Invention Techniques

Invention Techniques

(We didn't make these up: they're in the third chapter in The Allyn & Bacon Handbook)

• Reading: use your notes on other people's ideas to jump start your own ideas, but be careful not to plagiarize.

• Brainstorming: spend five minutes just listing ideas and then sort the list.

• Freewriting: spend ten minutes writing about your subject or topic, reread your writing, and circle the topics or examples that you find in it.

• Journalist's Question: consider your subject or topic and answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how; sort your answers, and make a list.

• Journal Writing: keep a journal as you study your topic; reread it and circle the topics and examples that you wrote about.

• The Many Parts Strategy: list out the parts of your subject or topic and ask of each one, "What is the use of this part or what are the consequences of this part?" Sort your answers, and you have a list.

• Mapping:

Source

"Invention, The Child of Necessity: Getting Papers Started." The Writing Center. Cleveland State University. 2011.

http://www.csuohio.edu/writing-center/inventionthe-child-necessity-getting-papers-started

See also: Tipper, Michael. "Brainstorming Mind Mapping." MichaelonMindmapping.com. 2010. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.