Brainstorming Ideas – The steps. You have been given a topic from your professor. And are ready to begin brainstorming. (Keep in mind that you won’t necessarily use all of the ideas you generate). You have generated lots of ideas and feel ready to identify your main idea. Let’s start organizing your ideas. You might use one or both of the following methods to gather your ideas. Experiment with both of them to see what best helps you brainstorm your ideas. Brainstorming Method 1: Idea Map Use a graphic organizer. Students often find that seeing a visual representation of their thoughts helps them to add more ideas and sort through them. Also, drawing a map might help you see how your thoughts connect to one another, which will help you when you begin organizing your essay. In the center of the map, write your topic and draw a circle around it. When you come up with a new idea, write it down, draw a circle around it, and draw a line to show how it connects to the topic in the center and/or the other ideas you’ve written down. Look at the main ideas you’ve written and see if you can think of other ideas that connect to them. Remember that it is okay—actually, it is great—if you have many ideas right now. You won’t necessarily use all of them in your essay, but all it’s important to collect many ideas right now. The map below uses the sample essay topic from the previous resource to show you what an idea map might look like. To practice with this brainstorming method, draw your own idea map using the sample essay topic.

Brainstorming Method 2: Idea List Rather than draw a map, some people prefer to brainstorm by simply listing their ideas. This is a fairly straightforward method of brainstorming ideas. Though not as visual as an idea map, lists are a great way of finding and recording your ideas. Idea lists help you “mine” your ideas so that you have many to choose from and also help you find a main idea and supporting points, which will be useful as you plan your essay. At the top of your list, write your topic. Writing out your topic helps you focus on it. Then, list the ideas you think of in the order that they come to you. You can use many lists to find supporting points for each of your ideas. The lists below use the sample essay topic above to show you what idea lists might look like. Example Idea List What is an important goal I have for the next few years? finishing school getting a better job keeping in touch with my friends and family learning a new language How can I achieve my goal? to finish school, I can figure out what my goals are for school, find a school that fits my goals, and apply to schools and for financial aid to get a better job, I can finish school, learn a new language, search for jobs, prepare my applications, and make a list of people who will give me a good reference to keep in touch with my friends and family, I can make a list of everyone’s contact information, like addresses, phone numbers, and to learn a new language, I can pick what language I want to learn, get a dictionary, and find a class To practice with this brainstorming method, make your own idea list using the sample essay topic.