Freewriting involves writing nonstop about a topic for five to 10 minutes without worrying about grammar, punctuation, proper spelling or complete sentences. The goal of freewriting is to get as much information about the topic down on paper as you possibly can. After you are finished freewriting, read what you wrote and circle or highlight the most interesting ideas. You can now narrow your focus by repeating the freewriting process with these topics in mind.
Brainstorming is the process of listing as much information about the topic as possible. Begin brainstorming by quickly writing down every idea that comes to mind about the topic you are considering for your essay. If you are working as a team, have every member generate ideas while one of the members writes them down. When you have as many ideas as you can think of, group related ideas together and then label the resulting groups. These groups are possible elements to cover in your essay. Write a sentence about the labels for each group; these are potential topic sentences and one of them maybe a potential thesis statement for the essay.
Journalists develop their articles by asking themselves six key questions: "Who," "What," "Where", "When," "Why" and "How." These same questions can also be used to generate ideas for an essay. However, not every question is necessarily relevant to every essay topic. For example, if your essay is about the effects of the tides on fish populations, a "why" question such as "Why is this important?" may be more relevant than a "who" question. However, if your essay is about the Civil War, a "who" question such as "Who fought in the war?" might be a major topic.
Clustering is a visual way of generating ideas and seeing how your essay might come together. Begin clustering by drawing a large circle on a piece of paper. Write the main idea or topic you are considering for your essay in the circle. Draw lines from the main circle to smaller circles that contain related ideas or topics. Organize your thoughts by keeping similar or related ideas grouped together. Clustering can help you figure out the relationships between different ideas.
Directed questioning is a way of focusing your thoughts once you have used another technique to choose your topic. There are many questions to ask yourself about your topic and your approach to your essay. Can I create an argument for or against this topic? Can I write a description of this topic? What interests me about this subject? What ideas do others generally have about this topic? Does this subject affect other things? Is this topic similar to other topics? Is it different?