What is brainstorming?

Answer 1

Brainstorming is a creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution to a problem. The method was first popularized in 1953 by Alex Faickney Osborn, an advertising executive, in a book called Applied Imagination. Osborn proposed that groups could double their creative output by using the method of brainstorming. This has not proved to be correct, but businesses still use the techniques to give a feeling of team spirit and group cooperation.

Although brainstorming as a group technique has not been shown to be any more effective at coming up with solutions than any other business technique, the idea of brainstorming is a good one for individuals who are trying to come up with ideas. Brainstorming is especially helpful as a step in pre-writing. The idea is to come up with as many ideas as you can.

Here's how you brainstorm:

• write down everything that comes to mind, even if you think it sounds silly
• if one idea makes you think about something else, write that down too
• keep writing!
• write until you totally run out of ideas or until a certain amount of time has passed (you might set a time limit of five or ten minutes, for example)