Brainstorming Session with a Tutor

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When it comes to writing an essay, the first sentence is the most challenging. When you can’t get your words down, this condition is known as “blank page anxiety”. The blank page causes so much stress and fear because it gives you absolutely nothing to start with and abruptly activates the thinking process in your brain.

It is the main reason why it is vital to brainstorm during a tutoring session. Requesting a session with a skilled tutor or an essay writer can help you overcome the fear of a blank page, especially when you prepare ahead of time and plan for the brainstorming.

What is Brainstorming?

Brainstorming is often referred to as a creative approach to problem-solving. A brainstorming session encourages people to come up with ideas and concepts that can help focus on and answer particular questions. It is a generally known fact that brainstorming helps produce new ideas and overcome writing anxiety for a project. There are different brainstorming techniques to help you start the creative thinking process. Let’s take a closer look.

How to Brainstorm?

Free Write

According to the Technical University of Dresden Writing Centre, freewriting is one of the basic techniques for “thinking on paper”, which urges the ideas to be documented in a quick and uncensored manner. The method suggests that a writer is encouraged to write freely, without interruption. He/she does not take the time to revise or change the ideas on the page.

In a freewriting activity, the ideas are supposed to be unstructured and chaotic even. This technique ensures that you don’t unconsciously censor a good idea. The handout mentioned above suggests setting a timer for 5 to 10 minutes and writing spontaneously whatever comes to mind.

The tutor can set the time limit and guide you through the process. Don’t correct your grammar, don’t revise what you’ve written, don’t stop writing. When the timer goes off, read your text and single out interesting ideas. Here the tutor can also help you choose the best ideas by giving their objective insight. As a result, you’ll get some new ideas that you can refine later and use in your project.

Make a list

This method is quite similar to the previous one, and many people find it extremely helpful. As the name suggests, list all of your ideas as they come to your mind. It doesn’t matter if you think this or that idea good enough or not. During this activity, the tutor writes down your ideas as you concentrate on whatever new ideas come to you. After the listing is done, the professional tutor will help you turn the list of rough ideas into a good backbone for your paper.

Ask Questions Like a Journalist

When it comes to writing projects, journalists typically ask six questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how? These questions can be used to dive deep into the topic you’re writing about your assignment. The tutor can ask you, for example, “What language use is the most appropriate to target your audience?” “How can you support your ideas with evidence?” or “Why did your professor want you to study this particular topic?” etc. You don’t have to answer all the questions during the brainstorming session with your tutor, but it’s best to keep them in mind when working on your project.

Think out Loud

In his brilliant book on brainstorming, Five Star Mind, author Tom Wujec mentions some of the benefits of thinking aloud: “Conversations give us a chance to refine ideas of which we previously had only a vague concept… We clarify ideas by putting them into words.” The brainstorming process becomes more natural and conversational when you speak your thoughts aloud.

Thinking  out loud can help you feel more at ease when it comes to presenting your ideas before they become completely formed. Verbalizing your ideas to a tutor can help you recognize good ones and work through any issues. When we write our ideas down, we can sometimes be too self-critical, and talking out loud about anything that comes to mind is much easier and pressure-free. And while you are doing it, the tutor can assist you by writing every good idea down.

Summarize

Working with a tutor during a brainstorming process allows you to define some of the most important points in your arguments or the arguments of the papers you’re summarizing. Summarizing your perspective to someone unfamiliar with the subject is beneficial because it helps you figure out the argument you want to make and shows whether you have a complex understanding of it to present it to someone else.

Benefits of Having a Brainstorming Mentor

There are various advantages to brainstorming with a tutor. Writing skills, creative thinking, dedication to the topic, and enthusiasm can be easily improved through brainstorming. Students’ creative abilities are stimulated when they have a mentor who guides them through the brainstorming session. Because writers are solicited for their input and thoughts during brainstorming, they are more confident in their writing skills and credibility.

If it takes hours just to start working on your assignment and nothing comes to mind, requesting a brainstorming session with a tutor might be the solution. A tutor will help you kick-start the creative thinking process and single out good ideas for your project. You will be able to develop your creative writing skills with the help of a professional.

Brainstorming with a mentor even helps students link seemingly unrelated ideas. The mentor will guide the student through the writing process to help them develop a clear vision of what they should write and how they should write it. Moreover, brainstorming with a tutor enables students to see how their thoughts might be applied outside of a particular course.