Creative TCreative Thinking Techniques

.:VirtualSalt Robert Harris Version Date: January 5, 2002 You'll remember the five creative methods we discussed in the Introduction to Creative Thinking: evolution, synthesis, revolution, reapplication, changing direction. Brainstorming Alex Osborn, advertising writer of the fifties and sixties, has contributed many very powerful creative thinking techniques. Brainstorming is an idea generating technique. Basic Guidelines for Brainstorming Brainstorming is useful for attacking specific (rather than general) problems and where a collection of good, fresh, new ideas (rather than judgment or decision analysis) are needed. For example, a specific problem like how to mark the content of pipes (water, steam, etc.) would lend itself to brainstorming much better than a general problem like how the educational system can be improved. Brainstorming can take place either individually or in a group of two to ten, with four to seven being ideal. 1. 2. 3. 4. Practical Methodology 1. 2. 3. 5. 6. A. 1.

Critical Thinking and Pedagogy: Rules of Inference Rules of Inference The goal of logic is to make explicit our intuitions of good reasoning, such that we can distinguish between good reasoning and bad reasoning in terms of an explicit procedure that does not need to rely on intuitions. To do this, logicians formulate the information and the inferences involved in reasoning as propositions. How do we distinguish between good reasoning and bad reasoning? Intuitively, we recognize example 1 to be an instance of good reasoning and example 2 to be an instance of bad reasoning. Let us denote x is a human as P and x is a mammal as Q: We now see that the sentence All humans are mammals expresses a complex proposition consisting of two propositions P and Q, and is of the form: If P, then Q. We can now express the logical structure of examples 1and 2 as: Why is the structure in example 2 bad, in contrast to that in example 1? Rule of inference: Modus ponens Modus Ponens sanctions the reasoning in example 1, but not in example 2.

Gapminder: Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view. 201 Ways to Arouse Your Creativity Arouse your creativity Electric flesh-arrows … traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. Creativity is like sex. I know, I know. The people I speak of are writers. Below, I’ve exposed some of their secret tips, methods, and techniques. Now, lie back, relax and take pleasure in these 201 provocative ways to arouse your creativity. Great hacks from Merlin Mann of 43 Folders 2011 World Clock 10 Commandments for a Happy Writer by Nathan Bransford Writers aren't generally known as the happiest lot. As a recent Guardian survey of some top writers shows, even the best ones don't particularly enjoy it all that much. And in case you think this is a new development, an 1842 letter from Edgar Allen Poe to his publisher recently surfaced in which he was found apologizing for drinking so much and begging for money. But believe it or not, writing and happiness can, in fact, go together. For our Thursday entry in Positivity Week, here are ten ways for a writer to stay positive: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Nathan Bransford is the author of JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE COSMIC SPACE KAPOW, a middle grade novel about three kids who blast off into space, break the universe, and have to find their way back home, which was published by Dial Books for Young Readers in May 2011.

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