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C & W Skills that students are usually happily surprised

Sania Athar Kakakhel at the results.
Lecturer in English
National University of Modern
Moreover, freewriting is often useful to
Languages
non-native speakers of English who still
struggle with fluency (i.e., writing quickly
Step 1: Generate Ideas or relatively easily, in contrast to accuracy,
which an overriding concern for at this
stage of the writing process can inhibit
“If at first the idea is not absurd, then the flow of words and ideas).
there is no hope for it.” —Albert Einstein

The first step of the writing process (that

is, after carefully reading and
understanding the assignment) is to
generate ideas for your project. In shorter
versions of the writing process, or in
processes designed for other kinds of
writing, step 1 is sometimes called
“gathering” because it also includes doing
research.
In expository writing, though, even for a
research paper, you will want to "generate As you will recall from "Whom are you
ideas" first. Why? First, you will want to writing for?", the writing process starts
see what you already know and think as writer-oriented and gradually moves
about a subject. Second, you will want to toward a reader-oriented product. Thus
see what ideas you can come up with this step should be thought of
yourself. And third, the methods below as completely writer-oriented. Forget
will help you define what questions you about your reader and assume that no one
want to start your research with. is going to see your notes or ideas from
this stage. Let your ideas come out freely
and be as wild and crazy as they seem. If
you immediately censor what you think
might be “dumb” or “silly” ideas, you may
eliminate good ideas or connections to
good ideas and are not really letting
yourself think. As one moderately
There are various successful scientist (pictured at left) once
ways to generate ideas for your writing. put it, "Imagination is greater than
People think and learn differently, so try knowledge. Knowledge is limited.
them all and choose the one that’s best Imagination encircles the world."
for you—although if you have never tried There are four primary methods of
freewriting or “moodling,” described generating ideas:
below, I strongly encourage you to try
them both at least once. My experience is
1. Brainstorming
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2. Freewriting material to start organizing or, if

3. Idea Map/Web needed, doing research.
4. "Moodling" Below is a sample brainstorm for an
argument/research paper on the need for
a defense shield around the earth:

Brainstorming

"It is better to have enough ideas for some

of them to be wrong, than to always be
right by having no ideas at all." —Edward
de Bono

Most people have been taught how to

brainstorm, but review these instructions
to make sure you understand all aspects
of it.

Freewriting
“The consequence [of writing] is that you
must start by writing the wrong meanings
in the wrong words; but keep writing until
 Make a list
you get to the right meanings in the right
(or lists) of every idea you can think
words. Only in the end will you know what
of about your subject;
you are saying.” —Peter Elbow
 Don't write in complete sentences,
“Don’t think; just write!” —Ray Bradbury
just words and phrases, and don't
Freewriting, a writing strategy developed
worry about grammar or even
by Peter Elbow in 1973, is similar to
spelling;
brainstorming but is written in sentence
 Again, do NOT judge or skip any
and paragraph form without
idea, no matter how silly or crazy it
stopping. Thus, it . . .
may initially seem; you can decide
1. increases the flow of ideas and
later which ones are useful and
reduces the chance that you’ll
which are not, but if you judge now,
accidentally censor a good idea.
you may miss a great idea or
2. helps to increase fluency second-
connection;
language learners—i.e., the ability
 Do this for 15, 20, or (if you're on a
to produce written language easily
roll) even 30 minutes--basically
(as opposed to accuracy, which is of
until you think you have enough
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course important but which is better English word, but don't overdo this;
addressed later in the process).
As in brainstorming,

 DO keep going for 15 or 20 minutes

or until you feel you have enough to
start to build your paper or research
on.
 NOTE: In Peter Elbow's original
 DO formulation of freewriting, designed
write down every idea you can think to generate not only ideas but even
of about your topic, no matter how a topic, the writer writes for a few
"crazy"; you can judge later! (And no minutes, chooses one idea or word
one else is going to see it) from that freewriting and then
 DON'T worry about correct grammar freewrites about that new topic for
or spelling; several minutes, and then repeats
Unlike in brainstorming, that process again, successively
 DO write in sentence and paragraph refining their topic. This process
form; can be a useful one if you are truly
 DO KEEP YOUR HANDS MOVING. If starting from scratch and are not
you can’t think of anything, just even sure what you want to write
keep repeating your subject (e.g., your paper about.
“busy trap, busy trap”) or something
like “I’m waiting for ideas to come
and they will, I’m waiting for ideas
to come and they will,” over and
over until they do come. (They will!);
 DO feel free to use
an occasional word from your native
language if you can't think of the
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Sample Freewrite

The following is from a freewrite a

21G.222 student ("Albert Einstein") did for
a response paper on Barbara Lazear
Ascher's essay "The Box Man":
Well
I remember this one quote about math. “No
Albert Einstein one ever learned good mathematics in a
vacuum” or something like that. So what are
DO NOT READ all the things that his man never learned.
He’s probably not very sociable. I still
How to begin writing a response paper? I haven’t quite learned how to be a very social
like to take the time to think about what person. I don’t know how to use computers I
the article. I picked the box man. Sounds don’t know how to google docs! Maybe Mr.
interesting. Reminds me of a story I read Grunwald will look away and I can try to
for taks about some thing with a girl who figure it out. But if not I dunno. I guess I
was asking around about something and can just go ahead and figure it out. There
getting peoples philosophies about life. One must be so many collapsing thoughts. I like
person was terrified of the “box”. Boxes thinking continuously in multiple levels.
everywhere people living in boxes driving in Everything is more humorous when you add
boxes always trapped in the box. That lady another dimension. Like math. How do you
was probably homeless or something. I get people to stop understanding. That's it!
dunno. Boxman, boxman, boxman. I wonder The box man is not understood, but she's
what this article is actually about. I have no trying to understand him by writing about
idea, really. I need to read it a few times. him! Cool.
Right now it is a mystery. I hate this! The
mystery of the box man. Maybe he’s
isolated himself from society, or maybe he
Idea Map/Web
was isolated from society. Maybe his mind
never learned the constructs of human
language. Maybe his mind is free to think in
feelings and emotional. True thoughts
without translation! Maybe society makes a
mockery out of him, or perhaps society
looks up to him. The origins of the box man
are simple. Put a baby in a box and let him
grow up. Just Kidding.

Many people
instinctively (naturally) generate ideas in
list or paragraph form, but you may know
that you think better visually. Maps and
diagrams can immediately show us some
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of the relationships between ideas and can one line of inquiry, continue it on
sp ur further ideas in one direction another sheet.)
without confusing another.  After you've exhausted one line,
return to your main topic and do the
Thus making an idea map (also sometimes same with the others;
called an idea web) may be for you.  Do this until you feel you have
enough for a paper or to define your
research questions.
To make an idea map:
You’ll end up with something like this:

 Put your topic at the center, draw a

circle around it, and draw four or
five lines extending from it:

 At the ends of those lines, write

down any related ideas you think of
and circle those.
 Add any ideas and lines coming off
of those "subtopics" (I put that word
Photograph "This is Boston" © 2008 Kotarana.
in quotations because they may be
of equal importance.):
"Moodling"
“The Imagination works slowly and
quietly.” —Brenda Ueland

Moodle stands for Modular Object-

Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.
Founded and developed by Martin
Dougiamas in 2002, Moodle was designed
to provide educators, administrators, and
learners with an open, robust (strong),
secure and free platform to create and
deliver personalized learning
environments.

 Connect further ideas off those

“You do not need to leave your room.
topics if you have more ideas about
Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do
them. (If you run out of room for
not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still
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and solitary. The world will freely offer write anything until you are moved to do
itself to you to be unmasked, it has no so.
choice, it will roll in ecstasy (high) at your Again, this method tends to be useful for
feet.” —Franz Kafka more experienced writers who already
know they won’t immediately discard odd
ideas and who are very patient. And yet it
can sometimes produce some of the most
interesting, innovative ideas of any of the
methods.

 Give yourself an hour or more;

 Sit at your desk, preferably in front
of a window, with pen or pencil and
paper (or computer)
 Then sit and daydream. Do not
force anything. Only write a word
when you feel it must be written. (If
you don't feel like it, don't.) It can
be on topic or off topic; if you are
moved, write. Do not sleep or do
your math homework (unless that is
what you're moodling about—see
MIT Physics Prof. Alan Lightman's In
If you have tried all the above methods Praise of Wasting Time).
and feel comfortable letting your  Do not worry about grammar,
imagination wander and play with odd naturally, unless, of course, you
ideas without immediately discarding think of a great phrase or sentence
them, then you may be ready to try that you want to preserve;
“moodling.” In fact, if you typically use  Do not worry if you don’t write a
brainstorming, then you probably do a bit single word for even a whole
of moodling between ideas anyway. hour. You are still priming the pump
of your imagination, letting the dust
The etymology of the word "moodle" is of life settle and gaining access to
unclear, but it was used in the early your deepest levels of mind and
20 century to essentially mean dawdling
th creativity. You are still working, as
(easy going) and frittering (wasting ) away Ueland reminds us, and what you
time while letting your mind wander and chewed on today will show up
chew on thoughts in a relaxed way. In brilliantly on another day. If you
Brenda Ueland's formulation (If You Want haven't been giving yourself this
to Write), it basically means daydreaming kind of quiet time, it may take you a
with a pencil in your hand—you can do it few days of writing nothing to want
on a computer, but I think it is more to write something. As Ueland also
productive with the added quiet of pencil warns, though, if you eventually are
and paper—and not forcing yourself to not writing anything because you
are afraid or otherwise "stuck," you
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probably need to just push yourself

to write.
I find that when I moodle for an hour one
day, I sit down and words fly out of me
the next. And it has produced some of my
most creative, original ideas, one of which
prompted my graduate school classmates
to cry, "How did you think of that?!"

Happy moodling.