I Exploring ideas for writing

Where do I get ideas?

Once the topic is defined, you might get generating ideas. Not every method works equally well for every project, but below are several strategies or techniques to get you started.

Freewriting

If you do not know how to approach a broad subject, try doing some freewriting. You let one idea lead to another in free association, without concern for correctness. The important thing is to keep writing.

Tips for freewriting

· Give yourself a time limit of 5-10 minutes.

· Write as much as you can as quickly as you can on the subject determined.

· As you write, do not worry about organization, grammar, or spelling.

· Use the first words you think of – in any language.

· At the end, read through your writing and highlight the best ideas that emerged.

Brainstorming

Another way to generate ideas is to brainstorm – make a list of ideas as you think of them. Brainstorming is enhanced if you do it in a group. You can then scrutinize your ideas and reorganize them.

Tips for brainstorming

· Gather as many good and bad ideas, suggestions, examples, sentences, false starts, etc. as you can in a limited period of time (5-10 minutes). Jot down everything that comes to mind, including material you are sure you will throw out.

· Do not go into detail; concentrate on making your list as long as possible.

Journalists’ questions and the Stasis theory

Talk to your audience, or pretend that you are being interviewed by someone — or by several people, if possible (to give yourself the opportunity of considering a subject from several different points of view).

Tips for asking journalistic questions

· Check the coverage of your story by making sure you answer 6 questions – Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? If you are telling a story of an event, asking these six questions might help you think more comprehensively about your topic.

Stasis theory is a four-question, pre-writing process developed in ancient Greece by Aristotle and Hermagoras. Later, the stases were refined by Roman rhetoricians, such as Cicero, Quintilian, and Hermogenes. Working through the four stasis questions encourages knowledge building that is important for research, writing, and for working in teams. Stasis theory helps writers conduct critical analyses of the issues they are investigating.

Specifically, stasis theory asks writers to investigate and try to determine:

• The facts (conjecture)
• The meaning or nature of the issue (definition)
• The seriousness of the issue (quality)
• The plan of action (policy).

Stasis theory is related to the six journalistic questions above. Lawyers also move through a similar knowledge building process known as IRAC: (1) Issue; (2) Rules; (3) Application; (4) Conclusion.

Mapping

Mapping is a visual way of generating and connecting ideas.

Tips for mapping

· Write your topic in a circle in the center of a page.

· Think of ideas related to the topic and write those ideas around the central circle.

· Draw lines to the related ideas.

(Photo comes from www.examtime.com)

A mindmap organizes your ideas as you generate them. It also allows you to see which aspects of your topic might be fruitful to pursue and which to drop.

Analogies

See if you can find a fresh analogy that opens up a new set of ideas. Build your analogy by using the word ‘like’. For example, if you are writing about violence on television, is that violence like clowns fighting in a carnival act (that is, we know that no one is really getting hurt)?

Exercise 1 (B1/B2)

Choose an activity from column A to explain it by describing it in terms of an activity from column B (or vice versa).

Writer’s Block

Because writers have various ways of writing, a variety of things can cause a writer to experience anxiety, and sometimes this anxiety leads to writer's block. Many times writer’s block can be alleviated by trying some new writing strategies.

Tips for overcoming writer’s block

· Ignore any self-imposed rules that hinder your work, such as “Begin by writing an introduction”, “Have a complete outline before you start writing”, “Write in the preset sequence” and so on.

· Start with sections you know most about. Writing will help show you what you know and what you need to know.

· Do not allow abundant editing prevent you from moving forward.

(Adapted from Online Writing Lab by Allen Brizee @ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

and Keys for Writers by Ann Raimes)

II Useful Vocabulary: Reason and Result (B1/B2/C1)

Much academic study deals with establishing reasons and results of events or states of affair. They could be described using conjunctions (because), prepositions (due to, because of), adverbials (therefore), as well as nouns (an outcome) and verbs (to provoke).

Conjunctions