As we discussed this week, a big part of writing your ideas and opinions is coming up with your ideas in the first place! Therefore, writers have several techniques for "brainstorming" ideas. We went over 3 of those ideas in class:
- Clustering/Brain-Webbing/Mind-Mapping:
- Using bubbles on paper to brainstorm. First write the main topic/question/opinion on the paper and put it in a bubble. Then connect bubbles with sub points to the main bubble. Then break those sub points into more sub points. Look at the examples below to get the idea:
- Be sure to have at least 12 bubbles written on your cluster for homework!
- Listing
- Put the main point on a line at the top of your page. Then, put sub points as bullet-points below that main point. Then break the sub points into connected sub points below each sub point. It's like clustering, but more organized. Look at the example below:
- Cats are the best animal because
- Cats are clean
- They use a litter box
- They clean themselves
- Cats are sweet
- They nuzzle you
- They sleep with you
- Cats are useful
- They catch and kill pests
- Mice, rats, etc
- They provide companionship
- Be sure to have at least 12 sub points in your list for your homework!
- Free-writing
- Sit down and spend 6-9 minutes writing about your topic. Don't worry about grammar, organization, or spelling yet—just put pencil to paper and go for it.
- Once the time is up, underline main points you think are good and cross out main points that may not be that strong or relevant.
- Be sure to write at least 1/2 of a page for your homework!
Homework:
- On Google Drive, in your Handouts folder, there is a document titled "Persuasive Writing Prompts." This handout has dozens of different topics from which to choose! Choose 6 of the topics and brainstorm about each, making sure to use each of the three methods at least twice!
- Each topic should take about 6-9 minutes of brainstorming. If you want more practice, feel free to complete more brainstorms for more topics!
- For this homework, you may turn it in via paper next week, since these methods are difficult to complete via computer.
- You do not need to actually write an essay for each prompt—just do the brainstorming method.
