Grade by Grade
Writing · Writing: Essays and Literary Analysis

Generating and Focusing Ideas: From Questions to a Working Thesis

1.2About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can use several strategies (questioning, freewriting and looping, mapping, talking it out, double-entry notes) to generate and expand ideas for an essay.
  • I can ask questions at three levels and use the deeper ones to find a thesis.
  • I can narrow a broad topic to a focused question and a working thesis.
  • I can keep a record of where my ideas and information came from so I can credit them later.

Words to know

freewriting
Writing nonstop for a set time without stopping to correct, so ideas come out before your inner critic can block them.
looping
Freewriting, then choosing the best sentence and freewriting again starting from it, to go deeper each round.
double-entry notes
A two-column page: the left column records quotations or facts, the right column records your questions and reactions.
working thesis
A first-draft thesis that guides your planning; you expect to sharpen it as you learn more.
tension
Two ideas that pull against each other in a text or issue; a thesis that explains a tension is usually more insightful.
idea bank
A running list of possible topics, questions, quotations and sources you keep for future writing.

The blank page problem

Most writers do not start with a brilliant thesis. They start with a topic, a vague feeling and a blank page. The thesis appears after they have generated far more ideas than they need and then focused on the best one.

Expectation 1.2 asks you to generate, expand, explore and focus ideas, using a variety of strategies and resources. Think of it as two motions: first open up (get lots of ideas, even messy ones), then narrow down (choose, combine and sharpen). Trying to do both at once is what makes the blank page feel impossible.

Remember from Grade 10

In Grade 10 you generated ideas with brainstorming and webs, narrowed a broad topic into a working thesis, and kept an idea bank. Grade 11 adds questioning at three levels, looping and double-entry notes, and asks for theses that explain a tension rather than state the obvious.

Opening up: five strategies that work

  1. Question storming. Write as many questions as you can in five minutes, without answering any. Questions pull you deeper than statements do.
  2. Freewriting and looping. Write nonstop for five to eight minutes. Then reread, underline the most interesting sentence, copy it to the top of a new page and freewrite again from there. Each loop goes deeper.
  3. Mapping. Put the topic in the centre of a page and branch out with causes, effects, examples, people affected, opposing views. Lines between branches often reveal your thesis.
  4. Talking it out. Explain your topic to a partner for two minutes while they take notes, then switch. The curriculum names pair brainstorming as a strategy for a reason: saying ideas aloud shows you which ones you actually understand.
  5. Double-entry notes. For literature, copy striking lines on the left and write your questions and reactions on the right. For an argument, record facts on the left and so what? thoughts on the right.

While you generate, record where every idea and fact came from: a page number, a speaker in a class presentation, a website and the date you saw it. If an idea ends up in your essay, you will need to credit it and avoid plagiarism. (Full research and citation skills are taught in the sibling unit Writing: Research, Forms and Conventions.)

Three levels of questions (about “In Flanders Fields”)1. ON THE PAGEWho is the speaker? What do they ask the living to do?Answer: easy to check. Good for understanding, too small for a thesis.2. BETWEEN THE LINESWhy does the poem place singing larks above the guns?Answer: needs interpretation and evidence. Thesis territory.3. BEYOND THE TEXTWhat does the poem suggest we owe people who died for a cause?Answer: links the text to life. Gives your thesis its “why.”
Level 1 questions check understanding. Level 2 and 3 questions need interpretation and connect the text to life, and that is where theses come from.

Focusing: from topic to working thesis

Once you have a pile of ideas, narrow down in steps: broad topic → subject → issue → question → working thesis. Each step makes the topic smaller and more arguable.

Three tests help you choose which idea to develop:

  • The interest test: would an intelligent reader learn something new? If your point is obvious (war is sad), keep digging.
  • The evidence test: can you support it with specific quotations or facts you actually have?
  • The size test: can you prove it in the length you have? A 1,000-word essay cannot cover the causes of the First World War.

Look for a tension

The richest theses often explain a tension: two things that seem to pull against each other. In In Flanders Fields, the poppies grow and the larks sing, yet the speakers are dead; the Dead grieve their lost lives, yet they demand that the fighting continue. A thesis that explains why both sides exist is more insightful than one that notices only one side. The word although is a useful tool: Although the Dead mourn the ordinary pleasures they lost, they...

Narrowing: from a broad topic to a working thesisBROAD TOPICsleepSUBJECTteenagers and sleepISSUEschool start times and teen sleepQUESTIONShould Ontario high schools start later?WORKING THESISStart at 9:00 or later, because...
Each step narrows the topic. The question is where you stop collecting and start arguing; the working thesis is your first answer to it, and you can still change it.
Worked example

Let's generate and focus ideas for an argument

Generate ideas and reach a working thesis for an argumentative essay on school start times.

  1. Question storm (5 minutes, sample): Why do teens feel tired in the morning? Is it phones or biology? Would a later start just mean later bedtimes? What would happen to buses, sports, part-time jobs? Who decides start times? Have any schools tried it?
  2. Sort by level: What time does my school start? is Level 1. Would a later start actually give teens more sleep, or just shift bedtimes? is Level 2. Should schools be designed around adult schedules or student needs? is Level 3.
  3. Freewrite and loop: the best sentence from the first freewrite was The real question isn't whether teens are tired, it's whether the schedule is part of the cause. Looping from it produced the idea of comparing benefits (sleep, attention) against costs (busing, jobs, sports).
  4. Record sources as you go: for example, the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth (2016) recommend 8 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night for ages 14 to 17. Write down the source title and where you found it.
  5. Narrow: sleep → teens and sleep → school start times and teen sleep → Should Ontario high schools start later?
  6. Working thesis with a tension: Although a later start would complicate busing and after-school schedules, Ontario high schools should start no earlier than 9:00 a.m., because the schedule should fit how much sleep teenagers need.

A focused question (Should Ontario high schools start later?) and a working thesis that takes a side, gives a reason and acknowledges a cost. The writer will test it with research and may change it.

Keep the thesis working

A working thesis is a tool, not a promise. If your evidence keeps pointing somewhere else, change the thesis, not the evidence. Changing your mind because of evidence is exactly what good thinkers do.

Hands-on activity

Kitchen-timer looping

You need: a timer (a phone or the oven timer), paper and a pen, and a topic: either a poem, story or film you know well, or an issue in your community (transit, a new park, phones in school).

  1. Set the timer for 6 minutes. Write nonstop about the topic. If you get stuck, write I'm stuck because... and keep going.
  2. Underline the one sentence that surprises you most.
  3. Copy it to a fresh page. Set the timer for 5 minutes and write from that sentence.
  4. Repeat once more for 4 minutes.
  5. Write three Level 2 or 3 questions that came out of your loops.
  6. Write a working thesis that uses although to show a tension.

What to look for: the third loop should be more specific than the first; the thesis should be arguable and something you could prove in about 1,000 words.

Just for fun

Writer's block has a famous cure: write badly on purpose. Nobody can be blocked from writing a terrible sentence, and once the pen is moving, a decent sentence often sneaks out behind it. The poem is, like, about a field, which has poppies, which are flowers has started more than one excellent essay.

Your turn

1

Name the two motions of generating and focusing ideas.

2

Classify each question as Level 1, 2 or 3: (a) How many stanzas does the poem have? (b) Why does the poem end with a threat that the Dead will not sleep? (c) Do the living owe anything to those who died before them?

3

What is looping, and why does it help?

4

Put in order from broadest to narrowest: (a) phones in Ontario classrooms (b) technology (c) whether phone restrictions in Ontario classrooms improve focus (d) phones in schools.

5

Why should you record sources while generating ideas, not later?

6

Rewrite as a thesis with a tension, using although: The poem is about death.

More practice: warm-up

1

What is freewriting?

2

What goes in the two columns of double-entry notes?

3

Which question level is usually too small to be a thesis?

4

Name the three tests for choosing an idea to develop.

5

What is a working thesis?

More practice: on your own

1

A student's working thesis is The First World War caused many deaths. Which of the three tests does it fail, and why?

2

Write two Level 3 questions about any novel, film or show you know well.

3

Your evidence keeps contradicting your working thesis. What should you do, and why?

4

Create a double-entry note for the line We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.

5

Turn the topic public transit into a focused question and a working thesis with a tension.

Challenge

1

Explain why a thesis that explains a tension is usually stronger than one that states a single idea. Use an example from any text.

2

Do a 3-step narrowing (topic → issue → question) for Indigenous languages in Canada, and write a working thesis that a reader could reasonably debate. Keep it respectful and accurate.

3

A classmate says brainstorming is a waste of time because they already know what they think. Write a short, persuasive reply (3 to 4 sentences).

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which strategy means freewriting, picking the best sentence, then freewriting again from it?

2.

Which question is Level 2 (between the lines)?

3.

Which is the narrowest (most focused)?

4.

Why record sources while generating ideas?

5.

Which working thesis shows a tension?

6.

If your evidence keeps contradicting your working thesis, you should:

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Expectation 1.2 asks students to generate, expand, explore and focus ideas before writing. Grade 11 essays are marked heavily on the insight of the thesis, and insight comes from this stage.

How to help: be a talking partner. Ask your teen to explain their essay topic to you for two minutes, then ask Why? and So what? at least twice. Write down the most interesting thing they say and hand it back to them: that is often their thesis. Offer a timer for freewriting sessions.

Common difficulties: starting to write the final essay with no generating at all; choosing the first, most obvious idea; topics far too broad for the length; refusing to change a working thesis when the evidence disagrees; forgetting to record where ideas came from. The Level 3 example about Indigenous languages models centring community choice; if your teen writes on Indigenous topics, encourage them to use sources from the communities themselves.