I will begin the series of writing better essays with the simplest yet most powerful step of the process – discovering what to write about. The process of brainstorming is actually the most powerful point of writing, simply because nobody wants to read something that is verbose yet not engaging, interesting, or establishes a relationship between the reader and writer. At heart, good writing is something that provides clear, informative, and/or engaging material that enables the reader to understand something that the writer is communicating, only part of which is on text. Good writing excites, or saddens, or informs, and ultimately is something that promotes thinking, page-turning, and intrigue.
Writing is not natural. Speaking is natural. The spoken word is a representation of the abstract reality around us. We use spoken words to divide and describe the material objects and the immaterial abstractions around us. We then use written words to represent those spoken words, such that many people can “listen” to what we’re thinking. In other words, the text you’re reading is an abstraction of an abstraction. There are two levels of disconnect between what is being communicated and reality. Good writing is able to make that abstraction palpable and bring out emotions such as sadness, anger, curiosity, or intrigue.
Stephen King says that writing is “telepathy, of course!” Writing makes it possible for somebody eight centuries ago to have written something from some other time and place to communicate something of potential importance to us in our comfortable bedrooms. It establishes connections among humans and enables my deepest thoughts to be immediately accessible to you, in ways that may not be possible with oral communication. Through the greatest of essays and texts, we can “feel” something, we can create a connection with somebody who may or may not be alive, and improve ourselves as a result.
So here’s the most important thing you should know about good writing: have something to say. Respect your reader, because they are spending the time and energy to read the work that you’re putting out. This doesn’t mean that you should be nervous about writing, or that you shouldn’t have a sense of humor or a sense of individuality. Those are all amazing things – they bring humanity to your writing. But you should treat the craft of writing with respect: it gives you the power to establish powerful connections and relationships with people you may or may not know. It gives you the power to express parts of yourself you may not consciously be aware of. It gives you the power to convince people. It gives you the tool to change yourself and change the world.
How do you come up with something to write about? First, you must start with a topic. Find something interesting to say, and if you’re given a prompt that you’re not interested in, discover a way to write about it in a way that is interesting to you. Incredibly, when the writer is incredibly curious and passionate about a subject, that comes through in the writing quality. The reader can tell and share in that enthusiasm. Good writing, after all, is a conversation between the reader and the writer. It opens the dialogue so that the writer can offer his or her thoughts, and the reader can respond with inner questions and thoughts. So find something that you’re interested in writing.
Once you have a potential topic to write about, you have at least three ways to brainstorm, so that you can expand and think about what you want to write about. You can 1) keep narrowing the bounds of the topic until you have an interesting, bounded topic that you can write something incredibly interesting and informative about, and 2) you can qualify and define the terms of the topic for the reader so you have interesting things to write about, and 3) read a lot of material, and find connections among your evidence.
Method 1 - Narrow The Bounds of the Topic
Your first option is to narrow and change the bounds of what you’re writing about so that you have something a little more concrete and interesting to write about. This helps you with nuance – writing that deals with issues that are more concrete, grounded, and actually discuss about something, rather than fluffy writing about general issues. For instance, general essays about ethics aren’t so compelling, because they have a difficult time pinpointing what exactly they are arguing. There are too many moving issues. The topic “are humans inherently bad” seems interesting, but if you tried writing a short essay about this, it would be very difficult. The topic is just too broad, and it becomes too difficult to craft a compelling argument one way or another. Let’s say you change the bounds of this topic, and think of the topic in a more interesting and narrow way, like “is the act of having a child selfish” or “do big corporations do more harm or good on balance” or “are children born with a blank slate”. With these topics, you’ve found more narrow and defined versions of your original topic, and these “bounds” now give you a compelling way to write about your topic.
Method 2 - Define the Terms of the Prompt
The second option during your brainstorming is to define the terms of the prompt, so that you and your reader can agree on what the topic of the writing is, exactly. If the topic is “was the war on drugs justified” then you’ll have to first think about what time period you’re describing, whether you’re describing the “war on drugs” politically or culturally, and what “justified” means. Justified in terms of utility? In terms of modern-day politics? In terms of the politics of the time period? By defining these terms, you can define the bounds of the topic very well, and you can also clarify the topic for both the writer and the reader. This clarifies the writing from the start, and also gives you ideas for how you can provide nuance to your writing. In this example, if you write about how the war on drugs was unjustified from a political standpoint during the contemporary political issues, you can compare it to other policies, and explain the fear-mongering and the racism that went into the policymaking. If you define the war on drugs as a cultural phenomenon, and you compare it to modern cultural phenomena, then you could potentially explain how nothing has changed, and that we are constantly looking for the latest “threat” to our democracy. Depending on how exactly you define the terms of your prompt, you can take the essay in different directions, and that will all help you to figure out what it is you want and have to say on an issue.
Method 3 - Read Extensively
The third option during your brainstorming is to read extensively on your issue. Good writers are also good readers. When you start reading broadly, you’ll notice that good ideas do not spawn from unique moments of divine wisdom. They actually come from other good ideas. When you sift through great literature and solid evidence, you identify patterns, you start to think clearly, which all helps you to figure out what to say. And most of all, it doesn’t make sense to make an argument that is not supported by evidence. Good pieces of literature and news all have facts to support them. Good arguments in the workplace are backed by quotes and evidence of previous work performed. When you read and investigate, you inform yourself of the topic better and use evidence to support your argument.
So now you have brainstormed and thought of your topic in more constructive terms. This helps you define and narrow the topic for yourself, so now you can think more creatively and with more nuance.
Five Example Prompts - Using the Three Methods to Brainstorm More Effectively
In this article, you’ll find five example prompts in which I show you how you can use the three brainstorming strategies I outlined here in order to think more creatively and clearly about potential essays to write. I’d suggest that you take a prompt that I give you at the end of this post and try using all three of the brainstorming strategies to come up with as many potential ways you could answer the prompt. This will help you reinforce the brainstorming tactic in your own writing.
Prompt 1: Medical experimentation on animals shouldn’t be allowed.
To begin brainstorming about this topic, you can start with any of the three strategies that I outlined.
Let’s try the second strategy of defining important terms in the topic, and you’ll be able to see how that helps you think more clearly about the prompt and the ways you can write an interesting answer.
Here are the ways we can narrow down “medical experimentation”
- Experiments in the lab that harm the animal
- Experiments in the lab that don’t harm the animal
- Experiments that dissect the animal
- Experiments that take cells from the animal
- Experiments on animals that are used for basic science research
- Experiments on animals that are used for clinical science research (to test drugs, for example)
Here are some ways that we can narrow down the “shouldn’t be allowed”
- We should altogether prohibit the use of testing on animals as well as raising of animals in labs
- We can raise fewer animals in labs, or we can perform tests only if they don’t kill the animal
- We can use more stringent ethical guidelines, such that researchers must justify the use of harm on animals against the perceived benefits
- We can only use medical experimentation on certain animals, depending on intelligence
So we’ve defined terms in the topic, which helps us think more constructively about the topic and what sorts of things we might write about. Now you can imagine writing an essay about developing more stringent ethical guidelines, and what that might look like for research. You might also describe the difference between using mice for clinical research versus basic science research. You might be able to write an essay about the benefits that have come from using animals in research, or you might be able to write an essay that the alternative to using animals in research is to forgo a massive amount of valuable basic and clinical research. In all these cases, because you’ve defined the terms of the topic, you’re able to think and write clearer and more nuanced essays to answer the topic.
Prompt 2: Parents should give children a weekly allowance so that children can learn how to be fiscally responsible at a young age.
In this prompt, it will probably be useful to use reading and literature to find evidence that supports either point. In your research, you should try to find “child psychology” articles and research papers that show how students learn financial literacy at an early age. You can also find articles that discuss how children learn about the stock market, or about making financial decisions. Finally, you can look at general psychology articles that discuss children’s ability to delay gratification, and whether having money encourages them to save or spend immediately. You can weave together all these readings and studies to find a pattern, and then use those pieces of evidence to support your argument in favor of or against the prompt. By including these various sources, you’ll be making a very strong argument.
Prompt 3: Soccer is the most physically demanding sport.
This prompt has two challenges. The first is that there are many sports, so saying that soccer is the most physically demanding means that you’ll have to argue that 1) soccer is very demanding and 2) that all other sports are less demanding than soccer. So in this case, when you’re brainstorming, you can try narrowing down the topic, so that you’ll have more content to think about. For instance, you can try to define and narrow the term “physically demanding” – does soccer require the most weight and aerobic training? Does it require its players to start at the youngest age? Does it require the highest “sports IQ”? Do players have to run the most miles? Does it require the greatest amount of team compatibility? Does it require the greatest combination of diverse skillsets?
Do you see how defining these terms helps you think about more categories you can use to answer the prompt? You can then use these categories to make the argument that soccer is the most physically demanding sport.
Prompt 4: (Personal Essay) I am a good student and am driven by curiosity.
This is the type of prompt that eventually may lead to a college application essay or a personal statement. Even in personal essays, the essay has a “thesis” – in this case, a takeaway. A characteristic or lesson or trait that the writer wants the reader to walk away with. So if I were writing an essay in which I wanted to impress the reader, and show positive attributes about myself (in this case, that I’m curious), then I would use the first brainstorming strategy to think.
How can I ask myself specific questions to narrow the bounds and make the essay more compelling? Right now, I want to show the reader that I’m creative. What have I been creative about in the past? I did neuroscience research in the past, and I was so curious that I decided to do an independent research project in order to learn how to do the scientific research process in detail. From there, I was able to learn about leadership and presentation of scientific results.
By narrowing down the prompt, I came up with a specific story that showcased how I’ve been curious in the past. This is how I can show the reader that I’m curious rather than just tell them broadly that I’m curious in a lot of circumstances.
Prompt 5: I should receive a bonus for my yearly performance at the office.
This is a sneak peek at a post I wrote about writing business emails and performance reviews, which you can read on the blog.
You want to use brainstorm technique 3 here, in which you cite as many instances of your performance as possible. You’ll also want to try to think of the impact of those performances as well. If you developed relationships that eventually lead to $X deals, or if you lead the training of 24 people that generated $100K for your company, those are the types of quantitative metrics that your employers want to see. That helps solidify your case for a bonus.
You can also be more creative in your brainstorming. You can define the term “performance” in interesting ways. Can you think of any way that you helped your company or your colleagues in ways outside your responsibilities, that may have helped your firm without your knowing? Maybe you answered questions and provided informal training for your trainees every day of the week, which helped dozens of employees grow. Maybe you maximized your productivity by making sales calls a priority even when you weren’t in office hours. Whatever it was, if you can be creative in your brainstorming, you can find more and more ways to respond to the prompt and make your case.
There you have it. I’ve shown you how you can use each of the three brainstorming techniques to answer difficult prompts to inform, entertain, and persuade. Try doing it yourself, with your own prompts. Try narrowing the prompt, or defining the terms in more interesting ways, or reading more books and evidence to support your argument. This will greatly help you find interesting things to think and write about.
You can look at this post to see ways that you can use drawing and illustration to brainstorm your topics.
In the next post, we’ll be discussing how to start to connect disparate topics into a single cohesive argument, one that you can then use to make compelling arguments.
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