Brainstorming

What this handout is about This handout discusses techniques that will help you start writing a paper and continue writing through the challenges of the revising process. Brainstorming can help you choose a topic, develop an approach to a topic, or deepen your understanding of the topic’s potential. Introduction If you consciously take advantage of your natural thinking processes by gathering your brain’s energies into a “storm,” you can transform these energies into written words or diagrams that will lead to lively, vibrant writing. Whether you are starting with too much information or not enough, brainstorming can help you to put a new writing task in motion or revive a project that hasn’t reached completion. When you’ve got nothing: You might need a storm to approach when you feel “blank” about the topic, devoid of inspiration, full of anxiety about the topic, or just too tired to craft an orderly outline. Brainstorming techniques Freewriting Break down the topic into levels Cubing

Where do I start? Choosing a research topic To gather useful information for a research project you need to develop a focused research topic. When you choose your topic, consider the steps: Choose a topic Prepare before you search What's the assignment Brainstorm for topic ideas Read general background information Focus in on your topic Identify concepts Define your topic as a focused research question Research and read more about your topic Formulate a thesis statement Need to do some research? Anxiety: How do I start this project? It's normal to feel any or all of these reactions. Your past success or failure at research Your general knowledge about how to do research Your familiarity with the sources available to you. Prepare before you search Good news - you are invited to a party! Do you hop in your car and start driving, hoping to find it by sheer luck? No-if you want to get there in time, you will probably want to focus your search with a map and some instructions. What is the Assignment?

Research 101 -- Topics -- Using A Topic to Generate Questions Research requires a question for which no ready answer is available. What do you want to know about a topic? Asking a topic as a question (or series of related questions) has several advantages: 1. 2. 3. Developing a question from a broad topic can be done in many ways. brainstorming noun: 1. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 Brainstorming is a free-association technique of spontaneously listing all words, concepts, ideas, questions, and knowledge about a topic. concept mapping noun phrase: 1. You may create a concept map as a means of brainstorming; or, following your brainstorm, you may take the content you have generated and create your map from it . Combining brainstorming and concept mapping (brainmapping, if you will) can be a productive way to begin your thinking about a topic area. <<previous pg. | next pg

Brainstorming Research Questions- CRLS Research Guide /** * Simple encryption to hide email addresses from crawlers in webpages. * This code is Free Software provided under an MIT License. * Written by Diego Doval: bnaeQ0bvPXOnZQYgaZqp1ZQO * */ CRLS Research Guide Brainstorming Research Questions Tip Sheet 10 Ask these questions: What is it? It is the process of thinking up and writing down a set of questions that you want to answer about the research topic you have selected. Why should I do it? It will keep you from getting lost or off-track when looking for information. When do I do it? After you have written your statement of purpose, when you will have a focused topic to ask questions about. How do I do it? You will be making two lists of questions. Asking factual questions: Assume your reader knows nothing about your subject. Make a list of specific questions that ask : Who? Asking Interpretive Questions: These kinds of questions are the result of your own original thinking. A. B. C. D. E.

Assignment Research Calculator - Step 2F: Is Your Topic Too Narrow or Specific? If a topic is too specific you will not find enough material for your research. Example: How does teenage pregnancy among minorities affect grades and dropout rates in Fresno high schools? Use Academic Search Premier in different search interfaces to help broaden your topic. Another possibility is to use the cloud feature of Quintura: Seek and Find to manipulate your topic and see what you can find on the web.