Reference no: EM132342968

Discussion: Brainstorming and Developing Essay Ideas

For this assignment you will be using pre-writing techniques to generate specific ideas, details and examples for your essay.

Process:

In your journal: Try to fill a number of pages with the following directed brainstorming exercises. This will help you develop material for your essay.

1. List specific examples of ways that people use the 8 different types of intelligence described in Gardner's essay. List as many examples as you can from each type. Many activities will need to be listed under a few intelligences. Cooking, for example, would fall under kinesthetic as well as logical.

2. Create a cluster or mind map brainstorming examples from your own personal experience with the 8 intelligences. (Write the type of intelligence in the middle of the page and then all the specific examples around in bubbles. Or put yourself in the middle and go from there.) Think of examples from throughout your life. Get specific. See how many you can come up with.

3. Once you have filled a page or two, take one example from Step 1 or 2 and write it at the top of another page. Freewrite about that specific example. Describe in specific sensory detail. (Who, what, where, when-scent, sights, touch, sounds, taste.)

4. Repeat Step 3. Repeat until you have described many examples.

Discussion Forum: Post one or two descriptions, notes, or ideas from your journal; about a page is good.

In your responses to classmates, see if you can extend and connect ideas. This type of group brainstorming can be very fruitful in developing ideas for an essay.