Brainstorming Strategies

While a brilliant topic and a debatable argument lay a wonderful foundation for your article, the true significance lies in convincing your audience of the idea, as this is usually the core purpose of composing an academic essay. Brainstorming what to include and how to logically develop the idea into a flowing passage is then deemed as an intimidating obstacle by numerous students despite well-established ideas. According to my consulting experience, some students felt that their intended analysis became overly diverse to the point of disorganization, while the majority of students struggled to include enough perspectives to warrant five or six pages of discussion. Even after forming a relatively clear idea, many would further worry about whether they have strayed too far from their arguments or topics. This passage proffers some strategies that I found fairly helpful whenever I was trying to brainstorm a specific topic, and I hope that they will also be useful in your own writing process.

If multifaceted ideas within your topic confuse the development of the article, there’s no reason to be scared or worried – it’s definitely an auspicious start and please follow the steps below.

1. Take a moment to record all of your existing ideas on a piece of paper as a process of visualization.
2. Identify similarities and potential logical connections between some of the ideas. However, if no logic can be found, please re-examine more carefully or consider skipping to the next part about lacking ideas.
3. Classify the ideas based on similarities, and keep in mind that the detailed ideas can be used as examples in later analysis.
4. Construct a logical chain that leads directly to your main topic using these categorized fragments. Don’t hesitate to omit excessive ideas that, while related to the main topic, do not contribute significantly to this logic chain (usually, it is these extraneous ideas that cause confusion in the first place).

Here’s an example to illustrate the entire process. Given the topic “What’s the reason behind McDonald’s successful globalization,” you may be able to generate and write down several ideas like global popularity, cultural respect, locally tailored menus, unchanged decoration style, uniqueness, uniform ordering process, price adjustments, advertisement designs, and so on. It’s clear that all facets concerning adjustments can be categorized into “localization,” while the ideas pertaining to consistent features can be summarized as “standardization.” Localization represents McDonald’s respect towards local culture or dietary habits, while standardization is an indication of uniqueness that distinguishes McDonald’s from other restaurants and makes it memorable. That’s how McDonald’s achieves its global popularity and reaches its successful globalization. After establishing a clear logic chain, it should be easy to compose an essay.

If you find yourself stuck owing to a lack of ideas, try to start by breaking down the topic into smaller, individual elements and exploring each one in detail to discover concealed insights behind the holistic view. For each element, you should consider (but not limited to) the following aspects:

1. What features does this element possess that may be relevant to my topic?
2. What relationship does it have with human beings? What about influences under the discussion of your topic?
3. Is it developing or already developed? If it’s still developing, what trend may it follow, and how can this trend connect to my topic? If it’s already developed, what causes such a consequence? Why do you come up with such a conclusion?
4. Are there any evaluations or comments by other people (scholars if applicable) on this element? Positive and negative comments are both welcomed!
5. Are there any specific examples/categories if the element is a general concept?
6. What actions should you, or we human beings, take to justify/promote/restrain what you have concluded on this element under this topic?

Remember that all brainstorming ideas should stay closely aligned with your main topic (or if your thoughts are extremely divergent, you may also think from multiple perspectives and filter according to your topic). Additionally, it is highly recommended to write down your brilliant thoughts for each element on a piece of paper because visualization is the best way to organize jumbled ideas.

After thoroughly examining all the elements, it is time to identify connections between them using all your previous brainstorming achievements. At this point, establishing logical relationships between the elements becomes much easier since a certain consideration of one element is likely to become the cause, result, catalyst, or obstacle of a certain consideration of another element. These interconnections form the foundation for the logic chains you are supposed to indicate in your passage, guaranteeing a comprehensive analysis of your article. Plus, your analysis of each element sticks closely to the topic, so you don’t have to worry about deflecting from the topic during later writing.

Let’s address an example to further elaborate on this method. Given the topic of foodways, food delivery, and the human community, here’s what you may need to consider about these two elements:

Food Delivery (Not a General Concept)

• Features: Convenient & fast; provides access to global cuisines; anywhere & anytime; probably unhealthy…
• Relation with humans: Popular among college students; influences: various flavors; people get lazy; obesity…
• It is developing rapidly in modern society; much needed in the future, because younger generations are getting too busy to cook or even go to the canteen; young people favor global flavors…
• …

Human Community (General Concept)

• Features: Based on connections between people – requires communication; shared traits among members; something acting like a bond (consider the topic: maybe a special cuisine can act as a bond); indicates solidarity and strengths when facing collective difficulties…
• Specific Examples: Students, colleagues, people grown in the same area (probably share the same flavor/a specific cuisine), people from the same country but living abroad…
• Actions: We should promote communication & connections between individuals to strengthen communities…

Now, you may have noticed some possible logic behind your thoughts. Young people are often busy and don’t have time to go to the cafeteria. Food delivery services allow them to eat wherever they are, so they tend not to dine at the canteen. As a result, social interactions between people decrease, making it harder for the community to sustain. Food delivery also provides easy access for young people seeking global flavors to international cuisine. Such convenience further discourages already time-strapped youngsters from learning how to prepare their local traditional dishes. As a result, this cultural link within a community gradually weakens, eroding the shared bond among people in a specific region. Over time, the sense of community diminishes, and its continuity becomes increasingly difficult to maintain. Then exactly due to all those advantages offered by communities, while the trend of food delivery is so unstoppable in modern times, our goal, therefore, should be to strive for a balance between the two elements…

Indisputably speaking, the method of breaking down a topic into smaller components is a relatively effective approach to brainstorming. However, perhaps this method is more suitable when you have already started writing an article but have no idea what to include. In my view, a better way to brainstorm is to start early. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to begin writing long before the deadline, but you should at least prepare to think about the topic as soon as it’s confirmed. Make great use of your spare moments – while running, commuting, or even before falling asleep – to reflect and seek inspiration. Your brain tends to generate unexpected ideas when you’re fully relaxed rather than extremely anxious just before the due date, and these flashes of insight can be incredibly valuable for shaping your writing.

Supplementary to this, it’s crucial to cultivate the habit of outlining before any composing process. Keep your outline on your cellphone or any easily accessible tool where you can quickly record ideas as they come to you. When inspiration strikes you, add it to your outline after thinking about where it might fit in your essay. Eventually, your outline may become somewhat disorganized – but don’t panic, you can return to the first method discussed in this passage: organizing, classifying your ideas, and then forming logical connections between them. When it’s time to draft, focus on one section of your outline at a time and elaborate on each part in detail. In this way, an outline not only greatly reduces the pressure of starting from scratch but also ensures a more logical structure, enabling you to develop the essay with greater clarity and depth.

At the end of this article, I sincerely wish you success in brainstorming your upcoming academic essays and enjoy such a process with excessive collisions of sagacious insights as well as flows of penetrating discernment. After all the efforts, brainstorming is not a miserable process to suffer.