Idea development for essay writing

Very often, it can be difficult for students to think of ideas to develop an essay. In this
study, I am going to suggest some ways of building up ideas while writing essays.

1. Journaling

Many people write in personal journals (or online blogs). Writers not only record events
in journals, but also reflect and record thoughts, observations, questions, and feelings.

Journals are safe spaces to record your experience of the world.

Use a journal to write about an experience you had, different reactions you have
observed to the same situation, a current item in the news, an ethical problem at work, an
incident with one of your children, a memorable childhood experience of your own, etc.
Try to probe the why or how of the situation.

Journals can help you develop ideas for writing. When you review your journal entries,
you may find that you keep coming back to a particular topic, or that you have written a
lot about one topic in a specific entry, or that you’re really passionate about an issue.
Those are the topics, then, about which you obviously have something to say. Those are
the topics you might develop further in a piece of writing.

2. Freewriting

Freewriting is just what it says—writing freely, whatever comes into your mind, without
caring about spelling, punctuation, etc. It’s a way to free up your thoughts, help you
know where your interests lie, and get your fingers moving on the keyboard (and this
physical act can be a way to get your thoughts flowing).

Try a series of timed freewritings. Set a timer for five minutes. The object is to keep
your fingers moving constantly and write down whatever thoughts come into your head
during that time. If you can’t think of anything to say, keep writing I don’t know or this
is silly until your thoughts move on. Stop when the timer rings. Shake out your hands,

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wait awhile, and then do more timed freewritings. After you have a set of five or so
freewritings, review them to see if you’ve come back to certain topics, or whether you
recorded some ideas that might be the basis for a piece of writing.

3. Brainstorming

Brainstorming is like freewriting around a specific topic. It helps you bring your
subconscious thoughts into consciousness, identifying as many ideas as possible that are
related to a particular topic.

To brainstorm, let your thoughts about a specific topic flow, and list those thoughts.

4. Look at Your Life Story

What do you know that other people do not? What things do you understand that the
average person does not understand? Do you have any relevant experience or special
knowledge when it comes to the subject?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you might be a step ahead of the game
when it comes to figuring out the best essay topic for you. Something you know how to
do or that you understand can be a great topic for a process essay. An experience you
had can be fodder for a narrative essay. It gives you a unique point of view. Just don't
allow yourself to show too much bias, or to ignore evidence in favor of your personal
story. As a bonus, you will notice you will write much more quickly when you are
relating a story from your life.

5. Go Back to Your Textbook

You have probably learned that the best way to study for tests and quizzes is to focus on
the subheadings, bullet points, chapter questions, pictures, and graphs. If you are trying
to come up with a good essay topic, you should also review these. They will remind you
which elements are most important.

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If you write your essay on something that is emphasized in your textbook, there is a
pretty good chance you are on the right track. You will know that your topic is relevant,
and you can impress your instructor by displaying your in-depth knowledge on that
topic.

6. If You are Desperate, Go with a Generic Essay Topic

The truth is this: you may not come up with a brilliant essay idea each time you are
given a writing assignment. However, that does not mean you cannot write an excellent
paper. You can still write an essay that is well researched, thoughtful, and carefully
written.

Plenty of essays are written by students who earn excellent grades, but are not very
excited by the topic they have chosen. It’s better to write an essay on a less exciting
topic than to turn it in late because you spent too much time searching for the “wow”
factor.

7. Mapping

Mapping or diagramming helps you immediately group and see relationships among
ideas. Mapping and diagramming may help you create information on a topic, and/or
organize information from a list or freewriting entries, as a map provides a visual for the
types of information you’ve generated about a topic. For example:

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8. Listing

Making a list can help you develop ideas for writing once you have a particular focus. If
you want to take a stand on a subject, you might list the top ten reasons why you’re
taking that particular stand. Or, once you have a focused topic, you might list the
different aspects of that topic.

10. Asking Defining Questions

If you have a broad topic you want to write about, but don’t quite know how to narrow
it, ask defining questions to help you develop your main idea for writing.

Example:

I want to write about school taxes.

 Why do only property owners (and not renters) in New York State pay school taxes?

 What percent of overall school funding comes from school taxes?

 Do other states fund schools in the same way?

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 Does the state lottery system, initially designed to fund schools, actually support
schools?

 Is there a limit to paying school taxes when one gets older and no longer has
children in school?

Once you have your questions, you can work with the list to group related questions, and
then decide whether your writing can logically deal with a number of the questions
together or only one. Use questioning to help develop a focus for your writing.

11. Noting Pros & Cons

Once you know your topic for writing, develop ideas by pretending you’re preparing for
a debate. List all of the pros and cons you can think of related to your topic. When you
have your lists of pros and cons, you can then decide whether to include one or both
sides in your writing. For example:

Smoking Outside of Buildings

Pros:

 Conforms with state legislation for no smoking in the interiors of public places

 Inconveniences smokers, perhaps an inducement to quit?

Cons:

 Creates a wall of smoke that people need to walk through

 Businesses must purchase and maintain a place for smokers to discard matches and
cigarettes

 Inconveniences smokers

12. See It in Practice

Now that you have seen how some prewriting techniques can help you get your ideas
going as you begin your writing process, it’s time to see how our sample student applies
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some of these strategies to her essay assignment. In this screen cast, you’ll see the
student share freewriting and mapping.

13. Time to Write

If you have never tried out some of these prewriting strategies, it’s a good idea to give
them a try, especially if you have writer’s block or feel your current prewriting strategies
don’t work well for you. Using your own assignment, spend some time trying out at
least two of the prewriting activities described in this section of The Writing Process.

What are your results? What information can you use as you progress with your essay?
Which prewriting strategy worked best for you?

You should put the notes you develop from your prewriting activities in a journal or
some place that will be handy for you. You can type or handwrite your prewriting, but
even after you finish reviewing your notes initially, keep them around, as you may need
to come back to them later if an idea you have from the beginning doesn’t work out.

Be sure to share your results with someone, such as a classmate or your professor.
Talking about your ideas, especially in this early stage, can really help you develop your
ideas in your mind and can help you develop new ideas as well.

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References:

https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/writing-process-overview/writing-process-
developing-ideas/