BRAINSTORMING

One of the critical stage in essay writing that is most often overlooked by students is brainstorming. When you have decided on a subject and a topic, then proceed to journalizing all the related terms, words, sentence, sentences, that comes to mind. Do not edit. Just write whatever crosses your mind. You could be talking to friends and you have picked a word or words related to your topic. So, with your journal on hand, just jot it down.


When you see that you have enough materials in your journal, then, you can do the mapping of words. Group the words together according to how it answers your journalists' questions: why, how, when, where, and what.


Now, you are ready to draft your essay. Write simple sentences. Do not edit, remove, or move anything yet. Just write down. Set aside your essay for sometime to give also yourself a fresh start later.


When your are ready, read what you have written. This time you may edit your draft. Remove or move word, words, and sentences, such that they are well organized. That is the trend of thought is systematic. Write your topic sentence either at the begining of the first paragraph, as the first sentence. You may also write your topic sentence at the end or the last sentence of the first paragraph.

WRITING CONDITION

Four common elements should make up your writing condition. These are: issue, purpose, readers, and other requirements which will guide you and delimit you to the issue at hand. Therefore, the issue must be narrowed down. For example , if your subject is love, your writing condition is senior marriage guidance students, informative purpose, Professor as your reader, 1000 words in 2 days, then your possible topics could be love at first sight. With these elements clearly outlined, you may proceed to brainstorming and certainly keeping everything in an organized journal for easy reference. In brainstorming, you may start answering the questions who, what, when, why, where, and how. Then you can proceed to clustering or mapping your brainstormed ideas. You may also read Simon & Schuster in their Handbook for Writers by Lynn Quitman Troyka, 1990, US: Prentice-Hall pages 17-30.