Why Brainstorming is Important
Given the importance of the quality of ideas in graded essays, it makes a lot of sense to spend a bit of time brainstorming before you start writing a paper. Brainstorming is the process whereby writers come up with ideas to write about.
For some of us, when we're assigned an essay, the thought of brainstorming and prewriting might just seem like more work. We might ask ourselves: why should we give ourselves any additional tasks to do when we already have a huge paper staring us in the face?
No matter how good a writer you are, though, the most important element of an essay that you write - whether it's a term paper for class or a timed essay exam - is the content of your paper. In other words, the information and ideas presented in an essay. You may have a real way with words, and you may have all of your grammar rules down cold, but if you don't present good, well-organized ideas in your paper, you'll lose out on a lot of points.