Explore Relationship

Aristotle determined four ways in which we can explore relationships as a way of coming up with ideas for writing. The first of these ways is to consider the cause of your subject, or its effects. For example, you might research the causes of alcoholism, or its effects on the family.

You might also take a look at a subject's antecedent and consequences. In other words, you might ask the question of your subject: "If this, then what?" Example: If alcohol is known to damage unborn babies, then mothers who drink ought to be considered criminally negligent.

You might also examine contraries, or make an argument by proving its opposite. For example, if you want to say that peace is good, you say that war is bad. Considering the topic of alcoholism, you might argue that because sobriety is bad for a person, drinking is good for a person.

Finally, you might look for contradictions, incompatible statements, or controversy. Example: Some doctors feel that alcoholism is a disease, influenced by genetic factors; others believe it stems from a psychological inadequacy, a weakness of will.

Examine Circumstance

There are two ways that you might examine circumstances in order to come up with an idea for a paper. The first is to consider the possible and the impossible. Sometimes you can construct an interesting argument by considering what is possible and what is not. Example: Is it possible to be a recovering alcoholic?

Another strategy is to consider the past, or to look to the future. For example, What is the probability of becoming a recovering alcoholic? What have the trends in alcohol consumption been in the past, and what can we expect in the future? Etc.

Rely on Testimony

The opinions of others can be a source for your paper. Look to authorities, testimonials, statistics, maxims, laws and precedents. Example: Do the laws regarding alcohol make sense, given the statistics that tell us that alcohol is a killer?

Focusing Your Ideas

OK. You've done some preliminary brainstorming. Perhaps you've even completed a discovery draft. The problem sitting before you now is that you have too many ideas and you don't know what to do with them. Or the ideas you've come up with don't seem to be adequately academic. What do you try next?

Nutshelling

Nutshelling is the simple process of trying to explain the main point of your observations in a few sentences - in a nutshell. When you put your thoughts in a nutshell, you come to see just how those thoughts fit together. You see how each thought is relevant to the others, and what the overall "point" is. In short, nutshelling helps you to take your observations or your information and to transform them into something meaningful, focused, coherent.

Imagine, for example, that you are taking an education course in which you are asked to declare, from your own point of view, why the process of writing is so difficult for student writers. Ask yourself why it is that writing is hard. Your answer, in a nutshell? After considering all sorts of responses, you decide that writing is hard because it is difficult to find original structures for an idea.

Still, this observation doesn't seem to you to be able to lift an entire paper. So you keep on. You raise questions. Should teachers expect originality from student writers? And if they do expect originality, why do teachers promote rigid ways of writing, such as the five-paragraph theme? Why, indeed, do teachers insist on an easily identifiable thesis sentence? Why do they flinch when they see fragments or run-ons? Why don't professors encourage experimentation with structure, syntax, and style?

Now that you've raised some really sharp questions, you'll want to try nutshelling again. What point are these questions trying to make, in a nutshell? Your answer: The process of writing is difficult for students because they are caught between their professors' conflicting expectations. On the one hand, professors hope that their students will be original; on the other, they insist that their students conform to conventions. What a dilemma for the young writer!

But your dilemma is solved. You have "nutshelled" your way to a promising idea for a paper.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14