What Should I Write About? | The Educational Technology Center

What Should I Write About?

Thinking of an idea

Whether you are writing about a research project, a semester abroad, a co-op position, or a remarkable Northeastern experience, one phrase to help you get started is "What a Difference a Day Makes." Isolate one day of your research project, semester abroad, co-op job or other Northeastern experience that changed something about you - the way you think about a certain concept, feel about another person, live your life, or approach a situation.

You might write about a turning point in your life -- perhaps a time when you were forced suddenly to grow up, a time when you faced a difficult challenge, or a time when you reassessed your values. You might describe an experience in which you did something new: perhaps you designed a stage set for a play, visited a foreign country, or moved to a new city for a co-op position. Or you might recount an adventure that tested you in some way: trying to find your way out of a dangerous situation, or having to make a difficult moral decision. Or you may decide to describe a seemingly small situation that changed the way you look at something.

If you are drafting a script about a research project, you may have had an "ah-ha" moment of insight that clarified months of work. Or, you may have met a researcher in your field that has inspired you to continue in your field or to reexamine assumptions you had about your field of study.

If you're uncertain of what to write about, try the following tactics to generate ideas.

  1. Try a pre-writing (or discovery) technique
    To come up with an idea for your story, you can use any of the following pre-writing (or discovery) techniques that you have most likely tried in your first-year writing courses. These exercises can cure writer's block and generate ideas that may be lurking in your subconscious.
    • Free-writing: The basis of pre-writing techniques, free-writing involves writing without pausing for a certain time period, usually 10-20 minutes. Look at your watch, take pen to paper and start writing. Even if you begin with, "I have no idea what to write," keep going without editing your words. Write whatever comes to mind, and relevant ideas should soon start to flood the page.
    • Brainstorming: The most frequently used discovery technique, brainstorming involves beginning with one word or phrase, then listing everything that pops into your head. Write every word and phrase that enters your mind - even those that seem tangential or only slightly relevant. Then look over your list, pull out the words and phrases that pique your interest. Put them at the top of a new page and brainstorm again.
    • Clustering: A non-linear, graphically-oriented method of generating ideas, clustering involves starting with a topic, circling it, and drawing lines to other related words and phrases.
  2. Read good writing and listen to powerful stories.
    Sometimes reading what others have written or listening to what others have recorded can help you think of your own topic. Also, reading and listening to personal narratives gives you a feel for the structure, tone, and style you'd like to capture.
    • Read:
      To read intriguing essays, look at your freshman composition texts. You may also want reading a few essays from one of these collections:
    • Listen:
      Because you'll be reading your story aloud, you need to appeal to a listening, rather than reading, audience. To gain an understanding of how a story should sound, listen to stories on National Public Radio, www.npr.org.
      • National Public Radio airs a wide variety of stories from personal narratives written and recorded by listeners to hard news stories produced by seasoned reporters.
      • For stories by listeners, go to NPR's Story Corps and This, I Believe to hear solid leads, clear thesis statements and compelling conclusions.