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The Common Topics
and Other Aids to Invention

"A writer keeps surprising himself ... he doesn't know what he is saying until he sees it on the page."

— Thomas Williams

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The epigram above is telling quite a story, really. It might seem as if Williams is simply joking. After all, the common perception of writing (and the process of writing) is that we can only begin to write after we have done all the background research and planning. For many of us, we seem to think that writing is the last act in the process of composition. So it is humorous to imagine a writer not knowing what s/he is going to say before s/he begins.

However, Williams is telling us something quite different in that epigram. If we take him literally, and I think we should, he is telling us the process of writing is itself a process of discovering what we mean to say. Writing is a way of discovering ideas. Writing is a way of learning, a way of knowing. So in a real way, we do learn what it is we have to say in the course of composing the page. This is idea of writing that composition theorists and teachers have in mind when they talk of writing as a process. This process begins with the choosing a topic (unless it has already been given to you) followed by brainstorming and other methods of "inventing" content for your essay. The invention of ideas is literally the term that Aristotle used to describe those techniques that writers can employ to build content and support for a thesis.

By codifying different techniques for the invention of ideas, Aristotle is acknowledging that it is hard, really difficult, to think of new ideas to add to any subject. Below are several of the techniques that rhetoricians and writers have employed for at least two millenia.

Look at the big picture:

1. Who is your reader?
2. What is your purpose?
3. Who are you, the writer? (What image or persona do you want to project? What can you add to the subject simply because you are you — a unique individual with a unique background and therefore a unique perspective. This fact is very valuable, really, and your readers will like to know how you perceive the subject of your discourse.)

If you find something (an idea or fact) in the problem that evokes strong feelings in you, positively or negatively, you are in luck. Some of the finest writing grows from strong feelings that the writer had in response to a problem. Consider Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal or Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Each was composed in response to a problem; each was composed to address a social injustice; each draws its power from the passion the writers felt. Writing to the problem — responding with your passion — can create some of the best writing you will ever do.

Think about your essay's goals:

1. How can you achieve your purpose?
2. Can you make a plan?

Exploring the goals can help you organize your material.

Explore your topic:

1. Brainstorm
   • keep writing
   • don't censor or evaluate
   • keep returning to the problem
2. Thnink about or talk to your readers
   • What questions would they ask?
   • What different kinds of readers might you have?
3. Ask yourself questions

Consider also the follow five additional strategies — strategies that go back in some cases to Aristotle's Rhetoric.

Aristotle's "Common Topics"

Definition

• How does the dictionary define ____?
• What do I mean by ____?
• What group of things does ____ belong to?
• How is ____ different from other things?
• What parts can ____ be divided into?
• Does ____ mean something now that it didn't years ago? If so, what?
• What other words mean about the same as ____?
• What are some concrete examples of ____?
• When is the meaning of ____ misunderstood?

Comparison/Contrast

• What is ____ similar to? In what ways?
• What is ____ different from? In what ways?
• ____ is superior (inferior) to what? How?
• ____ is most unlike (like) what? How?

Relationship

• What causes ____?
• What are the effects of ____?
• What is the purpose of ____?
• Why does ____ happen?
• What is the consequence of ____?
• What comes before (after) ____?

Testimony

• What have I heard people say about ____?
• What are some facts of statistics about ____?
• Can I quote any proverbs, poems, or sayings about ____?
• Are there any laws about ____?

Circumstance

• Is ____ possible or impossible?
• What qualities, conditions, or circumstances make ____ possible or impossible?
• When did ____ happen previously?
• Who can do ____?
• If ____ starts, what makes it end?
• What would it take for ____ to happen now?
• What would prevent ___ from happening?

The Journalist's Questions

Journalists are trained to ask six questions to ensure that they have covered a story from every angle. We can use the same techniques to explore our subject and develop related ideas.

1. Who?
2. What?
3. Where?
4. When?
5. Why?
6. How?

The cynical among us would add a seventh question:

7. So What?

Pike's Tagmemic Strategy

Kenneth Pike, a linguist, developed a model of language systems that describe language from multiple perspectives. His central insight was that each feature of language can be described by its relationship with other features of the language: through contrast, variation, and distribution. In the 1960s, many rhetoricians adapted his system to the study of writing, using Pike's three-pronged approach to language as a means of thinking about the invention of ideas.

Contrastive features

• How is ____ different from things similar to it?
• How has ____ been different for me?

Variation

• How much can ____ change and still be itself?
• How is ____ changing?
• How much does ____ change from day to day?
• What are the different varieties of ____?

Distribution

• Where and when does ____ take place?
• What is the larger thing of which ___ is a part?
• What is the function of ____ in this larger thing?

Use analogies

Another time honored invention strategy is to use comparison — analogy — as a way of inventing ideas in an essay. Using an analogy and metaphor — even strange and weird analogies and metaphors — can open our minds to see our subject in new and interesting ways. In fact, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (coauthors of Metaphors We Live By) argue that analogy and metaphor are the very essence of human thought. We think metaphorically: we understand one idea by comparison to other ideas. For example, "writing an essay like changing a tire." I suppose there are some similarities: first, we need to be willing to do a bit of dirty work. Next, we have to get our tools out. Third, we have to jack the whole enterprise up carefully. Etc. Sometimes the strangest metaphors lead to the most interesting ideas.

Cubing
(considering a subject from six points of view)

This last strategy seems to me to blend several of the earlier strategies together in an useful way:

1. Describe it (colors, shapes, sizes, etc).
2. Compare it. (What is it similar to?)
3. Associate it. (What does it make you think of?)
4. Analyze it. (Tell how it's made)
5. Apply it. (What can you do with it? How can it be used?)
6. Argue for or against it.

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Adapted from

• Linda Flower's Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing,
• Gregory and Elizabeth Cowan's Writing, and
• Gordon Rohman and Albert Wlecke's Prewriting.

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