This week I have a meeting middle about how to brainstorm.

A quick and dirty tip about whether you call in sick or call out sick.

And another quick and dirty tip about a grammatical get out of jail free card called synesus.

Let's get started and even though this first segment is about brainstorming for writing

an essay, you can apply these techniques to lots of other types of writing too.

I used some of them to get started on my books.

Sometimes the hardest thing about writing an essay is getting that first sentence down on paper.

At times the first sentence can even become a roadblock to completing the remainder of the project.

Luckily there are brainstorming techniques you can use to fire up your creative thinking

and get your essay off to a fast start.

The three we'll talk about today are to write a dialogue,

to remember the five W's and one H technique, and experiment with mind mapping.

When writing a dialogue pretend you're writing a one act play in which two people are arguing

about your topic. The first person in the dialogue puts forth a point that you're planning to

include in your essay. Imagine what the second person will argue in response.

Continue by having person A rebut with relevant facts.

Sketching out this conversation will help you strengthen your arguments and identify areas where

there may be gaps in your knowledge of the topic. Here's a look at how you could start an

imaginary dialogue about the topic of term limits for politicians.

Person A. The longer members of Congress stand office, the more out of touch they are with

their constituents at home. Term limits are the best solution to this problem.

Person B. But being a member of Congress comes with a huge learning curve. People who can serve for

...