Ideas (Part 2) – I Need Writing Ideas and Essay Ideas!

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      Students often find it difficult to develop writing ideas.   Unless students are given a specific topic with specific sub-topics, students can spend a great deal of time deciding what to write about. 

     Good writing ideas come from many sources.  It requires more than just sitting around thinking of an idea or surfing the internet.  There are several ways to generate good ideas for writing.

     Regardless of whether it is an essay, an informative report, or science report, good ideas will make all writing assignments stand out above the rest.

     Here are some ways that you can generate good writing ideas:

·         Reflect upon personal experiences.  Have you been to specific places?  Have you seen interesting things?  Use your personal background knowledge and experiences in order to come up with ideas.  For example, assume you have to write a report on a specific cultural aspect of a country.  Which country? What cultural aspect?  Perhaps your grandparents come from England and you enjoy soccer.  There’s an idea!  You can write a report on the cultural impact of soccer on the English economy (for example).  The point here is for you to find something that you can relate to.  This will help you generate ideas and it might make the project more interesting.

·         Read stories, books, and magazines on a topic you are interested in.  By reading books and stories about personally interesting topics, you can get more ideas and gain different perspectives.  For example, assume you like computers.  You already have a good knowledge of home computers.  Let’s say you read a magazine story about a new kind of home computer or a new application or program.  Having read the article on a topic that interests you, you’ve just stumbled upon a new idea for a report or essay.

·         Talk to friends and family.  Sometimes friends and family know you better than you know yourself.  Assume you have no idea what to write about.  Your parent or friend can remind you about something you did, somewhere you went, or some interest you have had in the past that you forgot about.  Or, they might simply come up with a great idea for you.  Don’t be shy, ask others.

·         Go Online.  It’s unbelievable how visiting one site about a topic can lead you somewhere completely different.  You can get on the internet, have a specific topic in mind, and within a few minutes, find yourself reading about an interesting topic that has nothing to do with the first website you visited.

·         Create a topic web.  Let’s say you are interested in cars, for example.  Write the word ‘car’ in the middle of a blank page and circle it.  Draw lines from the circle with ‘cars’ in it to create other words and put them in circles.  The other words must have something to do with cars.  For example, you may have written down the word ‘Ferrari’, or ‘engine’.  Then, from the words ‘Ferrari’ and ‘engine’, draw lines to other related words until you create a word web.  By the time you get to the edge of the paper, you may have such words as ‘Indy 500’, or ‘Solar Powered Cars’.  This is a great way to generate ideas from your areas of interest.

    Having good writing ideas will help your child create informative and interesting pieces of writing.  Try as many methods above as you can in order to generate a good writing idea.

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