After brainstorming to generate a list of ideas and thoughts, the next step in pre-writing os “thinking on paper.” In most instances, the list generated by brainstorming will contain several thoughts or ideas that are similar in one way or another. When we think on paper, we are trying to begin developing these thoughts and ideas by capturing a complete expression of them. For example, the list used as an example in the brainstorming lesson was:
- Fresh fish on the beach
- White sand on the beach
- Clear ocean water
- Street tacos
- Street corn
- Mayan ruins
- Charro beans
Of the seven items on the list, four are about food. This provides us the topic of our writing project: the food in Mexico. We can now begin to develop these thoughts and ideas.
In a certain sense, thinking on paper is a form of brainstorming. But where the purpose of brainstorming is to generate ideas, the purpose of thinking on paper is to begin focusing on and developing a few of those ideas. When we think on paper, we are allowing ideas to flow freely (like brainstorming) but our focus is on a particular subject or topic. We begin narrowing our focus. When we think on paper, we should write complete sentences about the topic we have chosen. Again, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with the quality of the writing at this point.
For example, let us say that after brainstorming you decide to focus on the food you enjoyed in Mexico. While thinking on paper, you might write something like this:
The food in Mexico was unlike anything I have eaten in Houston. One day we had fish that had just been caught. Another day we had street corn. It was super sweet and covered with spices and sauce. The street tacos had pork and jicama in them. The flavor was much better than Taco Bell. I tried all kinds of new foods, and it was exciting.
The above paragraph can serve as a solid starting point for your essay. You have identified key points to make. Your essay would then just be a matter of developing these points further by adding examples and explanations.
If you are completing an assignment in class, you probably won’t have enough time to think on paper. But when you do have the time, thinking on paper is a useful pre-writing tool. It helps us identify what we want to say about the key ideas and thoughts that we generated during brainstorming.
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