How to Write Better Essays

Analysis and brainstorming:

two different things

What all of this amounts to is the importance of ‘staking your claim’ as

early as possible, indeed as soon as you get the question. This involves

two things: first, as we’ve seen, thinking through youranalysis of the

concepts and implications of the question, and second, writing down

your ownideas on the question. It’s now time to turn to the second of

these: brainstorming your own ideas. This means that you empty your

mind on the subject, without the aid of books. As quickly as possible

you track the flow of your ideas as you note what you know about the

subject and what you think might be relevant to the question.

You might be tempted to think this sounds strikingly similar to what

we’ve just done; so much so that you’re tempted to assume that brain-

storming is just a part of the process of analysis. After all, they both

involve your own ideas, which you get down on paper as quickly as

you can without the aid of books. But they are, in fact, quite different,

and if you allow yourself to merge the two, skimping on one, you will

almost certainly have problems.

In analysis you’re unwrapping what’s already there. It may be buried

deep, but by a process of introspection, through which you examine

the different ways you use a concept such as authority or advertise-

ment, you come to see more clearly the contours of the concept, its

essential characteristics.

In contrast, with brainstorming you are going beyond the concept:

this is synthesis, rather than analysis. You are pulling together ideas,

arguments and evidence that you think may have a bearing on the

question’s implications that you have already revealed through your

analysis. So, whereas analysis is a convergent activity, brainstorming

is divergent, synthesising material from different sources. If you like,

one activity is centripetal, the other centrifugal. Confuse the two and

you’ll do neither well.

The importance of brainstorming

If you overlook this distinction and merge the two activities, you’re

likely to struggle with two problems. First, if you abandon analysis

too soon and embark on brainstorming, your focus will shift away

from the implications of the question and the concepts it contains.

Consequently, you’re likely to find that you don’t have the guidelines

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