We have all been there. Teachers assign us an essay due next week. We tremble. What should we write about? What problems to tackle? Would the essay be original enough? So, how do we brainstorming essays?
It's like you are venturing into an unexplored abyss. But fret not, because making a brainstorm for essay writing can actually help you plan, execute and nail that A+
Here's how to brainstorm for essays .
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Every successful creation starts with a great idea, which is actually the hardest part in many cases.
Brainstorming is simply the free-flowing process of coming up with ideas. In this process, you come up with a whole bunch of ideas without guilt or shame. Ideas can be outside of the box and nothing is considered too silly, too complex, or impossible. The more creative and free-flowing, the better.
The benefits of brainstorming can surprise you:
Essay brainstorming in an academic setting works a bit differently than doing it in a team. You'll be the only one doing the brainstorming for your essay, meaning that you'll be coming up with and whittling down the ideas yourself.
Here are five ways to do just that.
Brains love visual communication and mind maps are exactly that.
Our thoughts rarely arrive in easily digestible chunks; they're more like webs of information and ideas that extend forward at any given time. Keeping track of these ideas is tough, but manifesting them all in a mind map can help you get more ideas and both understand and retain them better.
To draw an effective mind map, here are some tips:
Believe it or not, Pinterest is actually a pretty decent online brainstorming tool. You can use it to collect images and ideas from other people and put them all together to get a clearer picture of what your essay should talk about.
For example, if you're writing an essay on the importance of college, you could write something like Does college matter? in the search bar. You might just find a bunch of interesting infographics and perspectives that you never even considered before.
Save that to your own idea board and repeat the process a few more times. Before you know it, you'll have a cluster of ideas that can really help you shape your essay!
Are you trying to find similarities between two topics? Then the famous Venn diagram technique could be the key, as it clearly visualises the characteristics of any concept and shows you which parts overlap.
Popularised by British Mathematician John Venn in the 1880s, the diagram traditionally illustrates simple set relationships in probability, logic, statistics, linguistics and computer science.
You start by drawing two (or more) intersecting circles and labelling each one with an idea you're thinking of. Write the qualities of each idea in their own circles, and the ideas they share in the middle where the circles intersect.
For example, in the student debate topic Marijuana should be legal because alcohol is, you can have a circle listing the positives and negatives of marijuana, the other circle doing the same for alcohol, and the middle ground listing the effects they share between them.
This brainstorming technique works well to compare and contrast, thanks to the fact that it's super simple.
All you have to do is write the title of the essay at the top of your paper then split the rest of it into two. On the left side, you'll write about the argument for and on the right side, you'll write about the argument against.
For example, in the topic Should plastic bags be banned? you can write the pros in the left column and the cons in the right. Similarly, if you're writing about a character from fiction, you can use the left column for their positive traits and the right side for their negative traits. Simple as that.
💡 Need more? Check out our article on How to Brainstorm Ideas Properly!
Thanks to technology, we no longer have to rely on just a piece of paper and a pen. There are a plethora of tools, paid and free, to make your virtual brainstorming session easier.
Honestly, the scariest moment of writing an essay is before you start but brainstorming for essays before can really make the process of writing an essay less scary. It's a process that helps you burst through one of the toughest parts of essay and writing and gets your creative juices flowing for the content ahead.
💡 Besides brainstorming essays, are you still looking for brainstorming activities? Try some of these!
