Generating Ideas
What significant experience do you recall that might engage your readers?
Erin thought back over her experiences before entering college. She had studied hard to get into college, knowing how important her high school record was for both admissions and financial aid. Although lots of students shared the stress of worrying about grades or money or both, she didn’t think that she could narrow those issues to a notable experience. Then she thought about her last day at her job assisting an elderly man and the compelling recognition she had had just before she came to campus. She started mapping these recollections in the diagram below.
When Erin finished her diagram, she felt confident that she had remembered a significant event and that she could make a compelling point about it. To fill out her ideas, she also answered the six reporter’s questions.
How might you generate ideas about your recollections?
Who: Mr. Hertli; me
What: Increased appreciation of life
When: While reading an atlas the last time I assisted Mr. Hertli
Where: Mr. Hertli’s literature-crammed office/study
Why: Mr. Hertli’s blindness
How: Asked to read atlas → confusion → saw child in old, blind Mr. Hertli → appreciation of life
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What do you think is the importance of your experience?
Erin was confident that she had discovered something meaningful to write about. She wanted to share her reflection about life’s connections with readers. She thought that she could focus on it as a main idea or thesis to shape her essay. After working for Mr. Hertli for a long time, she could remember plenty of vivid details to bring her experience to life for readers and could see how her whole paper might fall into place.