well as full support for your
arguments.
Your support can include examples from literature we have studied, or
How to Brainstorm for an Essay
personal experiences, but you have to make sure that you provide
enough detail regarding the examples and support you use (but not a
point-by-point summary of a story), as well as including an explanation
that provides the reader with how this example supports (argues
against) your ideas; in other words, you need to provide examples to
support your arguments; and explain how these examples support your
arguments.
The Hamburger Paragraph:
http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=UPQeUD
2
Here is a summary on what you should
include in your concluding paragraph:
http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=I28Bavw