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Brainstorming and Other Invention Techniques
Chapter 2 of Fowler and Aaron's The Little, Brown Handbook, ninth edition (R 808.042 F829L 2004), is titled "Developing and Shaping Ideas." Basically, what we mean in writing when we talk about devloping ideas, or invention, is the process of generating ideas and information, or of discovering ideas. There are various methods of doing this, such as keeping a journal, observing your surroundings, freewriting, listing (also called brainstorming), clustering, questioning, patterning, reading, and thinking critically. Purdue University's "Owl" Writing Center has an excellent website devoted to invention techniques. Here at Nicholls, one of our preferred techniques is brainstorming, or concentrating on a subject for a fixed time and listing every idea that comes to mind.
Useful Information About Brainstorming
You will probably find that it is difficult, at best, to find books about keeping brainstorming in the library's catalog (iLink). Therefore, you may decide to search the web for educational institutions that have posted definitions, descriptions, and examples of the process on their webpages. Our suggestion would be for you to go to Google, the web's most efficient search engine, and type in the following, spaces and quotation marks included:
"research paper" topic brainstorming site:.edu
This will return some 18,000 hits. You can further narrow this number by adding more specific terms to your search, or trying a phrase like "how to brainstorm."
We've done you the favor of finding a couple of sites that offer useful suggestions. This is a preliminary list and it will grow as time permits, so keep checking back for updates. Our suggested sites, as of September 23, 2005, are as follows:
Gallaudet University, in Washington D.C., provides illustrations of the various types of invention, including brainstorming.
The University of Houston-Victoria has placed this helpful handout (Adobe Acrobat format) about invention techniques, including brainstorming, online for student use.
Southern Illinois University has produced this page, called How to Discover and Explore a Topic, in which it lists some of the most common methods for exploring a topic.
Grossmont College in California includes this illustrative slide showing a brainstorming session for a Civil War topic in its Power Point tutorial.
Tony Fonseca
Electronic Resources Librarian
230 Ellender Memorial Library
Phone: 985-448-4675
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