How to brainstorm effectively on any essay topic

From the time you step into high school until the time you finish your graduate work, essays will be a part of everyday work. You will be given a wide range of topics to write on, and you will be required to make each essay unique and well-written.

For each of these essays, the first step is to brainstorm ideas. However, there are ways you can brainstorm effectively, and there are ways that you can brainstorm that are completely disorganized and unhelpful. In this article, we are going to take a look at how to brainstorm effectively on any essay topic.

It should be noted that if you are having trouble brainstorming an essay, you aren’t alone. Instead, you could always turn to the help of an essay service if you’re stuck.

Get into a focused space

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If you want to brainstorm effectively, you shouldn’t try to do it when you’re focused on other things.

When you want to brainstorm, you should make sure you’re relaxed but not impaired. Be ready to think about your topic specifically and focus on it. You shouldn’t try to brainstorm a question when you’re tired, for example, because you will doubtlessly come up with subpar ideas and perhaps miss ideas that would be brilliant.

If you’re in a group, break the ice


Ice breaker games and activities for meetings. YouTube @MindToolsVideos

Another thing you want to do before you try to brainstorm is to break the ice a bit. If you are trying to get ideas flowing in a group, communication is vital. Of course, almost everyone has a bit of shyness in a new group. As such, members of the group might hold back what might be a good idea because they are afraid to speak up.

By taking the time to break the ice with members in your group, you can get creativity and communication flowing better. If you are working on the essay by yourself, though, you can skip this step.

Take out some paper

To get started brainstorming, take out a piece of paper. At this point, you shouldn’t worry about structure. Instead, this is a time for free thinking.

The best way to do this is to write about the topic you are given in the center of a large piece of paper. From there, take 5 or 10 minutes and write down everything that question makes you think of. You don’t have to be detailed at this point, take notes on what you’re thinking.

Organize and expand

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When you are finished writing down everything you are thinking of, you can start to organize your ideas. There is no one single way that you should organize these thoughts. Some people like to use charts while others want to make lists. The important thing is that you can reference your arranged version and understand it.

Once you have your ideas organized, you should start to consider what you would write on the ideas you came up with. After all, a plan might sound great, but if you can’t write a lot about it, it won’t work for a longer paper.

This is the point when you start narrowing your ideas down. You don’t have, but it might be a good idea to do enough research that you get a general idea for your paper and perhaps an outline that you might work with. This way, you have a better idea of if the plan you brainstormed will fill out to a full essay correctly.

Conclusion

Writing essays is an essential skill in your academic life. You need to know how to craft a well-written article from the minute you are given the assignment to the time that you turn it in. This means doing considerable research and turning that research into a well-crafted essay.

Before you start on this, though, you need to have a productive brainstorming session. The first thing you need to remember is that your head needs to be bright and ready to focus when you are coming up with ideas. Besides, you should make sure any group you are working with is on the same page and not afraid to speak up when they have an opinion. Then, finally, you can start the process of brainstorming and choose what to write about.

Mike Smith
Mike Smith
Executive Editor at Best in Australia. Mike has spent over a decade covering news related to business leaders and entrepreneurs around Australia and across the world. You can contact Mike here.
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