analyzing idea development in an essay quiz quizlet

Developing Ideas for Writing

Prewriting definition.

Prewriting means just what it says—it’s the writing that occurs before you actually write a draft. Richard Nordquist writes that

“In composition, the term prewriting refers to any activity that helps a writer think about a topic, determine a purpose, analyze an audience, and prepare to write.  Prewriting is closely related to the art of invention in classical rhetoric.

‘The objective of prewriting,’ according to Roger Caswell and Brenda Mahler, ‘is to prepare students for writing by allowing them to discover what they know and what else they need to know. Prewriting invites exploration and promotes the motivation to write’ ( Strategies for Teaching Writing , 2004).” [1]

In order to explore and identify what might be fruitful ideas for writing, I tend to jot concepts, phrases, and notes to myself.  Sometimes I draw linkages to connect related ideas. Other writers tend to just write in order to explore and identify patterns of thought. Still other writers list out all of the concepts and information they can think of around a certain topic, and then narrow and refine their lists. Others start writing a really “drafty draft” of an essay, and then circle back into prewriting strategies to develop ideas. Any prewriting strategy is fine, depending on “how your mind thinks” and how you like to discover and explore ideas.

Prewriting Processes

(text from here to end of page © Empire State College)

How do writers develop ideas for writing? Writers use many techniques, and it’s a bet that most of the techniques involve writing itself. Think of a composer creating ideas for a song by playing notes on a piano keyboard. Think of a sculptor creating ideas for a statue by shaping and reshaping pieces of clay. Think of a quilter creating ideas for a quilt pattern by arranging and rearranging different snippets of fabric. All creative endeavors go through preliminary stages in which creators generate ideas, discard some, and play with others that capture their imaginations or that seem to “fit the bill.” Each creator develops ideas by getting immersed and “doodling” in the particular medium. And writing is no different. In writer’s terms, that preliminary stage of idea development is called “prewriting.”

Prewriting usually is messy in terms of having ideas scattered all over the place–think of the quilter with pieces of fabric all over the living room floor. For a lot of people, it’s liberating to be messy and not worry about logic, pattern, or final form. That’s the purpose of prewriting, to be as free-ranging as possible in generating ideas. If you’re aggravated by mess, then prewriting can be thought of as pre-planning, as a means of generating the ideas and data that will help you create the essay draft. Either way, prewriting is a stage of idea incubation, a way to generate ideas and capture your thoughts through writing.

Ideas for writing develop in many ways, and prewriting techniques reflect the different ways in which ideas can develop. Some forms of prewriting are intended to help you bring subconscious ideas and interests into consciousness (some forms help if you tend to draw a blank when you’re asked to “write about what interests you”):

• Freewriting
• Brainstorming
• Clustering/mapping
• Maintaining a personal journal

Other forms of prewriting are intended to help you generate your own ideas in response to others’ ideas:

• Responding to a text
• Maintaining a response journal

Still other forms of prewriting are intended to help you both generate and focus ideas about a subject that you’ve already chosen:

• Asking questions about a subject
• Making a list
• Idea Matrix for College Writing
• Working with Prewriting

The following videos explain different strategies for prewriting. Although you’ll read about these strategies and more in the upcoming pages, these videos provide a good introduction to some basic approaches to prewriting.

[1] Nordquist, Richard. “Prewriting (Composition).” Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms , ThoughtCo., 6 Mar. 2017, www.thoughtco.com/prewriting-composition-1691676.

• Developing Ideas for Writing. Text under Prewriting Definition. Authored by : Susan Oaks. Provided by : Empire State College, SUNY OER Services. Project : College Writing. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• image of student at computer, biting a pencil. Authored by : JESHOOTScom. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/laptop-woman-education-study-young-3087585/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• image of lightbulb inside of an idea bubble drawn on a blackboard. Authored by : TeroVesalainen. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/thought-idea-innovation-imagination-2123970/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• image of quilting fabric and tools. Authored by : adonyig. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/quilting-mood-sewing-thread-2482472/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• video Prewriting Strategies. Authored by : Leslie Cox. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQJSrQT9loI . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• video Prewriting Techniques. Authored by : Tamara Harvell. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pSfRAB2ABU . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• Text under Prewriting Processes. Authored by : Susan Oaks, Elaine Handley. Provided by : Empire State College. Located at : https://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/resources/academic-writing/process/prewriting-developing-ideas/ . Project : Writing Resources. License : All Rights Reserved . License Terms : Copyright, Empire State College. Used with permission.

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ELA 10 > Analyzing Idea Development in an Essay > Flashcards

Analyzing Idea Development in an Essay Flashcards

Central idea

most supported idea in the text and is supported by key details

How to determine the central idea of a text

look for repeated words and phrases distinguishing between key details and minor details restate the central idea of the text in your won words cite evidence from the text to support your conclusion

Organizational methods

importance chronology cause-and-effect relationships problem-solution relationships

Introductory paragraph

introduced the central idea presents the thesis engages the reader

Body paragraph

develop the central idea organize ideas logically include evidence and examples

Concluding paragraph

concludes the central idea restates the thesis summarize main points

Evaluating an essay step 1

does the introduction contain a clear thesis

Evaluating an essay step 2

are the ideas supported with relevant examples

Evaluating an essay step 3

does the organizational structure support the central idea and purpose

Evaluating an essay step 4

does the conclusion summarize the main points and leave a lasting impression

Evaluating an essay step 5

does the writer present the ideas in an interesting and unique way to engage the readers

ELA 10 (8 decks)

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Generating Ideas for Your Paper

• Introduction

Good writing requires good ideas—intriguing concepts and analysis that are clearly and compellingly arranged. But good ideas don’t just appear like magic. All writers struggle with figuring out what they are going to say. And while there is no set formula for generating ideas for your writing, there is a wide range of established techniques that can help you get started.

This page contains information about those techniques. Here you’ll find details about specific ways to develop thoughts and foster inspiration. While many writers employ one or two of these strategies at the beginning of their writing processes in order to come up with their overall topic or argument, these techniques can also be used any time you’re trying to figure out how to effectively achieve any of your writing goals or even just when you’re not sure what to say next.

What is Invention?

Where do ideas come from? This is a high-level question worthy of a fascinating TED Talk or a Smithsonian article , but it also represents one of the primary challenges of writing. How do we figure out WHAT to write?

Even hundreds of years ago, people knew that a text begins with an idea and that locating this idea and determining how to develop it requires work. According to classical understandings of rhetoric, the first step of building an argument is invention. As Roman thinker Cicero argued, people developing arguments “ought first to find out what [they] should say” ( On Oratory and Orators 3.31). Two hundred years before Cicero, the Greek philosopher Aristotle detailed a list of more than two dozen ideas a rhetor might consider when figuring out what to say about a given topic ( On Rhetoric , 2.23). For example, Aristotle suggested that a good place to start is to define your key concepts, to think about how your topic compares to other topics, or to identify its causes and effects. (For ideas about using Aristotle’s advice to generate ideas for your own papers, check out this recommended technique .)

More recently, composition scholar Joseph Harris has identified three values important for writers just starting a project. Writers at early stages in their writing process can benefit from being: Receptive to unexpected connections You never know when something you read or need to write will remind you of that movie you watched last weekend or that anthropology theory you just heard a lecture about or that conversation you had with a member of your lab about some unexpected data you’ve encountered. Sometimes these connections will jump out at you in the moment or you’ll suddenly remember them while you’re vacuuming the living room. Harris validates the importance of “seizing hold of those ideas that do somehow come to you” (102). While you can’t count on these kinds of serendipities, be open to them when they occur. Be ready to stop and jot them down! Patient Harris supports the value of patience and “the usefulness of boredom, of letting ideas percolate” (102). It can take time and long consideration to think of something new. When possible, give yourself plenty of time so that your development of ideas is not stifled by an immediate due date. Compelled by the unknown According to Harris, “a writer often needs to start not from a moment of inspiration ( eureka! ) but from the need to work through a conceptual problem or roadblock. Indeed, I’d suggest that most academic writing begins with such questions rather than insights, with difficulties in understanding rather than moments of mastery” (102). Sometimes a very good place to begin is with what you don’t know, with the questions and curiosities that you genuinely want resolved.

In what follows, we describe ten techniques that you can select from and experiment with to help guide your invention processes. Depending on your writing preferences, context, and audience, you might find some more productive than others. Also, it might be useful to utilize various techniques for different purposes. For example, brainstorming might be great for generating a variety of possible ideas, but looped freewriting might help you develop those ideas. Think of this list as a collection of recommended possibilities to implement at your discretion. However, we think the first technique described below—“Analyzing the Assignment or Task”—is a great starting point for all writers.

Any of these strategies can be useful for generating ideas in connection to any writing assignment. Even if the paper you’re writing has a set structure (e.g., scientific reports’ IMRAD format or some philosophy assignments’ prescribed argumentative sequence), you still have to invent and organize concepts and supporting evidence within each section. Additionally, these techniques can be used at any stage in your writing process. Your ideas change and develop as you write, and sometimes when you’re in the middle of a draft or when you’re embarking on a major revision, you find yourself rethinking key elements of your paper. At these moments, it might be useful to turn to some of these invention techniques as a way to slow down and capture the ephemeral thoughts and possibilities swirling around your writing tasks. These practices can help guide you to new ideas, questions, and connections. No matter what you’re writing or where you are in the process, we encourage you to experiment with invention strategies you may not have tried before. Mix and match. Be as creative and adventurous with how you generate ideas just as you are creative and adventurous with what ideas you generate.

Some Invention Techniques

Analyzing the assignment or task.

What do I do? If you are writing a paper in response to a course instructor’s assignment, be sure to read the prompt carefully while paying particular attention to all of its requirements and expectations. It could be that the assignment is built around a primary question; if so, structure your initial thoughts around possible answers to that question. If it isn’t, use your close consideration of this assignment to recast the prompt as a question.

The following list of questions are ones that you can ask of the assignment in order to understand its focus and purpose as well as to begin developing ideas for how to effectively respond to its intensions. You may want to underline key terms and record your answers to these questions:

• When is this due?
• How long is supposed to be?
• Is the topic given to me?
• If I get to choose my topic, are there any stipulations about the kind of topic and I can choose?
• What am I expected to do with this topic? Analyze it? Report about it? Make an argument about it? Compare it to something else?
• Who is my audience and what does this audience know, believe, and value about my topic?
• What is the genre of this writing (i.e., a lab report, a case study, a research paper, a reflection, a scholarship essay, an analysis of a work of literature or a painting, a summary and analysis of a reading, a literature review, etc.), and what does writing in this genre usually look like, consist of, or do?

Why is this technique useful? Reading over the assignment prompt may sound like an obvious starting point, but it is very important that your invention strategies are informed by the expectations your readers have about your writing. For example, you might brainstorm a fascinating thesis about how Jules Verne served as a conceptual progenitor of the nuclear age, but if your assignment is asking you to describe the differences between fission and fusion and provide examples, this great idea won’t be very helpful. Before you let your ideas run free, make sure you fully understand the boundaries and possibilities provided by the assignment prompt.

Additionally, some assignments begin to do the work of invention for you. Instructors sometimes identify specifically what they want you to write about. Sometimes they invite you to choose from several guiding questions or a position to support or refute. Sometimes the genre of the text can help you identify how this kind of assignment should begin or the order your ideas should follow. Knowing this can help you develop your content. Before you start conjuring ideas from scratch, make sure you glean everything you can from the prompt.

Finally, just sitting with the assignment and thinking through its guidelines can sometimes provide inspiration for how to respond to its questions or approach its challenges.

Reading Again

What do I do? When your writing task is centered around analyzing a primary source, information you collected, or another kind of text, start by rereading it. Perhaps you are supposed to develop an argument about an interview you conducted, an article or short story you read, an archived letter you located, or even a painting you viewed or a particular set of data. In order to develop ideas about how to approach this object of analysis, read and analyze this text again. Read it closely. Be prepared to take notes about its interesting features or the questions this second encounter raises. You can find more information about rereading literature to write about it here and specific tips about reading poetry here .

Why is this technique useful? When you first read a text, you gain a general overview. You find out what is happening, why it’s happening, and what the argument is. But when you reread that same text, your attention is freed to attend to the details. Since you know where the text is heading, you can be alert to patterns and anomalies. You can see the broader significance of smaller elements. You can use your developing familiarity with this text to your advantage as you become something of a minor expert whose understanding of this object deepens with each re-read. This expertise and insight can help lead you towards original ideas about this text.

Brainstorming/Listing

What do I do? First, consider your prompt, assignment, or writing concern (see “Analyzing the Assignment or Task”). Then start jotting down or listing all possible ideas for what you might write in response. The goal is to get as many options listed as possible. You may wish to develop sub-lists or put some of your ideas into different categories, but don’t censor or edit yourself. And don’t worry about writing in full sentences. Write down absolutely everything that comes to mind—even preposterous solutions or unrealistic notions. If you’re working on a collaborative project, this might be a process that you conduct with others, something that involves everyone meeting at the same time to call out ideas and write them down so everyone can see them. You might give yourself a set amount of time to develop your lists, or you might stretch out the process across a couple of days so that you can add new ideas to your lists whenever they occur to you.

Why is this technique useful? The idea behind this strategy is to open yourself up to all possibilities because sometimes even the most seemingly off-the-wall idea has, at its core, some productive potential. And sometimes getting to that potential first involves recognizing the outlandish. There is time later in your writing process to think critically about the viability of your options as well as which possibilities effectively respond to the prompt and connect to your audience. But brainstorming or listing sets those considerations aside for a moment and invites you to open your imagination up to all options.

Freewriting

What do I do? Sit down and write about your topic without stopping for a set amount of time (i.e., 5-10 minutes). The goal is to generate a continuous, forward-moving flow of text, to track down all of your thoughts about this topic, as if you are thinking on the page. Even if all you can think is, “I don’t know what to write,” or, “Is this important?” write that down and keep on writing. Repeat the same word or phrase over again if you need to. If you’re writing about an unfamiliar topic, maybe start by writing down everything you know about it and then begin listing questions you have. Write in full sentences or in phrases, whatever helps keep your thoughts flowing. Through this process, don’t worry about errors of any kind or gaps in logic. Don’t stop to reread or revise what you wrote. Let your words follow your thought process wherever it takes you.

Why is this technique useful? The purpose of this technique is to open yourself up to the possibilities of your ideas while establishing a record of what those ideas are. Through the unhindered nature of this open process, you are freed to stumble into interesting options you might not have previously considered.

Invisible Writing

What do I do? In this variation of freewriting, you dim your computer screen so that you can’t see what you’ve written as you type out your thoughts.

Why is this technique useful? This is a particularly useful technique if while you are freewriting you just can’t keep yourself from reviewing, adjusting, or correcting your writing. This technique removes that temptation to revise by eliminating the visual element. By temporarily limiting your ability to see what you’ve written, this forward-focused method can help you keep pursuing thoughts wherever they might go.

Looped Freewriting

What do I do? This is another variation of freewriting. After an initial round of freewriting or invisible writing, go back through what you’ve written and locate one idea, phrase, or sentence that you think is really compelling. Make that the starting point for another round of timed freewriting and see where an uninterrupted stretch of writing starting from that point takes you. After this second round of freewriting, identify a particular part of this new text that stands out to you and make that the opening line for your third round of freewriting. Keep repeating this process as many times as you find productive.

Why is this technique useful? Sometimes this technique is called “mining” because through it writers are able to drill into the productive bedrock of ideas as well as unearth and discover latent possibilities. By identifying and expanding on concepts that you find particularly intriguing, this technique lets you focus your attention on what feels most generative within your freewritten text, allowing you to first narrow in and then elaborate upon those ideas.

Talking with Someone

What do I do? Find a generous and welcoming listener and talk through what you need to write and how you might go about writing it. Start by reading your assignment prompt aloud or just informally explaining what you are thinking about saying or arguing in your paper. Then be open to your listener’s reactions, curiosities, suggestions, and questions. Invite your listener to repeat in his or her own words what you’ve been saying so that you can hear how someone else is understanding your ideas. While a friend or classmate might be able to serve in this role, writing center tutors are also excellent interlocutors. If you are a currently enrolled UW-Madison student, you are welcome to make an appointment at our main writing center, stop by one of our satellite locations , or even set up a Virtual Meeting to talk with a tutor about your assignment, ideas, and possible options for further exploration.

Why is this technique useful? Sometimes it’s just useful to hear yourself talk through your ideas. Other times you can gain new insight by listening to someone else’s understanding of or interest in your assignment or topic. A genuinely curious listener can motivate you to think more deeply and to write more effectively.

Reading More

Sometimes course instructors specifically ask that you do your analysis on your own without consulting outside sources. When that is the case, skip this technique and consider implementing one of the others instead.

What do I do? Who else has written about your topic, run the kind of experiments you’ve developed, or made an argument like the one you’re interested in? What did they say about this issue? Do some internet searches for well-cited articles on this concept. Locate a book in the library stacks about this topic and then look at the books that are shelved nearby. Read where your interests lead you. Take notes about things other authors say that you find intriguing, that you have questions about, or that you disagree with. You might be able to use any of these responses to guide your developing paper. (Make sure you also record bibliographic information for any texts you want to incorporate in your paper so that you can correctly cite those authors.)

Why is this technique useful? Exploring what others have written about your topic can be a great way to help you understand this issue more fully. Through reading you can locate support for your ideas and discover arguments you want to refute. Reading about your topic can also be a way of figuring out what motivates you about this issue. Which texts do you want to read more of? Why? Capitalize on and expand upon these interests.

Visualizing Ideas

Mindmapping, clustering, or webbing.

What do I do? This technique is a form of brainstorming or listing that lets you visualize how your ideas function and relate. To make this work, you might want to locate a large space you can write on (like a whiteboard) or download software that lets you easily manipulate and group text, images, and shapes (like Coggle , FreeMind , or MindMapple ). Write down a central idea then identify associated concepts, features, or questions around that idea. If some of those thoughts need expanding, continue this map, cluster, or web in whatever direction is productive. Make lines attaching various ideas. Add and rearrange individual elements or whole subsets as necessary. Use different shapes, sizes, or colors to indicate commonalities, sequences, or relative importance.

Why is this technique useful? This technique allows you to generate ideas while thinking visually about how they function together. As you follow lines of thought, you can see which ideas can be connected, where certain pathways lead, and what the scope of your project might look like. Additionally, by drawing out a map of you may be able to see what elements of your possible paper are underdeveloped and may benefit from more focused brainstorming.

The following sample mindmap illustrates how this invention technique might be used to generate ideas for an environmental science paper about Lake Mendota, the Wisconsin lake just north of UW-Madison. The different branches and connections show how your mind might travel from one idea to the next. It’s important to note, that not all of these ideas would appear in the final draft of this eventual paper. No one is likely to write a paper about all the different nodes and possibilities represented in a mindmap. The best papers focus on a tightly defined question. But this does provide many potential places to begin and refine a paper on this topic. This mindmap was created using shapes and formatting options available through PowerPoint.

Notecarding

What do I do? This technique can be especially useful after you’ve identified a range of possibilities but aren’t sure how they might work together. On individual index cards, post-its, or scraps of paper, write out the ideas, questions, examples, and/or sources you’re interested in utilizing. Find somewhere that you can spread these out and begin organizing them in whatever way might make sense. Maybe group some of them together by subtopic or put them in a sequential order. Set some across from each other as conflicting opposites. Make the easiest organization decisions first so that the more difficult cards can be placed within an established framework. Take a picture or otherwise capture the resulting schemata. Of course, you can also do this same kind of work on a computer through software like Prezi or even on a PowerPoint slide.

Why is this technique useful? This technique furthers the mindmapping/clustering/webbing practice of grouping and visualizing your thoughts. Once ideas have been generated, notecarding invites you to think and rethink about how these ideas relate. This invention strategy allows you to see the big picture of your writing. It also invites you to consider how the details of sections and subsections might connect to each other and the surrounding ideas while giving you a sense of possible sequencing options.

The following example shows what notecarding might look like for a paper being written on the Clean Lakes Alliance—a not-for-profit organization that promotes the improvement of water quality in the bodies of water around Madison, Wisconsin. Key topics, subtopics, and possible articles were brainstormed and written on pieces of paper. These elements were then arranged to identify possible relationships and general organizational structures.

What do I do? Take the ideas, possibilities, sources, and/or examples you’ve generated and write them out in the order of what you might address first, second, third, etc. Use subpoints to subordinate certain ideas under main points. Maybe you want to identify details about what examples or supporting evidence you might use. Maybe you just want to keep your outline elements general. Do whatever is most useful to help you think through the sequence of your ideas. Remember that outlines can and should be revised as you continue to develop and refine your paper’s argument.

Why is this technique useful? This practice functions as a more linear form of notecarding. Additionally, outlines emphasize the sequence and hierarchy of ideas—your main points and subpoints. If you have settled on several key ideas, outlining can help you consider how to best guide your readers through these ideas and their supporting evidence. What do your readers need to understand first? Where might certain examples fit most naturally? These are the kinds of questions that an outline can clarify.

Asking Questions

Topoi questions.

In the introduction, we referenced the list that Aristotle developed of the more than two dozen ideas a person making an argument might use to locate the persuasive possibilities of that argument. Aristotle called these locations for argumentative potential “topoi.” Hundreds of years later, Cicero provided additional advice about the kinds of questions that provide useful fodder for developing arguments. The following list of questions is based on the topoi categories that Aristotle and Cicero recommended.

What do I do? Ask yourself any of these questions regarding your topic and write out your answers as a way of identifying and considering possible venues for exploration. Questions of definition: What is ____? How do we understand what ____ is? What is ____ comprised of?

Questions of comparison: What are other things that ____ is like? What are things that are nothing like ____?

Questions of relationship: What causes ____? What effects does ____ have? What are the consequences of ____?

Questions of circumstances: What has happened with ____ in the past? What has not happened with ____ in the past? What might possibly happen with ____ in the future? What is unlikely to happen with ____ in the future?

Questions of testimony: Who are the experts on ____ and what do they say about it? Who are people who have personal experience with ____ and what do they think about it?

If any of these questions initiates some interesting ideas, ask follow-up questions like, “Why is this the case? How do I know this? How might someone else answer this question differently?”

Why is this technique useful? The questions listed above draw from what both Aristotle and Cicero said about ways to go about inventing ideas. Questions such as these are tried-and-true methods that have guided speakers and writers towards possible arguments for thousands of years.

Journalistic Questions

What do I do? Identify your topic, then write out your answers in response to these questions:      Who are the main stakeholders or figures connected to ____?      What is ____?      Where can we find ____?  Where does this happen?      When or under what circumstances does ____ occur?      Why is ____ an issue?  Why does it occur? Why is it important?      How does ____ happen?

Why is this technique useful? This line of questioning is designed to make sure that you understand all the basic information about your topic. Traditionally, these are the kinds of questions that journalists ask about an issue that they are preparing to report about. These questions also directly relate to the Dramatistic Pentad developed by literary and rhetorical scholar Kenneth Burke. According to Burke, we can analyze anyone’s motives by considering these five parts of a situation: Act ( what ), Scene ( when and where ), Agent ( who ), Agency ( how ), and Purpose ( why ). By using these questions to identify the key elements of a topic, you may recognize what you find to be most compelling about it, what attracts your interest, and what you want to know more about.

Particle, Wave, Field Questions

One way to start generating ideas is to ask questions about what you’re studying from a variety of perspectives. This particular strategy uses particles, waves, and fields as metaphorical categories through which to develop various questions by thinking of your topic as a static entity (particle), a dynamic process (wave), and an interrelated system (field).

What do I do?

Ask yourself these questions about your issue or topic and write down your responses:

• In what ways can this issue be considered a particle, that is, a discrete thing or a static entity?
• How is this issue a wave, that is, a moving process?
• How is this issue a field, that is, a system of relationships related to other systems?

Why is this technique useful?

This way of looking at an issue was promoted by Young, Becker, and Pike in their classic text Rhetoric: Discovery and Change . The idea behind this heuristic is that anything can be considered a particle, a wave, and a field, and that by thinking of an issue in connection to each of these categories you’ll able to develop the kind of in-depth questions that experts ask about a topic. By identifying the way your topic is a thing in and of itself, an activity, and an interrelated network, you’ll be able to see what aspects of it are the most intriguing, uncertain, or conceptually rich.

The following example takes the previously considered topic—environmental concerns and Lake Mendota—and shows how this could be conceptualized as a particle, a wave, and a field as a way of generating possible writing ideas.

Particle: Consider Lake Mendota and its environmental concerns as they appear in a given moment. What are those concerns right now? What do they look like? Maybe it’s late spring and an unseasonably warm snap has caused a bunch of dead fish to wash up next to the Tenney Lock. Maybe it’s a summer weekend and no one can go swimming off the Terrace because phosphorous-boosted blue-green algae is too prevalent. Pick one, discrete environmental concern and describe it. Wave: Consider environmental concerns related to Lake Mendota as processes that have changed and will change over time. When were the invasive spiny water fleas first discovered in Lake Mendota? Where did they come from? What has been done to respond to the damage they have caused? What else could be proposed to resolve this problem. How is this (or any other environmental concern) a dynamic process? Field: Consider Lake Mendota’s environmental concerns as they relate to a range of disciplines, populations, and priorities. What recent limnology findings would be of interest to ice fishing anglers? How could the work being done on agricultural sustainability connect to the discoveries being made by chemists about the various compounds present in the water? What light could members of the Ho-Chunk nation shed on Lake Mendota’s significance? Think about how environmental and conservation concerns associated with this lake are interconnected across different community members and academic disciplines.

Moving Around

Get away from your desk and your computer screen and do whatever form of movement feels comfortable and natural for you. Get some fresh air, take a walk, go jogging, get on your bike, go for a swim, or do some yoga. There is no correct degree or intensity of movement in this process; just do what you can and what you’re most likely to enjoy. While you’re moving, you may want to zone out and give yourself a strategic break from your writing task. Or you might choose to mull your tentative ideas for your paper over in your mind. But whether you’re hoping to think of something other than your paper or you need to generate a specific idea or resolve a particular writing problem, be prepared to record quickly any ideas that come up. If bringing along paper or a small notebook and a pen is inconvenient, just texting yourself your new idea will do the trick. The objective with this technique is both to distance yourself from your writing concerns and to encourage your mind to build new connections through engaging in physical activity.

Numerous medical studies have found that aerobic exercise increases your body’s concentration of the proteins that help nerves grow in the parts of your brain where learning and higher thinking happens (Huang et al.). Similarly, from their review of the literature about how yoga benefits the brain, Desei et al. conclude that yoga boosts overall brain activity. Which is to say that moving physiologically helps you think.

Dr. Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, an associate professor of English at Belmont University and an alum of UW-Madison’s graduate program in Composition and Rhetoric Program and a former assistant director of Writing Across the Curriculum at UW-Madison, investigates the writerly benefits of walking. She provides a full treatment of how this particular form of movement can productively support writing in her book Afoot and Lighthearted: A Mindful Walking Log . In the following passage, she argues for a connection between creative processes and walking, but much of what she suggests is equally applicable to the beneficial value of other forms of movement.

A walk stimulates creativity after a ramble has concluded, when you find yourself back at your desk, before your easel, or in your studio. In 2014, Stanford University researchers Marily Opprezzo and Daniel L. Schwarz confirmed that walking increases creative ideation in real time (while the walker walkers) and shortly after (when the walker stops and sits down to create). Specifically, they found that walking led to an increase in “analogical creativity” or using analogies to develop creative relationships between things that may not immediately look connected. So when ancient Greek physician Hippocrates famously declared that walking is “the best medicine,” he seems to have had it right. When we walk, blood and oxygen circulate throughout the body’s organs and stimulate the brain. Walking’s magic is in fact threefold: it increases physical activity, boosts creativity, and brings you into the present moment.

Similarly, in her post about writing and jogging for the UW-Madison Writing Center’s blog, Literary Studies PhD student Jessie Gurd has explained:

What running allows me to do is clear my head and empty it of a grad student’s daily anxieties. Listening to music or cicadas or traffic, I can consider one thing at a time and turn it over in my mind. It’s a groove I hit after a couple of miles; I engage with the problem, question, or task I choose and roll with it until my run is over. In this physical-mental space, I sometimes feel like my own writing instructor as I tackle some stage of the writing process: brainstorming, outlining, drafting.

While Bonnie Smith Whitehouse walks as an important part of her writing process and Jessie Gurd runs to write, what intentional movement looks like for you can be adapted according to your interests, preferences, and abilities. Whether it’s strolling, jogging, doing yoga, or participating in some other form of movement, these physical activities allow you to take a purposeful break that can help you concentrate your mind and even generate new conceptual connections.

All aspects of writing require hard work. It takes work to develop organizational strategies, to sequence sentences, and to revise paragraphs. And it takes work to come up with the ideas that will fill these sentences and paragraphs in the first place. But if you feel burdened by the necessity to develop new concepts, the good news is that you’re not the first writer who’s had to begin responding to an assignment from scratch. You are backed by a vast history of other writers’ experiences, a history that has shaped a collective understanding of how to get started. So, use the experience of others to your advantage. Try a couple of these techniques and maybe even develop some other methods of your own and see what new ideas these old strategies can help you generate!

Works Cited

Aristotle. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse . Edited and translated by George Kennedy, Oxford University Press, 1991.

Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives . University of California Press, 1969.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. On Oratory and Orators . Edited and translated by J.S. Watson, Southern Illinois University Press, 1986.

Desai, Radhika, et al. “Effects of Yoga on Brain Waves an Structural activation: A review.” Complementary Therapies in clinical Practice ,vol, 21, no, 2, 2015, pp. 112-118.

Gurd, Jessie. “Writing Offstage.” Another Word , The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 7 October 2013, https://writing.wisc.edu/blog/writing-offstage/ . Accessed 5 July 2018.

Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts . Utah State University Press, 2006.

Huang, T. et al. “The Effects of Physical Activity and Exercise on Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Healthy Humans: A Review.” Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports , vol. 24, no. 1, 2013. Wiley Online Library , https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12069 .

Oppezzo, Marily, and Daniel L. Schwartz. “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition , vol. 40, no. 4, 2014, pp. 1142-52.

Smith Whitehouse, Bonnie, email message to author, 19 June 2018.

Young, Richard E., Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike. Rhetoric: Discovery and Change . Harcourt College Publishing, 1970.

Writing Process and Structure

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Developing a Thesis Statement

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

• Learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view

Series Editor : Michael Theall, Youngstown State University Authors: Patricia Armstrong, Vanderbilt University; Sonja Moyer, US Army Command and General Staff College; Katherine Stanton, Princeton University

The critical evaluation of ideas, arguments, and points of view is important for the development of students as autonomous thinkers (1, 2). It is only through this critical evaluation that students can distinguish among competing claims for truth and determine which arguments and points of views they can trust and those of which they should be skeptical. This work lays the foundation for students’ progressing to staking their own claims in an intellectually rigorous fashion. Learning how to analyze and critically evaluate arguments thus helps them to develop a sound framework to test their own arguments and advance their own points of view.Objective 11 reflects an important component of the educational process – training students in the habits of thought in our disciplines. IDEA research has found that it is related to Objectives #6 through #10 and Objective #12, which all address activities at the upper levels of cognitive taxonomies, activities requiring application and frequent synthesis and evaluation of ideas and events (3). Active processing is critical to our students’ long-term retention of ideas and concepts and their ability to transfer those ideas and concepts to other contexts (4).

There is a link between this objective and developing deeper understandings of the self and the world. By encouraging our students to adopt a critical framework, we prepare them not only to engage in scholarly conversation and debate in our disciplines, but also to be engaged citizens in a democratic society. As Patricia King points out,

a student who appreciates why people approach controversial issues in her discipline from different perspectives is more likely to see and appreciate the reasons people approach social controversies from different perspectives. By the same token, a student who evaluates knowledge claims in his major by reference to the strength of the evidence in support of conflicting hypotheses would also be more inclined to evaluate contradictory claims about current moral issues by reference to the weight of available evidence (5, p. 23).

The ability to weigh alternatives, make decisions, and evaluate contradictory evidence is crucial to scholastic endeavors and adult life more generally—to personal happiness, professional success, and civic engagement.

To achieve this and related objectives, instruction must incorporate intellectual challenge and activity; opportunities for creative or original work; finding and using information and translating that information into coherent communication; and opportunities to produce original work rather than simply recalling information. This is supported by IDEA research finding that instructors stressing this objective frequently stimulate students to intellectual effort (#8), introduce stimulating ideas about the subject (#13), ask students to share ideas (#16), and assign work that requires original or creative thinking (#19). For additional information about this objective, see IDEA Paper #37 Helping Your Students Develop Critical Thinking Skills. [PDF]

Helpful Hints

Teaching students “how to think” may begin by alerting them to the kinds of questions and problems that interest scholars or professionals in your field. So you may consider organizing your courses around such questions and problems to stimulate your students’ intellectual interest. Rather than simply presenting information, be explicit with your students about how you approach such questions, defining critical thinking in your field and modeling disciplinary ways of thought. Engage students in activities that require sophisticated thinking and design assessments that call on students to demonstrate thinking skills. Below, we provide specific ideas for how to teach students to analyze and critically evaluate ideas and assess their abilities to do so. These activities and assessments require students to identify assumptions, weigh competing evidence, make decisions, imagine alternatives, and build arguments.

John Bean writes that once professors decide to focus on developing critical thinking skills, “much of their classroom preparation time shifts from planning and preparing lectures to planning and preparing critical thinking problems for students to wrestle with” (6, p. 122). Below, we suggest a series of what he might call “critical thinking tasks” that give students practice—and the opportunity to receive feedback on—analyzing and critically evaluating ideas, arguments, and points of view.

• In humanities and social science courses, keep the reading load manageable and model for students how to read critically and to evaluate arguments in your field (see IDEA Paper #40 Getting Students to Read: Fourteen Tips [PDF]).
• In math, sciences, and engineering courses, encourage students participating in study groups not only to share ideas for solving problems but also to provide reasons for the problem solving ideas they advance.
• Have students respond to an editorial in a newspaper or to a review essay in a scholarly journal. For that response, ask students to identify unstated assumptions, biases, and points of views and show how they undermine the argument the author is making.
• Teach students to use a pro and con grid to analyze ideas and points of view (7, see pages 168-171).
• Take time in science and engineering classes to explore the ethical considerations of research questions and experimental design.
• In organized class debates, ask students to argue for a point of view counter to their own.
• Give students “ill-structured problems” in class to work through. Such problems have no known answer or solution and cannot be solved with formal rules of logic or mathematical formulas. Ask students to come up with multiple solutions for each problem and rank the viability of each solution.
• Teach students the “believing and doubting game” (Elbow, cited in 6, p.142), which asks them to be both sympathetic and skeptical readers.
• Help students develop strategies for systematically gathering data according to methodologies in your discipline, assessing the quality and relevance of the data, evaluating sources, and interpreting the data (5, p. 24).
• Encourage students to enter into dialogue with the sources they read; encourage them to ask questions, give assent, or protest in the margins of what they read.
• Train students to identify the author’s audience and purpose when they read.
• Encourage students to engage their critical reasoning skills outside of the classroom (5, p. 24).

Assessment Issues

To teach critical evaluation, we must define critical thinking in general and in the discipline, model habits of disciplinary thought, engage students in activities that require sophisticated thinking, and design assessments that call on students to demonstrate thinking skills. Instructional assignments and activities that promote critical thinking have to do more than present information and ask for recall. Rather, they must ask students to demonstrate their thinking, including their analysis and critical evaluation of ideas, arguments, and points of view. These assignments ask students to do more than reproduce what they know; they ask them to produce new knowledge.

Angelo and Cross (7) offer many techniques for assessing critical thinking, problem solving, analysis, and related skills. Echoing and expanding on their ideas, we make the following suggestions:

• Design a writing assignment that asks students to test a critic’s ideas (or an everyday assumption) against a primary text or texts.
• Ask students to apply a theory they’ve learned in a social science class by designing an experiment to test the theory. Have them carry out the experiment and document the results.
• Design a writing assignment that prompts students to position themselves within a scholarly or real-life debate.
• Ask students to review a scientific paper, assessing the evidence the authors use and how they use it.
• Allow students to choose a current political issue relevant to a community to which they are attached. Have them research both major parties’ point of view on this issue and critically analyze them. As a writing assignment or project, ask students to agree with one major party’s stand on this issue and justify their choice.
• Have students use a double-entry journal for reflection and self-assessment of this learning objective, using guided questioning. The journal helps faculty to assess the affective domain, and helps students through possible “road blocks” in the process of learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view. It also reinforces that this process is ongoing, not just an assignment for a class. Sample guided questions include: What happened (when you analyzed and critically evaluated ideas, arguments, and points of view)? What was your reaction as you went through this process? What did you learn about yourself? How can you apply what you learned to your education or your life?
• Construct a rubric (i.e. scoring guide) to provide guidelines for critical analysis and evaluation so students know what to expect when they are assessed. The criteria and standards for this rubric may include the Elements of Reasoning and Intellectual Standards in Paul and Elder’s Critical Thinking (8).

References and Resources

• Perry, W. G. (1999). Forms of ethical and intellectual development in the college years. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Brookfield, S. D. (1987). Developing critical thinkers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Bloom, B. (Ed.). (1984). Taxonomy of educational objectives : Book 1, Cognitive Domain (2nd ed.). New York, Longman. See pp. 120-121, 162-163, 185-187.
• Halpern, D. F., & Hakel, M. D. (2003). Applying the science of learning to the university and beyond. Change , 35 (4).
• King, P. (2000). Learning to make reflective judgments. In Baxter-Magolda, M. B. Ed.), “Teaching to promote intellectual and personal maturity.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 82. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Bean, J. C. (1996). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Angelo, T., & Cross, P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2002). Critical thinking: Tools for taking charge of your learning and your life. Instructor’s Manual . NJ: Prentice Hall.

Related POD-IDEA Center Notes

• IDEA Item #8 “Stimulated students to intellectual effort beyond that required by most courses,” Nancy McClure
• IDEA Item #13 “Introduced stimulating ideas about the subject,” Michael Theall
• IDEA Item #16 “Asked students to share ideas and experiences with others whose backgrounds and viewpoints differ from their own,” Jeff King
• IDEA Item #19 “Gave projects, tests, or assignments that required original or creative thinking,” Cynthia Desrochers

Additional Resources

• IDEA Paper No. 38 Enhancing Learning – and More! – Through Cooperative Learning , Millis
• IDEA Paper No. 37 Helping Your Students Develop Critical Thinking Skills, Lynch and Wolcott
• IDEA Paper No. 40 Getting Students to Read: Fourteen Tips, Hobson
• IDEA Paper No. 42 Integrated Course Design , Fink
• Gaining A Basic Understanding of the Subject
• Developing knowledge and understanding of diverse perspectives, global awareness, or other cultures
• Learning to apply course material
• Developing specific skills, competencies, and points of view needed by professionals in the field most closely related to this course
• Acquiring skills in working with others as a member of a team
• Developing creative capacities
• Gaining a broader understanding and appreciation of intellectual/cultural activity
• Developing skill in expressing myself orally or in writing
• Learning how to find, evaluate, and use resources to explore a topic in depth
• Developing ethical reasoning and/or ethical decision making
• Learning to apply knowledge and skills to benefit others or serve the public good
• Learning appropriate methods for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting numerical information

A Writer's Handbook

• Introduction

Why You Write

Main writing purposes.

• Opening Sentences
• Linking Sentences
• Finished Introduction
• Topic Sentences
• Development
• Conclusion Sentences
• Conclusion Paragraphs for Essays
• Essay Writing Organization: The Outline
• Annotating Readings
• General Writing Idea Development
• Rhetorical and Visual Analysis Idea Development
• Character Analysis Idea Development
• Theme Analysis Idea Development
• Theory Analysis
• Using the Library
• Using Sources for Illustration or Support
• Using Research for Essays
• Writing About Research
• MLA Handbook Summary for Citations
• Final Thoughts on Essays
• Literary Element Index
• Appendix of Example Papers

An Academic Setting  

• Class assignments, scholarships, peer reviews, academic complaints or appeals, and journal articles are all examples of academic writing. These instances of writing stem from assignments or from a desire to give information to people in academic arenas. 

A Professional Setting  

• Memos, cover letters and résumés, performance evaluations, reports, policy documents, proposals, form letters, news articles, creative writing, media writing, and technical writing are all examples of professional writing.
• Depending on the type of profession you choose, you will constantly be in communication with coworkers and supervisors; those of you in more creative fields will be communicating with larger and more widespread groups of people. 

A Peer-to-Peer Setting  

• Text messages, social media posts, and virtual media are examples of informal peer-to-peer communications. These types of writing happen on a day-to-day basis and generally lack standard rules and format. Communication between peers is often instantaneous, and thus, unchecked for tone and meaning – this is often what gets people in trouble when communicating emotion immediately. 
• The purpose of writing for entertainment is just that: to entertain. This type of writing often involves telling a story, creating a narration, writing creatively. Writing for entertainment has academic merit, but is often not the focus of a general college writing class. 
• The purpose of writing for information is also just that: to inform. This type of writing basically lays data, processes, and information out to the audience with no bias or argument to it.
• The purpose of writing to persuade is to argue a position and hope to sway the audience in the direction of your beliefs. This type of writing is generally called an argument and can be used to argue a position on an issue or argue a stance in a literary work (or among a group of literary works). Argument can also be termed “analysis” because the writer is analyzing a subject and synthesizing elements within the subject to come up with a main idea – the writer then presents this idea as his or her argument on the subject.
• The research paper can be a mix of informative and persuasive techniques depending on the assignment. The main aspect of this type of writing is to present an in-depth look at a subject with support from primary and secondary sources (see discussion on primary and secondary sources on a later page).

You might say, “Isn’t my teacher the audience for all my papers in class?” But, often, this is not the case. Most teachers will discuss the audience for the papers due in classes and will expect students to use appropriate format, style, and language for the intended audience. To understand what type of appropriate elements of writing to use, writers must think about the following questions: 

• “Who is the audience?”
• “What does my audience already know about my subject?” 
• “What attitudes and beliefs does my audience have?”
• “Are there specific technical words or is there language that I need to use to reach the audience – or stay away from because the audience is not familiar with it?”
• “How formal do I need to be with the audience?” 

Peer Audience

Usually writing to peers in everyday tasks is very informal and often will include lack of punctuation, spelling, or syntax. However, some academic assignments ask writers to respond to their peers. Although this is still informal, teachers expect respectful discussion between peers, and if graded, the writing might have specific assigned elements. 

Societal Audience  

If you encounter assignments that ask you to address a section of society, or society as a whole, this will most likely be more formalized than regular peer to peer communication. These types of writing assignments might call for extra background information or explanation of technical terms within a subject that a specific audience may not understand. Especially true for persuasive papers, writers will need to understand the audience’s feelings on the subject so the writer can find common ground to connect with the audience before trying to persuade. 

Academic Audience  

This is usually the most formal of the writing needs, but do not mistake formality with language over-indulgence. Some students purposely search the thesaurus for “big words” to sound more academic, but often this just makes writing look like it is trying to be too academic. Formality in an academic setting usually means no use of first or second person pronouns (no I, me, my, we, us, our, you, etc.) and use of a formal structure and organization. Many times, an academic audience will be aware of the subject you are discussing which means you will not have to use as much background explanation on the subject. 

The main idea to remember when thinking about purpose and audience, especially within a class is to read the assignment directions to find out what you will be writing for and for whom you will be writing.

Select the link below to launch Exercise 1:  For the following ideas, think about what the purpose and audience would be: 

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