HOW TO GENERATE IDEAS FOR ESSAY
I have known a number of students who often go blank when they see the topic. To tell you the truth, I also have faced the issue at a number of occasions.
But, let me assure you that this problem can be overcome very easily. All you need is a little practice at thinking. In this post, I am going to tell you strategies to get the right ideas for any topic that you want to write on.
But first, remember that if you want your ideas to be powerful, you need to read a lot first. If you don’t have the habit of reading, you won’t be able to generate quality ideas.
There are a lot of strategies which people use to generate ideas for their essays. For instance, freewriting, brainstorming, mind-mapping and questioning.
All of these methods work, but they work differently for different people. Therefore, I would suggest you try each of these for yourself and once you find one of them to match your way, stick to it and improve it over time with consistent practice.
Free Writing
The first strategy is called Free-Writing. This can also be called mind-dumping since you get to write without stopping whatever that comes to your mind. In this strategy, you are not concerned with the correctness of the ideas, but the flow of ideas.
You should start by setting a timer of let’s say 10-15 minutes, and then keep writing stuff about the topic. Do not stop if you are stuck anywhere, write something that comes to mind, however irrelevant or non-sensical it might look. At the end of your time, you will surely find a few insights into the topic.
Brainstorming
The second strategy is called brainstorming. This strategy begins by thinking about the topic and then jotting down every single idea or a piece of information on the paper.
In this method, you should give yourself a time of 10-15 minutes and then think about every possible linkage that your topic might have with any other subject.
Let’s say the topic is about Democracy, then you should consider what sociologists, philosophers or political scientists have to say about it. Any quote that you remember, any democrats or examples of the countries where democracy is the form of governance would be handy.
You might also think about the differences, similarities, characteristics of democracy, their economies and institutions as well. Whatever that comes to mind, note it down on the paper. This is brainstorming.
Mind-mapping
The third strategy is called mind-mapping. In this strategy again, you start by allocating yourself a good amount of time; whatever that you consider sufficient. For me, 10-15 minutes should be the standard.
Once you have set the time, begin by writing the topic or the central theme on the centre of a blank page and then try to break it into smaller parts. Each smaller part should then be addressed separately. Keep the facts, figures, sub-ideas come until exhausted.
Questioning
The final strategy is the questioning trick. In this method, you ask yourself questions about the topic.
Who, What, How, When, Why are some of the questions you would normally resort to. This strategy, however, is not suitable since it covers only a few aspects of the topic.
So, my favourite one is mind-mapping. In my case, this is the best strategy as it allows you to address all the major parts of your essay in a very structured and efficient way.
I use brainstorming when I prepare the topics in advance and in group study sessions. Free-writing is time-consuming, so I do not usually follow that. As I said earlier, try all of them until you find one that works best for you.
But you can also use all of them simultaneously as well. Mixing them up will also help you generate good ideas.
Some major points to keep in mind:
Once you are done with idea generation sessions, please take your time to sort out the relevant and irrelevant things.
Please do not write everything you have jotted down already. Your ideas should have relevance, clarity, and must be coherence.
Remember, it is not the number of your ideas, but the quality that would make it stand out.
Also keep in mind that the quality of ideas improves with observing the world around you, discussing the ideas with others, reading the books and listening to others.
You should not expect yourself to come up with brilliant ideas without having read about them first.
Therefore, enhance your knowledge base, only then will you be able to generate good ideas.
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