Essay writing is a process, and process writing is a skill that is taught regularly at school. In general, the process is to brainstorm, write, revise, edit and then edit until the essay is published. For many students, the beginning of the process is the toughest part. Coming up with an idea or honing a topic can be very difficult. Here are some tips on brainstorming techniques.
Clustering
– Choose a word that is central to your topic or ideas. Write it in the middle of the page and then create a web of all the words/phrases of which you can think that relate. Then, look at that web graph and determine what your purpose (thesis) is and what your supporting points are. The conclusion you can wait to come to until you have really started writing. You can then use this to create an ordered outline for your supporting points.
Cubing
– This strategy works well if you have a general idea of your topic. You will draw a number of cubes on a page and use the following to start brainstorming your ideas further.
- Describe it
- Compare it
- Associate it
- Analyze it
- Apply it
- Argue for it
- Argue against it
You can then essentially use the same order to determine the order of your paragraphs within an essay.
The 5 W’s – Who? What? Where? When? Why – and How?
– For any sort of expository or descriptive writing, this is an essential technique. Provided that you answer these questions, you are well on your way to a complete piece of expository writing. If you go the step further and provide your insight into why something is what it is, then you will have also analyzed the topic you are writing about.
Free Writing
– For any type of creative writing, free writing is a fascinating way to let the thoughts run freely on paper. If you are writing an analytic essay or persuasive essay, free writing is also a great technique to use. It allows you to just put words down without caring about grammar, spelling, sentence structure or anything. With all those words on the paper, of your own, you can then go back and start crafting sentences that emerged from your free flow of thoughts.
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