Attached you see will see a series of whiteboard shots from some of my recent writing lectures concerning brainstorming and planning skills for categorization-style essays.
These shots show the following general process:
1) Writing your given topic out carefully to ensure you understand it and don't miss important details
2) Starting a "visual" brainstorm with your central broad topic and some main ideas distributed around it
3) Adding quick details to each of the main ideas around your topic
4) Generating quick ideas for a "hook" at the start of your introduction, and a finishing thought to round out your conclusion
5) Converting your bubble map brainstorm into an organized outline (plan)
There is also a second example topic shown, with a completed bubble map relevant to that particular topic. It also demonstrates how the brainstorm process allows us to incorporate similar ideas together, or discard those ideas we feel aren't as essential or worthwhile to write about.
I hope the images help you and give you some ideas. Feel free to ask any questions you like relevant to these topics and the processes shown!
Best wishes,
~ Jason
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