Freewriting and clustering are two forms of brainstorming; both can
help you take a general topic and make it more specific.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES [ edit ]
Develop your topic idea with clustering
Define freewriting and explain how to use it to help you generate ideas about your topic
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
In both exercises, it is important to record everything that comes to mind without editing yourself
during the process. Both are tools to generate many different questions and ideas for you to
choose from when formulating your topic.
Freewriting is an exercise that helps you generate new ideas about a topic by asking you to write
whatever comes to mind when you think of a text or topic.
Clustering (or concept mapping) is an exercise that helps you refine ideas and narrow the scope of
a topic by making a map or diagram of different things you associate with a central topic.
TERMS [ edit ]
freewriting
A prewriting technique in which the writer writes continuously for a set period of time without
regard to spelling, grammar, or topic.
concept map
A diagram showing the relationships among concepts, with the concepts drawn in rectangular
boxes, which are connected with labelled arrows that denote the relationships between concepts,
such as "is a," "gives rise to," "results in," "is required by," or "contributes to. "
clustering
A prewriting technique consisting of writing ideas down on a sheet of paper around a central idea
within a circle, with the related ideas radially joined to the circle using rays.
EXAMPLES [ edit ]
Clustering might involve charting out thoughts about the different sides of Humbert Humbert's
personality—evil, crazy, manipulative, manipulated, hapless—then following each of those
general categories toward more specific examples of his behavior. For example, "manipulative"
might lead you to his direct address of his readers from the get­go, that he assumes he has more
than one reader (self­aggrandizement), that he expresses deep remorse but in suspiciously
flowery language, that he constructs his descriptions of Quilty to fit the "evil twin" archetype, etc.
The same kind of branching out could happen for each of Humbert's listed personality traits.
Freewriting might look something like this: Humbert Humbert is a pedophile, which is pretty
creepy. He takes Lolita away from her childhood and, in a lot of ways, ruins her life. But he
recognizes that he's being judged by the world for his actions and he says he's full or remorse. Is
he sincere or just playing it up for the "jury"? He sounds sincere, though flowery. Do his elaborate
professions of guilt work to absolve him or make him seem purely theatrical? What about how he
talks about Lolita? He doesn't even call her by her real name, which is Dolores. In a lot of ways,
she's more of an object of his fantasy than a real person. Does that make his behavior less
condemnable because he's clearly nuts? Or more condemnable because he's unempathetic to the
extreme?
Give us feedback on this content: FULL TEXT [ edit ]
If you have no idea what to write about, pre­writing can help get ideas flowing. Ways to pre­
write include brainstorming, making word webs, and outlining. In addition, if you have a
broad question in mind, brainstorming can help you develop it into a workable topic. Two
exercises that are particularly useful are freewriting and clustering.
Notebooks
Freewriting can be a great way to get ideas moving.
Freewriting
Freewriting will come in handy if you have a general topic but are not sure what you want to
say about it. Get a pen and paper (or open up a blank computer document) and set yourself a
time limit. Then start writing about your general topic, recording thoughts as they come into
your mind. Do not edit as you go, or even look back at what you have written. Just keep
moving on as thoughts occur to you. Thepurpose of freewriting is to develop ideas
spontaneously and naturally.
Consider this example, a two­minute freewrite on the topic "Revenge in Hamlet:"
"People say Hamlet is a play about revenge, but is revenge successful if he dies at the end?
Is killing Claudius enough to make Hamlet happy? Did he succeed at anything, or did he
just destabilize Denmark further? Fortinbras seems like a better king ­ at least he is
interested in government. But he isn't the rightful ruler, which is part of why Hamlet was
upset with his uncle in the first place. Or was he? Is he more upset about the murder or the
usurpation? Does he want to rule or just to get revenge? Is his quest for vengeance the act
of a justice­seeking prince or are revenge and rulership at cross­purposes from each other?
"
There are a few good things to notice about this freewrite. First, the paragraph has many
more questions than observations or answers. This is perfectly fine. Freewriting is not a place
to work out answers to questions, but rather to figure out exactly what question you want to
ask.
The other thing to notice is the general trajectory of the paragraph. The different questions in
that paragraph are connected to each other, albeit very loosely. Again, this is fine.
Freewriting does not need to be rigidly organized as long as it stays relatively close to its
general topic. Often, freewrites will end up having one line of thought carry through them
even without you trying to connect everything. There is a significant difference between the
starting point of "Is Hamlet's revenge successful?" and the final questions of "Does Hamlet
want to get revenge or become a ruler?" and "Can you seek revenge and be a ruler?" All three
are different approaches to the same broader question, though. In fact, those second
questions can be refined into more specific answers to the first one.
A topic from the first question might be "Hamlet does not successfully achieve his goal of
vengeance." A topic from the last questions might be "Hamlet fills his stated goal of killing
Claudius, but since he leaves Denmark without a king he ultimately fails at correcting the
wrong he wanted to correct." Both ideas are far more focused than what you started with.
Clustering or Concept Mapping
We have already discussed the importance of choosing a topic with the appropriate scope for
your paper. If you are having trouble breaking a big topic down into smaller ones, you might
want to try clustering.
Clustering is when you write down a very broad topic or idea and then make a concept map,
when you diagram smaller ideas or categories that go into the central topic.
Say you are writing a paper that teaches your classmates how to perform a task. You have
one page to provide detailed instructions about an activity. If you have chosen "gardening" as
that activity, you will not be able to give an adequate description in the space provided. You
have to choose a smaller task associated with gardening. The question is, which one?
All the things you linked to "gardening" are smaller tasks you could describe. You can even
break them down into further levels of detail. For example, the subcategory of "researching
and purchasing plants and seeds" can be broken down into separate bubbles for research and
purchasing. The purchasing bubble could be broken down into a) where to purchase
plants,b) when to purchase plants, c) how much to pay for different plants…and so on until
you reach the right level of specificity. In this way, you can break your general topic down
from "explaining gardening" to something like "explaining how to purchase a sunflower
plant."
The goal of clustering, much like freewriting, is to come up with lots of different possibilities.
Then you can choose which ones you think are best suited for your assignment.