Four ways to generate ideas and plan essays. (Part 1)
Spontaneity may be a fun quality in a friend, but good writing is rarely spontaneous. When you’re working on essays, planning is key. Planning becomes even more crucial if you’re working under timed conditions—you no longer have the time to ramble on, delete what you don’t want, etc. You need to know exactly what you’re going to say.
In this pair of blog posts, I’m going to give you four ways to look at an essay topic or question, quickly generate and organise ideas, and Get on With Writing as quickly as possible!
Do note that regardless of which method you use, I’m assuming that you’ve already had a good think about the question keywords and understood what the question is asking of you!
Method One: The Conversationalist
This one could be particularly useful for:
Those who’ve received feedback that they’re ok when it comes to speaking, but somehow when they write, the essays are jumbled or not insightful enough.
Those who are very haunted by whether they’re following the right “format,” e.g. how many paragraphs do I need for “agree”? How many paragraphs do I write for “disagree”?
Those who can think of many responses at the sight of a question, but need help developing these idea fragments into full, organised arguments. In other words, those who may be receiving feedback saying you have great ideas, but the essay is disorganised or the arguments hard to follow.
What is the method?
1. Rephrase the essay question into a question someone might ask you in a spoken conversation.
2. You then answer “naturally,” based on your “gut feel.” Write down your gut feel response to the question, answering as though you were still answering someone out loud. It doesn’t matter at this point if your response is a little vague, or you’re answering in short phrases, just get the gut feel response out, because…
3. Now you’ll concentrate on developing the response. But again, imagine someone were talking to you about your response, asking you things like:
a. Why? Why do you feel this way/think this?
b. What do you mean by this phrase?
c. How do I know that what you’re saying is true?
d. Are there any exceptions to what you’re saying?
e. How does this process play out?
f. What are the implications of this idea?
You don’t have to ask every single one of these questions. So long as you find your idea growing, possibly until you hit what looks like a counterargument, you’re fine!
4. The more you ask yourself questions about this idea fragment, the more the idea should grow. Now try to put your ideas into a full sentence.
5. Time to do a final check. Say the question once more to yourself, then immediately answer with your full sentence. You’re looking for your idea sentence to sound like a direct answer to the question; if it doesn’t, rephrase till it does. This idea sentence will basically be the topic sentence (i.e. the opening sentence) of a paragraph in your essay.
6. Now repeat steps 2 to 5 until you have enough ideas to fill an essay.
7. This is an additional step only for those working under timed conditions, who’ve generated so many ideas that they could not possibly write a paragraph for each sentence. Select your best two, or three, or four—however many the question requires. Select based on: how interesting the idea is, how strong your logic and examples are, etc.
An example:
‘The book has no place in modern society.’ Discuss.*
* This was an A Level GP Paper 1 question in 2010, by the way.
Analysing the question:
The book —-> the physical object? The ideas contained therein? E-books? What then is a book? Answer: full length, more depth than individual articles. Fiction AND nonfiction!
Modern society ——> a digital age, swamped with video and short-form communication as opposed to the written word; that said, physical books are still used in schools, etc.; VUCA world; an age of environmental crisis as well!
So really, the question is asking: do people still buy and read books? Should people still buy and read books? Do people still value the book? Are physical books relevant in an increasingly digital, image-driven world? Isn’t the production of physical books harming the environment?
Step 1: if I rephrase the question into something a person might say to me in a conversation, I might get something like:
“do you think the book has no place in modern society?”
Step 2: my instinctive response to this is “no way. Of course the book is still relevant today!”
Step 3: Now I need to substantiate my instinctual response…
Why do I think the book is still relevant? Contrary to what one might assume, more people are actually buying print books.
Although they may not have time to read these books, they should, precisely because we live in an age of information overload, of quick snippets of information which may or may not be true. The book offers time out from this barrage of noise, and presents an opportunity to engage meaningfully, slowly, deeply, with curated and thought through ideas.
How does this process play out? Reading a physical book takes you away from social media. You’re engaging, one on one, with the ideas of a single author, and since print books tend to go through rounds of editing and checks before publishing, one can be more confident that the ideas are checked and sound—or at least, less suspect than the opinions found online.
>> Can you see how, through planning, the paragraph is practically writing itself?
>> That said, when I’m planning, I’m not going to be writing in full sentences. That example above is somewhat overkill in this aspect!
Step 4: based on all that above, I’d say my response is… “of course books—particularly print books—are still relevant today, because they are a respite in a world of overwhelming digital noise.”
Step 5: refining the phrasing to match the question, I get… “Contrary to the statement—books, particularly print books—are more important than ever, because they are a respite in a world of overwhelming digital noise.”
The change in the opening words of the sentence may seem trivial, but they’re not. The statement in the question is phrased negatively. How could I have said “of course” when I was arguing the opposite?
Step 6: rinse and repeat until I have enough paragraphs!
Method Two: ESCAPEE
This method could be more suited to:
Those who want to add depth to their writing; those who keep getting feedback that the content in their essays is rather narrow in scope and need more complexity.
Those who tend to feel overwhelmed at the sight of the question, even after they’ve analysed it, and feel like they’re unsure how to start generating ideas.
What is the method:
ESCAPEE stands for—
Economic
Social
Cultural
Artistic
Political
Environmental
Educational
1. After analysing the question, start formulating ideas through each of the lenses in ESCAPEE. (This becomes clearer when you read on for my example applying this method.) Go one lens at a time, but do stop once you think you’ve enough material for a full essay! You don’t have to complete every single lens.
2. Add complexity to each of your initial ideas by questioning them:
a. Why? Why do you feel this way/think this?
b. What do you mean by this phrase?
c. How do I know that what you’re saying is true?
d. Are there any exceptions to what you’re saying?
e. How does this process play out?
f. What are the implications of this idea?
3. Start organising as you consider more and more lenses from ESCAPEE. As you’re coming up with responses, take especial note of ideas which would be applicable to two or more facets of ESCAPEE. Group these ideas together and make sure this “mega idea” goes into the essay, because clearly, this idea is applicable to multiple spheres of life!
4. Select two to four (depending on question requirements) of these ideas. Put each idea into a complete sentence.
5. Double check that each sentence, when spoken, sounds like a direct answer to the question, and tweak the idea and/or phrasing till it does. There you have it, your topic sentences!
An example:
‘The book has no place in modern society.’ Discuss.**
** I’m using the same example just to show that there are multiple ways to answer the same question!
Analysing the question:
The book ——> the physical object? The ideas contained therein? E-books? What then is a book? Answer: full length, more depth than individual articles. Fiction AND nonfiction!
Modern society ——> a digital age, swamped with video and short-form communication as opposed to the written word; that said, physical books are still used in schools, etc.; VUCA world; an age of environmental crisis as well!
So really, the question is asking: do people still buy and read books? Should people still buy and read books? Do people still value the book? Are physical books relevant in an increasingly digital, image-driven world? Isn’t the production of physical books harming the environment?
Step 1: First, I consider the question through an economic lens. Is the book, especially the print book, still a viable economic product? Certainly!
Step 2: Adding complexity… Even if people are not reading the books they buy, this doesn’t change the fact that more books than ever are being published. This means, from a purely economic point of view, books are still a winning proposition.
Step 1 again: now I consider the question through a social lens. Is the book still relevant today from the point of view of society? Of course!
Step 2 again: Adding complexity… Books are ways to build common identity. Books on history, sociology etc. are ways for communities and nations to learn about themselves and others. Plus, fiction is a process of myth making crucial for any nation or community. In today’s globalised world, where cultural loss is a real issue, books are surely more important than ever.
Step 3: Realising that anything I might say while using the lens of Culture has already been said when I used the Social lens in ESCAPEE, I make a note that the idea I had in the steps immediately above might be a more significant point.
Step 1 once more: Then, I move on to the next element in ESCAPEE—Arts. Is the book still relevant today from this lens? Of course!
Step 2 once more: Adding complexity… the world may have changed in many ways, but Art as a way to express ourselves and understand the world is as important as ever. Books are a platform for many branches of Art—literary arts, sometimes visual arts as well… Even book design and bookbinding can constitute Art, i.e. the physical object, a book, is itself a work of Art.
Step 4 (Step 3 was above!): Here are my initial topic sentences…
Books are ways to build common identity. In today’s globalised world, where cultural loss is a real issue, books are surely more important than ever.
Books represent many branches of Art.
The entire process of publishing a book, and books themselves, are still profit-making propositions. (I moved this one down because I feel like the first two points have more weight.)
Step 6: Rephrasing to make sure my sentences answer the question directly…
The question, if you recall, is ‘The book has no place in modern society.’ Discuss.
My first topic statement is fine, since I’ve already added on the bit about “in today’s globalised world,” which directly addresses the question’s “modern society.”
The second sentence should be fine once I add a signpost as well! So, the topic statement is: “Moreover, books represent many branches of Art.”
However, my last topic sentence needs a little tweaking. Now it is… “Even in today’s increasingly digitally focused world, the entire process of publishing a book, and books themselves, are still profit-making propositions.”
And there we have it—two methods to quickly generate ideas, and organise them into a viable plan.
Give both methods a try! Which worked better for you? Let everyone know in the Comments section below.
Part 2 of this article will have the remaining 2 methods. Check out for the next blog post to collect more methods for your mental tool box!
I’ve tried to be as thorough as possible in this article, laying out the thought process (hence, the wordiness!) That said, if you’re in a situation where you think having someone work with you (discussing the thought process, finetuning your arguments) might be helpful, why not get in touch? I offer tuition services. Find out the details here.
Image:
Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash