Brainstorming Chapter 4 Summary

While writing, most of us don’t think of the ways we develop and create ideas or how we construct them into words. We don’t think about where we get the ideas from and how we choose to write what we write. Some say our ideas come from our own knowledge and experiences and that we simply make connections. While others say that ideas are always taken from different sources. In the text “Tracing Trajectories of Practice” by Kevin Roozen, Roozen discusses his study which traces the ways in which people write what they write. The text mentions a participant named Lindsey as an example, and explains Lindsey’s process and the methods she uses while writing.

In most literature, syntax takes a standard form that most can recognize. Despite this standard form, the author still has a great deal of leeway in developing sentences to create moods and convey thoughts. The author may choose longer sentences or shorter sentences. He or she may use larger words that flow or shorter words that help break up the passage. The possibilities are virtually endless.

By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece.

I really enjoyed reading your discussion post. You provided some wonderful insights about generating ideas and right brain thinking. I completely agree with you that it was kind of difficult to think of five things in order to generate ideas and think in new ways. Leaving home, I believe is an important way to generate ideas because it gets yourself away from the same environment and you can think of new ideas outside of your home. Writing always helps me when generating new ideas. If I don't write my ideas right when I think of them, I forget them instantly and never really go back to figure out what they were or what I was thinking. All my life I have heard the statement “Fake it till you make it!” I have never thought about

I frequently find myself reminiscing about the past semester and what I have learned in just a few weeks. English 111 has introduced me to new strategies to further improve my papers such as strategies to produce ideas, planning, and methods to organize my work. One strategy I learned in English 111 was the writing process. The writing process includes four detailed steps that I used to help me write papers. The first step of the writing process would be to be prewriting, also known as the invention stage. The prewriting stage is where you produce an outline or when you write down idea that you want to talk about in your paper. I often start by making an outline, labeling my paragraphs. The next step of my prewriting process would be to write down important ideas onto note cards, especially if I am writing a research paper. After writing an outline or putting your ideas on paper the writing process suggest that you get started. The next operation of the writing process would be revision. The ins were many authors use the A.R.R.R strategy, this stands for add, rearrange, remove, and replace. This would be where you add in crucial details, rearrange the order to ensure the flow of

Brainstorming- To brainstorm is a prewriting tool used to generate topics and subtopics for writing.

Brainstorming helps me to write the perfect research paper. We had Spontaneous group discussions in my class which helped me to get new ideas about my topic. We had a peer review every week once rough draft is prepared. This process helps me to me correct and analyze the more points required for rewriting my research paper. It is always a good habit in taking other views and ideas in any academic writing can result in reduce errors like grammar, sentence formation and increase in creating more ideas to implement in the paper.

Another quality a writer should have in his or her paper is giving examples or things that the readers would find useful and use it themselves. In William Zinsser’s “The Act of Writing: One Man’s Method”  he gives a lot of information on writing a paper and how to improve my writing skills. He talks about “editing, cutting and revising” (166). The one that I use the most, after learning from him, is the bracket method. He says that, “The brackets might surround the little qualifiers… sentence that… repeats what the previous sentence…”(167). I use the brackets idea and it makes my essay a little better. It really helps me to see what I had already said in the other sentence, so I can change the sentence or delete it. Another writer that gives out good information is Lewis Thomas. In “Notes on Punctuation”, Thomas talks about all kinds of punctuation. He gives information on the parenthesis, semicolon, colon, dash, comma, exclamation and quotation marks. Before I read his essay I didn’t know what or how to use a

In Robert’s paragraph on this point, he took an interesting turn in the reading that really wound me up, Roberts describes how you would normally jot down your ideas or brainstorm them and says, don’t use these ideas. Instead he says use the ideas that most people will not write about, in hopes that it will make your own writing more unusual, but intriguing none the less. It will also get you a better grade to.

Freewriting has been a strategy for me in previous classes as well as on my own. When I start to write a paper or an essay, I like to write down everything I know about the subject first, my own thoughts and information I have stored away. In order to choose certain ideas, I compare what I have already learned about the subject versus information I conduct research on. I tend to brainstorm as well and pick out the major ideas to the subject I'm writing about, so the reader can understand my concept. However, throughout the freewriting process, I've already set in my mind how I will write my paper or

Freewriting is a new idea for me in writing. When I do freewriting, I won’t be restricted by rules and grammar, so I don’t need to think too much about what I’m going to write about. It’s really simple and relaxing.

Emily this is a genius comment. That moment when you mentioned freewriting as a way of releasing stress made me realize something. While freewriting is a great brainstorming technique we could also try and see it in a different light. How about freewriting as a hobby? Think about it, you are bored you type out whatever comes into mind. You express yourself and everything through freewriting. It could be a very useful tool releasing us from our stress as well as adding value to our writing skills.The more we are able to express urselves, we grow and our writings becomes solid. I have a new way and a new reason to use freewriting. I would use it as a hobbie as and when i

At the time of his article, Zemke suggests that there are numerous alternative idea-generation tools and methods in addition to the traditional brainstorm. Among the alternatives, two general categories emerge: interactive techniques and parallel techniques (Zemke, 1993). The Trigger Method technique follows a process which allows participants to evaluate each person’s ideas individually, and then to evaluate and create a recommendation (Zemke, 1993). The SIL Method works to integrate all participants’ ideas into one solution by adding ideas to the solution through a continual “add-an-idea” cycle (Zemke, 1993, p. 48). The process ends with one integrated idea (Zemke, 1993). The last of the interactive methods discussed is the Wildest Idea. Similar to classic brainstorming, Wildest Idea allows the facilitator to interrupt a group who may be in a rut, and suggest a crazy or impractical idea (Zemke, 1993). This allows

One essential step or process in becoming a better writer to me is thinking and planning. These are similar to whereas I can use them to further my knowledge in the beginning stages of writing.

Brainwriting is an alternative method to brainstorming that tries to encourage a more uniform participation within a group. Like brainstorming, it is designed to generate lots and lots of ideas in a short amount of time. This is method more to writing to convey new ideas for products. It also takes place in groups where each group member will write their ideas over time.