A good writer is part scientist and part artist. Like a
scientist, you have to be willing to ask questions
systematically, inquiring about how things work, the ways they
work, where they occur, and how to research them. You also must
be willing, like an artist, to use what you know to create
something new and imaginative. The invention strategies below
are designed to help you generate ideas for writing in ways that
are at once both systematic and creative. As you use them, try
to thINK--to think in ink, on paper, so that your ideas are
recorded for easy reference when planning and drafting.
Clustering is a way of generating ideas by mapping and
organizing them as they occur. It works as follows: 1) In a word
or phrase, write your topic in the center of a piece of paper.
Circle it. 2) Also in a word or phrase, write down the main
parts or central ideas of your topic. Circle these, and connect
them to the topic in the center. 3) The next step is to generate
facts, details, examples, or ideas related in any way