L2 | Selecting and Organizing Information

Brainstorming

Originally used by Alex Osborn in 1953 as a strategy for his advertising agents to pitch in highly innovative marketing plans.

Problem and suggestions or solutions

Parts in brainstorming

Cubing, freewriting, listing, mapping, researching

Strategies for brainstorming

Storming the brain

Where did the word brainstorming come from?

Graphic organizers

Visual representation of a structurally arranged set of discourse elements.

Cubing

Examining the viewpoints

Freewriting

Writing unlimited, uninhibited ideas about the topic.

Listing

Listing things associated with the topic.

Mapping

Also called webbing or clustering where you write down all ideas and map their connections to each other.

Researching

Discovering facts by investigation.

Table

Most widely utilized GO to sort out pools of data.

Venn diagram

Displays comparison and contrasts of two or more sets of data.

Fishbone diagram

A graphical tool for displaying a list of causes associated with a specific effect.

Cycle

Describes how a series of events interact as a set of results repeatedly.

Concept map

Depicts suggested relationships between concepts to organize and structure knowledge and depict hierarchy, classification, and branching.

Flow chart

Shows chronology of events or sequences of actions in a narrative or stages in a process.

Plot diagram

Used to map events in the story and analyze major parts of the plot.

Semantic or spider map

Used to investigate and enumerate various aspects of a central idea which is rightly placed at the center of the map while the details are placed on its spindly legs.

Timeline

Used to show the chronological order of events through a long bar labeled with dates.

Linear timeline

Shows just one set of events

Comparative timeline

Shows two sets of events within the same period.

Outline

Group of information structured in an organized list.

Alphanumeric and decimal format

Formatting styles of outline

Alphanumeric format

The default configuration of an outline generally used in descriptive or historical texts.

Decimal format

Displays hierarchy of one idea to its parent or subordinate dominantly used in scientific texts.

Topic and sentence outline

Types of outline

Topic outline

Used to sift through huge pool of information by using only keywords or key phrases in filling the outline.

Sentence outline

Used when the topic is complicated and detailed that mere keywords and phrases will not do.