Writing Better with Useful Brainstorming Techniques

Brainstorming is an activity deployed in a group setting to solve problems by generating multiple ideas and creative solutions to address a particular issue. It can be used to come up with novel approaches and out-of-the-box conceptualizations. To brainstorm, understanding the problem is of primary importance. Since it is a group-based approach, encouraging everyone to share their ideas and suggestions is integral. However, not all assignments entail group activities, so brainstorming is an important undertaking even if you’re stuck with a solo exercise. Brainstorming can be an effective tool to help you construct a tangible outline and define the content when you set out to write something—be it an essay or a research paper. 

Just as there are multiple ways to approach a creative writing problem, there exist numerous brainstorming techniques and methods to address the same. Instead of employing a single approach, it’s always better to mix it up with different techniques so you have a better set of ideas to consider for your writing project. Involving yourself in a dedicated creative process will help you structure the content and express it better as you begin fleshing it out during writing. The following sections describe the various steps involved in brainstorming, commonly used methods, and why it’s a great way to approach your writing assignments.

What is Brainstorming?

Brainstorming’s definition describes it as a primarily group-centric process that brings together several individuals to contribute their ideas and unique perspectives to find solutions to creative or other problems. Most ideas generated in the process are spontaneous and are often noted down for later review. The process promotes free thinking in a creative space, enhanced by the constant flurry of ideas and thoughts. The perpetual flow of thoughts and solutions often removes inhibitions in members of the group that might feel hesitant otherwise. This allows the brainstorming process to also include individuals that might otherwise be introverts. Brainstormed ideas are usually noted down instantly and often not critiqued during the process itself but are later analyzed in the context of the problem and evaluated accordingly. The term “brainstorming” first appeared in a book called How to Think Up, written by prominent advertiser Alex F. Osborn. Osborn came up with the process of having sessions where his team members would generate ideas in a communal space due to his dissatisfaction with their individual creative outcomes. 

It might be surprising to note that the word “brainstorm” in itself was a product of brainstorming, with the term being coined by Osborn’s subordinates in one of many such sessions conducted by him. Osborn’s original term for the method was “organized ideation” which then transitioned into its better, more creative counterpart as we know it today. The word gained popularity due to his book Applied Imagination, published in 1953—eleven years after the term first appeared in print. Osborn’s requirements for the process often needed all team members to have a clear idea of the problem prior to the brainstorming session. This is a requirement even today, where most brainstorming sessions are preceded by a brief outline of the creative problem and the expected solution. Despite originating as a group activity, brainstorming has gained nuance and is sometimes also deployed in solo projects and activities to better streamline ideas and the creative process.

Brainstorming’s definition describes it as a primarily group-centric process that brings together several individuals to contribute their ideas and unique perspectives to find solutions to creative or other problems. Most ideas generated in the process are spontaneous and are often noted down for later review. The process promotes free thinking in a creative space, enhanced by the constant flurry of ideas and thoughts.

Brainstorming for Writing Better

If you’re looking to write engaging material for your next essay writing assignment, dissertation, or research paper, brainstorming can be an effective way to approach the exercise. Though there’s a prevalent understanding that brainstorming is primarily deployed only in creative settings, it can also be very effective in helping you structure your approach to formal and fact-based writing. While you may or may not have project partners, brainstorming for ideas is still a great way to approach the assignment. Since the essay topic will often entail dabbling in technicalities, it might be a good idea to begin by thoroughly researching relevant subject matter before you get to record your initial impressions and ideas. The methods of brainstorming often remove a filter that would often cloud your mind when approaching a topic. This allows you to think unconventionally and helps you become creative even if you’re working to write something with a defined framework. 

While the individual brainstorming approach is apt for simplistic prompts and assignments, you might require assistance from your partners in case the topic is more complex. Intricate concepts and problems are always better dealt with in the company of multiple perspectives. However, in case your assignment is an individual undertaking, you can approach your advisor or professor to gain some guidance and inspiration before you get down to business. The individual brainstorming process might feel more uninhibited because of the lack of other people analyzing your suggestions. However, it is important to remember that you need to maintain an unbiased approach even concerning your own suggestions. Select only the ideas that are objectively relevant and practical to your writing assignment.

Brainstorming Techniques for Writing

Brainstorming for writing involves a multi-step process that guides your approach right from the generation of ideas to actually putting down tangible content on paper. Each stage has its methods of approach that pertain to nuanced requirements and help you write through a multimodal perspective. Here are a few brainstorming methods and steps you can follow when you’re come over by writer’s block and are finding it difficult to address your assignment effectively:

Step 1: Generate Ideas

Coming up with pertinent ideas for your writing assignment is the first step in the process of brainstorming. This step essentially guides the entirety of your writing journey concerning the topic and allows you to structure the content accordingly. 

1. The Five Whys and the Five Ws

The Five Whys analysis is an important tool that allows you to address the problem and its source while understanding what caused it. This is especially useful in case you’re writing descriptive pieces that detail events, objects, inventions, social issues, or political occurrences. The Five Whys analysis requires you to ask the question “Why?” five consecutive times in an attempt to define the problem and its root cause in detail. If you’re writing an essay on why the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, you must first begin by asking why it happened, followed by four more whys. Now, for a topic as convoluted, it might require a few additional questions; however, it remains an effective tool to address rather straightforward topics and issues. 

A variation of the Five Whys analysis is the Five Ws analysis, which relies on asking: 

• What? 
• When? 
• Where? 
• Who? 
• Why? 

The Five Ws goes a few steps further than its rather simple counterpart and allows you and your team to address the topic with more pointed information. The Five Ws method is sometimes also called “starbursting” because it is based on a method used by journalists to get to the depth of a potential new story. Here’s an example of this method: 

• What: The Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster 
• When: February 1, 2003 
• Where: Over the skies of Texas & Louisiana, USA 
• Who: The disaster claimed the lives of astronauts Rick Husband, Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, William C. McCool, Laurel Clark, David M. Brown, and Ilan Ramon.  
• Why: Damaged left wing of the space shuttle during launch 

You can generate detailed ideas and topics for you or your team to write about with the help of this method. 

2. Brainwriting

This brainstorming method is especially useful when you have a group writing effort to undertake. The process involves making each group member write down their ideas anonymously to remove inhibitions and fear of judgment. This method, while including the rather reticent members of the group, also ensures the thinking process and idea-sorting remain separate. Ideas can be selected following the brainwriting exercise of collecting everyone’s thoughts and proceeding to the stage where they can be picked randomly and discussed thereafter. Brainwriting is a method that not only promotes novel ideas but also pulls down the wall of overthinking and inhibitions that often suppress creativity. 

3. Gap Filling

Popular in corporate environments, gap filling can also be useful in the academic setting as it allows students to self-analyze and understand how much they know vs. how much they would need to know. This is important as several writing assignments entail detailed research and knowledge generation to create concrete material that can be turned in for assessments. Use a paper & pen or a whiteboard to mark your current state and your end state. This will also help you find practical solutions to the topic at hand. In your gap analysis, include information on what books you will need to read, the credible sources, and how you intend on gaining the requisite knowledge for your writing project. 

4. Figure Storming

This brainstorming method is especially useful when you’re writing on a historical essay topic, a personality or a character from a fictional work. Figure storming is often used as a problem-solving technique by conceptualizers that think of approaching a problem from a perspective that would be befitting a great personality. Investment strategists would ask “How would Warren Buffett plan his investments?” Similarly, if you’re writing an essay on the Greek philosopher Socrates, reading the works of Socrates and the historical records of his corresponding period reading would be a start. However, to take a unique, more detail-oriented approach, you might want to ask questions such as “What would a day in the life of Socrates have been like?” or “How would Socrates have put forth his opinions before the sophists in his famed debates?” This method is also called role-storming and is an intuitive brainstorming method. 

Step 2: Organize Ideas, Plan Content, & Structure Outlines

Once you have sufficient ideas to work with, you will be left with a rather incoherent set of thoughts, prompts, and ideas. Brainstorming effectively requires you to collate and organize these ideas into a fairly concrete framework, so you can begin planning the content of your written work. Planning your content will require you to shortlist some of the ideas that will actually go into the assignment and set aside the remaining to help you work with a smaller batch. 

1. Mind Mapping or Clustering

The brainstorming process can get quickly chaotic with several out-of-the-box ideas floating around. Mind mapping allows you to make a note of all these ideas systematically. While this can be done during the initial brainstorming session, it can also be undertaken as a separate activity to collate every idea generated. Mind maps are not linear diagrams; instead, they’re detailed flowcharts that have several branches of related ideas under each arm. These diagrams are useful not only to make a note of every idea in the room, but they’re also great in grouping relevant ideas under set categories, bringing order to the pandemonium in a brainstorming room. Mind mapping is also a useful method for defining the structure and overarching themes of different portions of your written work. While the brainstorming technique works best to collate ideas, it can also provide a pathway to building a concrete framework for your assignments, making it relevant to three different stages of the brainstorming process. 

2. SWOT Analysis 

This is a strategic and analytical method that allows businesses to analyze various aspects of a company or its product. While not necessarily a brainstorming technique, a SWOT analysis can help your writing project by allowing you to glean your strengths and weaknesses surrounding a topic. The analysis uses a structured method that can clearly outline your capabilities and what you need to improve upon before getting started on the project. SWOT is an acronym for: 

• Strengths: Record what your strengths are concerning the assigned topic. Also, note down why your approach is unique and why it has the potential to stand out from the rest. 
• Weaknesses: Understand what you lack in conceptualization or knowledge that could help you write better. Identify specific sections of your topics and ideas where you might need to expend more effort in gaining the requisite know-how before you get down to writing. 
• Opportunities: This section will constitute potential ideas that are capable of enhancing your written work. Though these concepts might not be included in your primary structure for your assignment, they can help you embellish the topic.
• Threats: The threats section will entail potential pitfalls your assessor might notice in the topic or in the ideas you’ve chosen. They allow you to remain prepared for any potential questions from your advisors and help reinforce your work against technical deficiencies. Identify what could pull down the quality of your essay and work your way through securing these fronts by preparing and executing those ideas better. 

3. Storyboarding

Storyboarding is another corporate method that can work really well as a brainstorming technique for writing. It can be used as a tool for collecting all the ideas and using them to create a concrete structure for the written material. This technique works especially well in group settings where you have partners that offer valuable suggestions when you’re going about the detailing process. In case your assignment is going to contain characters and events, you can use this method to plan out their journeys within the content. This creative process adds both vivacity and realism to the material you create and brings about vibrant storylines that make the content gripping to read. 

4. Six Thinking Hats

The six thinking hats method allows you and your group to approach the planning and structuring effort from various perspectives to help you approach the topic multi-dimensionally. In case you have a group to work with, you can assign specific aspects of the topic to different members of the group and define the “hat” they wear. For example: If your group has six members assigned to a topic surrounding the Moon Landings, you might split the work and allot the science section to one member, while another would take on history. This would be followed by the political background and actual event history being assigned to two other members. Lastly, the remaining member and yourself could take on collecting facts and data from various sources to support the core research. In this manner, each group participant would wear a specific “hat” and divide the process of generating, collecting, and collating ideas for the project. The group can then convene to structure the final outline for the assignment by picking the best ideas and information and harmonizing them. In case you’re undertaking a solo project, you can undertake the “Six Hats” exercise by picking separate times during the day to approach the topic from various perspectives. This will avoid confusion and also allow your headspace to remain fresh before each session. 

Step 3: Write 

Writing forms the final stage of your assignment and the process of brainstorming. Unlike popular belief, writing must be thought out carefully to avoid making the content a mush of ideas with no coherent meaning. It must be understood that not all ideas generated can be included in the final content. A process of filtering must be undertaken in the planning stages of the brainstorming sessions to ensure only the best ideas are worked upon. That being said, writing can sometimes be easier said than done. Here are a few brainstorming techniques for writing that you might find useful when you’re finally putting content down on paper: 

1. Freewriting

This method is among the most effective ways to write content. Freewriting involves coming up with written content without being inhibited by the rules of grammar. While you might have to stick to the outline and structure of the content decided in the previous steps of the writing process, freewriting allows you to go ahead and flesh out the content. Writers sometimes spend too much time thinking about how their work might turn out without actually getting started. Freewriting works to resolve writer’s block by encouraging the writing process in itself. The written material can then be reviewed later on and made more compliant with the outline and grammatical framework necessary for the assignment. 

2. Using Senses for Ideation 

Descriptive writing is one of the many methods you can deploy to make your writing more interesting. If you’re looking to brainstorm ideas to help you write better, you might want to think about using your senses more. Written content can often mirror actual experiences in the reader’s mind’s eye. Using this principle, you might want to use more sensory cues in your writing. 

For example: Instead of writing “The ball looked red,” try switching it up with a sentence like “The ball looked as red as a ripe apple.” 

Similarly, you can deploy other sensory impulses in combination with your imagination to put forth a richly detailed perspective for your reader. 

3. Word Banking

The word banking approach involves associating words with a set of generated ideas to categorize them appropriately. This categorization will help you break down the existing structure of ideas into manageable portions to address one at a time during the writing process. This association method allows you to immediately bring up the generated concept without breaking the flow of ideas when you’re writing the assignment. However, it’s important to stick to the structure synthesized in the previous steps so you have coherent material to turn in and submit. 

The above steps and the relevant brainstorming techniques can help you come up with original ideas and content for your assignment. Whether you’re working in a group or individually, these time-tested methods are sure to aid your efforts in writing effectively.