How to Brainstorm Fresh Research Paper Topics in the Most Efficient Manner

Brainstorming is the most efficient method you can use to come up with some interesting ideas for a research paper topic. However, in order to get some good results, you need to know how to brainstorm “the right way.” The following tips will help you with this:

• Get some friends to help you.

An efficient brainstorming session is a group session. Get together with some of your classmates or friends and start throwing ideas around. Please be careful not to offend anyone during this time, as brainstorming sessions can devolve into ego contests very quickly.

Brainstorming is fun, and that’s exactly how you should treat this activity. A light and easy atmosphere will help you relax and come up with some truly good ideas.

• Know what you need.

In order to be more efficient, a brainstorming session needs to have a direction and some limits. You need to decide on those before you start sharing prompts. Your subject and level of knowledge will provide certain limitations by default, but if you manage to narrow down the direction you want to focus on, you will be able to achieve much better results.

• Manage your ideas.

Sharing the ideas that pop into your head is nice, but not effective if they aren’t documented and categorized. You will need quite a bit of paper and a few highlighters to write down every useful prompt and prioritize the ideas your group members come up with.

• Set your mind free.

If you want to practice some creative thinking, you need to leave all the old ideas and notions outside of the “brainstorming room.” Clear your mind completely and try to look at the issue from a new angle. Listening to the suggestions of other people will help you see the topic from different perspectives and can inspire you.

• Do not criticize.

Everyone is a critic deep inside, but highlighting the weaker points of the others’ ideas during a brainstorming session will only slow you down. This will also ruin the mood and can lead to a scandal.

If you don’t like something about someone else’s idea, make a note. Focus on the parts that work for you.

• Assign someone to be a moderator.

If there are many people in the group, or if the members are not used to working as a team, a moderator will be a very helpful addition.

This person will stop any conflicts and regulate the speaking time. This job is rather difficult, so it’s best when a moderator is someone who doesn’t need to work on the same assignment.