Assignment English: IDEAS

Questions: 1. What are the methods used to generate ideas. 2. How to narrow a topic 3. What is a Paragraph 4. What is a topic sentence/ main idea 5. How to develop a paragraph Answer: 1. Freewriting Freewriting helps you identify subjects in which you are interested. It assumes that you know your interests subconsciously but may not be able to identify them consciously, and it assumes that you can bring your interests into consciousness by writing about them (as writing equals thinking). Freewriting is like stream-of-consciousness writing in which you write down whatever happens to be in your thoughts at the moment. After you do a number of freewritings, you may find that you have come back to certain subjects again and again. Repeated subjects are good for further development through writing, as they obviously are important in your thoughts. Brainstorming Brainstorming, like freewriting, is a prewriting technique designed to bring subconscious ideas into consciousness. It's a good technique to use when you know a general subject you're interested in writing about but don't exactly know what aspect of the subject you want to pursue. Brainstorming is like a stream-of-consciousness technique in which you rapidly record all ideas related to a general subject. All ideas are equally acceptable; the purpose of brainstorming is to identify as many ideas related to the subject as possible. Most likely you have either experienced brainstorming in a business setting or have seen it portrayed on television or film: the ad exec holds up a product and says to the advertising team, "All right, people, let's pitch ideas to sell this soap!," and a person standing by a flip chart jots down ideas frantically as employees shout them out. Brainstorming also involves a second step. Once you've exhausted your ideas about the subject, you need to go back to those ideas and review them, crossing some off, linking others that are related, and marking some that seem more important than others. You can group and re-group ideas that you've generated, and perhaps decide to pursue some ideas further through more brainstorming or other types of prewriting. Clustering/Mapping Clustering or mapping can help you become aware of different ways to think about a subject. To do a cluster or "mind map," write your general subject down in the middle of a piece of paper. Then, using the whole sheet of paper, rapidly jot down ideas related to that subject. If an idea spawns other ideas, link them together using lines and circles to form a cluster of ideas. The whole purpose here is to use lines and circles to show visually how your ideas relate to one another and to the main subject. A cluster or map combines the two stages of brainstorming (recording ideas and then grouping them) into one. It also allows you to see, at a glance, the aspects of the subject about which you have the most to say, so it can help you choose how to focus a broad subject for writing. For example, the writer of the map above his or her writing on time devices, leisure time, warps in which time passes, child vs. adult time or time in sports, any of which would provide a logical focus for an essay. Maintaining a personal journal A personal journal is a good, ongoing way to record your observations and thoughts--your personal responses to your world--and thus develop ideas for writing. A personal journal is more than just a record of what happens in your life (it's more than just "on Monday I went to the library; on Tuesday I stayed late at work"). A personal journal is a record of your observations, feelings, and reflections on your experience. You may want to write about an incident you observed, a person, a place, an important childhood experience, different reactions to a situation, a current issue, a goal, an ethical problem, or any other subject that has attracted your attention and occupied your thoughts. Consider yourself an investigator and ask why something is the way it is, why people respond in certain ways to a particular situation, what a person's or place's or item's special characteristics are, or how something happened. In other words, think about what you observe and write those thoughts in your journal entries. Think of Andy Rooney's commentaries as a prototype for journal entries; he often starts an essay or a television segment by asking, "Did you ever wonder why...?" asking questions about a subject Asking questions is a versatile form of prewriting. You can ask questions to develop a perspective on a subject that you think you want to write about, to narrow a subject that you have already chosen, and to determine whether it's feasible to pursue your chosen subject (especially if you're doing a research paper). Ask Questions to Develop a Perspective on a Subject Ask the journalist's "who," "what," "when," "where," "why," and "how" in order to get a sense of the subject's scope and of the way in which you may want to approach the subject--the angle that makes sense for you to take when thinking about the subject. Ask Questions to Narrow a Subject Ask questions about your subject and use the answer to activate another question until you come to a question that is a good stopping place (a focused question that you know you can research, or a focused question that you can answer on your own with examples and details). making a list Making a list means just what it says, recording ideas that relate directly to a certain subject. Listing is more directed than brainstorming or freewriting; if you decide to make a list as a form of prewriting, then you already have a sense of both your particular focus on the subject and the various aspects related to that focus. You may end up expanding or deleting from your list as you work with it, and that's to be expected. A list is a means of capturing all aspects that you can think of that relate to your focus on the subject. For example: Focused Subject: ways in which communication can flow in an organization

1. traditional top-down, with managers providing information and issuing orders to subordinates
2. bottom-up, which is rarer, in which management has an open-door policy for receiving information and suggestions from employees
3. cross-departments, in which people on the same level in the organization share information
4. working teams, which may include members from various levels of the organization brought together by a special project
5. grapevine, which cuts through all levels and is the most difficult to control

2.

Here are some ideas:

• limit it to a specific time period (example)
  e.g. not just American quilt making, but American quilt making in the 18th century

• limit it to a specific location or region
  e.g. not just the history of slavery, but the history of slavery in Atlanta

• limit it to a specific person or group
  e.g. not just the civil rights movement, but the role of the NAACP in the 1960s

• limit it to a specific discipline/angle/aspect (historical, sociological, psychological, policy impact, etc)
  e.g. not just the New Deal, but the impact of Roosevelt’s New Deal on federal housing policy of the 1940s

• limit it to a particular genre, or even particular piece of work
  e.g. not just Adolf Hitler, but Adolf Hitler’s ideas as expressed in Mein Kampf

• ask why the topic is important, particularly to the class’s field of study
  e.g. not just impressionism, but why should we consider impressionism an important artistic movement?

• limit it to a particular controversy
  e.g. not just English-American relations in the 18th century, but their dispute about just taxation in the 18th century

3. n.

1. A distinct division of written or printed matter that begins on a new, usually indented line, consists of one or more sentences, and typically deals with a single thought or topic or quotes one speaker's continuous words.
2. A mark ( ¶ ) used to indicate where a new paragraph should begin or to serve as a reference mark.
3. A brief article, notice, or announcement, as in a newspaper.

4. n. The sentence within a paragraph or discourse that states the main thought, often placed at the beginning. The main sentence in a paragraph, often the first sentence. It briefly conveys the essential idea of the paragraph. 5. Here are some more formal ways to start thinking about your paragraph:

• Analogy - list ways that your topic is like something else
• Analysis - explain how your topic works in detail
• Anecdotes - tell a story to explain your topic
• Cause and Effect - explain how your topic causes other things to occur; OR explain how your topic is caused by other things
• Classification and Division - list all of the things that go into your topic
• Compare and Contrast - list all the ways in which your two topics are alike and all the ways in which they are different
• Definition - list each definition for your topic (you can also list things which your topic is NOT, which is called Elimination, but this is seldom used)
• Description - list everything you can use to describe your topic
• Enumeration - list a set of observations about your topic
• Exemplification - list all of the examples of your topic
• Facts - list all of the facts you have looked up about your topic
• Narration - list the events that make up your topic in chronological order
• Persuasion - list arguments that might make a reader take an action or believe in your opinion
• Process - describe step-by-step how the actions in your topic may be carried out in sequence
• Statistics - list all of the statistics you have looked up about your topic

Three parts of a paragraph:

Topic sentence: Use this formula for building a good topic sentence: a specific topic + a specific feeling or attitude.

Body of paragraph: Contains sentences that develop or explain the idea given in the topic sentence. Generally 3-5 sentences are necessary per paragraph.

Closing/Clincher sentence: Reminds the reader what the main idea of the paragraph is and what it means (why it is important). Closing sentences can also be a transition to the next paragraph.

Paragraph Unity:

Limit paragraphs to one main idea that is presented in the topic sentence and eliminate all sentences that do not support that idea.

Strategies for developing a paragraph:

Develop the body of the paragraph

n with reasons

n by giving examples

n by using a story/incident to illustrate the idea

n by using statistics

n with descriptive details

Ordering the details in a paragraph:

Use the following methods of organization:

Chronological order: time order, as things happen

Order of location: in reference to where things are located

Order of importance: go from most to least important or from least to most important

Cause and Effect: Start with cause of a problem; continue with possible effects

Comparison: Explain a subject by showing how it is like another subject

Contrast: Explain a subject by showing how it is different from another subject

Don't Even Think About It!:

n Don’t use "I" or first person in paragraphs other than personal narratives: use third person point of view (he, she, it etc.)

n "This paragraph will explain," or "This paragraph will be about" beginnings are bad. Instead, write a clear topic sentence that eliminates these unnecessary words and focuses on the subject and purpose. For example, instead of "This paragraph is about the space program and all the innovations that have helped society" write "Innovations from the space program have helped advance society."

n Straying from the main idea: check each sentence to make sure it belongs in your paragraph. If it doesn’t, take it out.

n Wordiness: take out all unnecessary words.

n Unclear pronoun references: never start a sentence with the words "this" or "that" etc. Your reader may not know what you mean.

n Insufficient transitions: you need to link ideas to one another.