ENGL 409: English Honors Colloquium

The Brainstorming Process

Working on a large project like a thesis can be tricky because you have so many ideas constantly floating through your brain! If you don't remember to write them down, some of your thoughts may get lost, or if you don't chart out the organization of your ideas, your main argument can get a little muddled. This is why it's important to find an organization system that works for you when it comes to your thesis ideas and the sources that support them. Whether that's a traditional outline with roman numerals, or a crime-novel-esque murder board, there are a few things you should try to do to make your writing process easier:

• Link or assign your sources to the topic or section of your project that they belong to EARLY. You're going to be reading a lot of different sources, and sometimes you loose track of why you needed a certain source in the first place.
• When you have an idea, no matter what you are doing, make sure you write it down somewhere so you can add it to your board later!
• Be as detailed as possible in your notes - You want to be able to come back to your brainstorming/outline doc and be able to understand what you were thinking when you initially wrote something down.
• Involve other people (your thesis advisor, a librarian, your fellow thesis writers) in your brainstorming/idea generating process! When you need to get out of your own head, go find someone you can bounce ideas off of.

Good tools for Brainstorming

Here are some online tools or just regular techniques for getting your ideas out of your head and organized!

The Six Thinking Hats Approach

Six thinking hats

The six thinking hats model was developed by Edward de Bono. It helps you approach your ideas from six different perspectives, allowing you to reduce bias and test out your theories fully in your brainstorming. 

The six hats include: 

• the factual hat (white hat) – at this stage, you are thinking about what you already know or need to find out;
• the creative hat (green hat) – at this stage, you are thinking about alternatives, ideas, possibilities that can help you generate solutions to your challenge in focus
• the optimist’s hat (yellow hat) – at this stage, you are thinking about the solutions or issues from the most positive perspective; try to identify benefits and value added;
• the judge’s hat (black hat) – at this stage, you are exploring the risks and critically appraising any concerns you may have;
• the hat for the heart (red hat) – at this stage, you consider the feelings you have about the solution or the challenge you’re trying to solve; think about fears and likes;
• the conductor’s hat (blue hat) – at this stage, you’re controlling the decision-making process and you organise the entire process to make sure you followed the six thinking hats guidelines.

You can use this approach in your notes, in the organizer below, in Wakelet or Padlet, or just in your own head, but it's a great way to fully flesh out ideas.