6e Ask questions.

Another basic strategy for exploring a topic and generating ideas is simply to ask and answer questions. Here are two widely used sets of questions to get you started.

Questions to describe a topic

Originally developed by Aristotle, the following questions can help you explore a topic by carefully and systematically describing it:

  1. What is it? What are its characteristics, dimensions, features, and parts? What does it look like? What do other senses—taste, smell, touch, sound—tell you about it?
  2. What caused it? What changes occurred to create your topic? How is it changing? How will it change?
  3. What is it like or unlike? What features make your topic different from others? What comparisons can you make about your topic?
  4. What larger system is your topic a part of? How does your topic fit into this system?
  5. What do people say about it? What reactions does your topic arouse? What about the topic causes those reactions?

Questions to explain a topic

The well-known questions who, what, when, where, why, and how, widely used by news reporters, are especially helpful for explaining a topic.

  1. Who is doing it?
  2. What is at issue?
  3. When does it take place?
  4. Where is it happening?
  5. Why does it occur?
  6. How is it done?