Ideas don’t generate themselves. It’s an active process that requires your engagement and targeted problem-solving. One of the ways to approach any topic and gather information is to hold a brainstorming session.
Brainstorming is a strategy aimed at producing a multitude of diverse ideas. It is meant to rewire your thinking and unlock your creative mind. As a result, you can access quirky or even crazy ideas that allow building the most original and innovative solutions upon them. Usually, this is exactly what you need when dealing with complex assignments like research papers, essays, and creative projects.
According to Domyessay.com, a professional paper writing service for students, brainstorming also allows you to deepen your previous knowledge and take it to the next level by finding new perspectives. You can practice it by yourself or try a cooperative approach and invite your peers to brainstorm together. The process can take a variety of forms. But before we move on to techniques, let’s take a closer look at how to plan a brainstorming session to maximize its results.
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How to Organize a Brainstorming Session
Follow these steps to run a successful brainstorming session:
- Determine the focus of a brainstorming session.
- Set a time limit.
- Organize a comfortable environment and provide the necessary resources.
- When working in a group, identify a role for each participant (watch time, facilitate discussion, make notes, etc.)
- Set the ground rules that promote respect, enthusiasm, and active participation.
- Generate ideas.
- Summarize the brainstorming session, evaluate ideas, and identify successful solutions.
Below you’ll find the most effective techniques to integrate into your brainstorming session.
Effective Brainstorming Techniques
Mind Mapping
Mind mapping allows catching subtle and the most unexpected links between ideas. The possibility to organize thoughts in a non-linear web is a perfect way to see how distant concepts are connected and use these insights to make discoveries.
You can use mind mapping at the early stages of your college projects. It will help you come up with a bunch of ideas and identify the direction for further steps. However, this isn’t the only way to make academic papers more manageable. Writing services provide research help and will answer your write my essays requests even if they are complex and urgent. By delegating some extra work, you’ll make your coursework much easier to handle.
Freewriting
Freewriting is a popular brainstorming technique among writers and students. Its goal is to let yourself write whatever crosses your mind without criticism or judgment. Set any comfortable time frame and gather ideas with complete freedom of thought. This technique helps to overcome writing anxiety and get some useful insights for your papers.
How to adapt this technique? Professional writers use the results of brainstorming to generate ideas at the pre-writing stage. It’s useful when you need to narrow down the topic, develop a thesis statement or argument, and deepen your understanding of a subject matter.
Brainwriting
Brainwriting is a powerful brainstorming technique for groups, which makes the most of team diversity. Each team member is given a limited time (approximately six minutes) to jot down three suggestions relating to the topic area. After the set time, they pass their notes to the individual next to them. Each person will then build on and add to the notes they receive and expand them with their own views. After another six minutes, they will pass the notes on, and so it continues until the notes reach their original author. Now the team can discuss the suggestions drawn from the exercise and choose the best solution.
This method reduces the impact of the “anchoring effect” and unbalanced workload caused by dominant team members. Drawing out the diversity of thought within the team, this method encourages participation, gives everyone’s ideas value, and allows team members to develop each other’s thought processes.
Gap Filling
Have you ever found yourself stuck in the middle of a task? It often happens when you work on assignments that involve complex arguments and problem-solving. The gap filling technique is one of the ways to overcome an obstacle that impedes your progress.
First, remind yourself of the goal of your task and try to determine where you are in relation to that goal. Then, note down the problem areas that prevent you from obtaining it. Gap filling allows you to narrow down the focus to a particular issue you’re experiencing and address the gap by brainstorming practical solutions.
Rapid Ideation
Rapid ideation involves drawing out raw ideas from a group by creating a sense of urgency. Each team member writes down as many ideas/solutions as possible within a preset amount of time, which is strictly adhered to. No critique or discussions are allowed during this time.
The sense of urgency of this method means ideas are not disregarded even by their author before they’ve been given a chance to be developed. In addition, it solves a common team brainstorming problem where team members talk themselves out of sharing an idea for fear of judgment by their peers.
To Sum Up
Brainstorming is a handy activity that allows you to produce ideas, support creativity, and gather a large number of diverse ideas. Try different techniques to find what works best for you and gives you and your team a boost of inspiration. Not all ideas you come up with will be perfect, but you’ll definitely find a good starting point to see new opportunities and take action.