Using free writing to come up with with ideas.

The best thing about free writing is that you can brainstorm and come up with new ideas without having any prior knowledge to the subject, and without any references in front of you. (But if you do, that’s great too.) Say you’re asked to write a “compare and contrast” essay. Here’s what a free writing session might look like:

(I give myself 10 minutes on some kind of timer and I don’t stop no matter what until the time is up … GO!)


What should I write about. I have to compare and contrast. Don’t even know what that means. Yes I do. It’s comparing two things like apples and oranges. How are they alike and different and whatever  and  whatever …uhuhuhuhuh. So I was reading a magazine about cooking light and a lot of the recipes actually looked good. I was surprised how many ways they could cook vegetables. There were so may advertisements. Ads for healthy food looks different than junk food ads I see in other magazines. Why are they different? Hey, ads for healthy foods are different than junk food.

Adertisements about healthy food…hmmm…they are green. Sometimes they have old people on them. They are in magazines that appeal to health nuts and old people. Sometimes they try to look like ice cream and other snack food…like that one ranch dressing. Really, what kid is excited about vegetables? It is not ice cream. I like vegetables though. I don’t have to be told to eat them. They’re good. But they’re not ice cream. Can’t fool me.

Junk food: bright colors, crazy backgrounds and lightning bolts like those one chips that they turned into tacos. People are going insane for these chip tacos. Neon lights. Kids. Regular people. Like easy to prepare meals. Portrayed as a normal part of our lives. Time saver. Money saver. Oh yeah, natural food doesn’t want to mention money. They are so expensive. Attention is toward health not money. Why does it have to be that way? Shouldn’t be a choice. 


Random thoughts, when not allowed to stop, can produce some good ideas:

  1. I came up with a possible topic to compare and contrast: advertisements for healthy foods versus junk food.

  2. I have identified examples of healthy food ads and junk food ads (although I’ll have to look up more details to be exact, if I decide to use this topic. If not, I will do another free write.)

  3. What am I going to argue about these advertisements? What’s my thesis statement? I have a few “stances” hidden in there. I say: “Health food ads appeal to people already concerned with health issues, and when they appeal to kids they pretend to be like junk food”, “Junk food ads promote thriftiness, but health food ads avoid talking about money” and “junk food ads use bright colors, where the colors in healthy food ads are more subdued”. What does all of this mean?  These might be points that back up a broader thesis statement. (They’d probably be too narrow on their own.)


Maybe my thesis could be something like: “While health food advertisements and junk food advertisements both use marketing tactics to appeal to certain audiences (comparing), health food ads have to try harder to win people over (contrasting).”  This statement could use some work, but you see the point. From my observations about colors used in ads, to the fact that health food costs more, each of those statements from my free writing can be built upon to support this thesis statement.