An invention and discovery strategy in which the writer collaborates with others to explore topics, develop ideas, and/or propose solutions to a problem. The purpose of a brainstorming session is to work as a group to define a problem and find a plan of action to solve it. See Getting Started with Brainstorming.
Observations:
The concept of brainstorming was introduced by Alex Osborn in his book Applied Imagination: Principles and Practices of Creative Thinking (1953). Osborn offered a theory of the steps involved in the creative process, describing it as "a stop-and-go, catch-as-catch-can operation--one which can never be exact enough to rate as scientific." The process, he said, usually includes some or all of these phases:
- Orientation: Pointing up the problem.
- Preparation: Gathering pertinent data.
- Analysis: Breaking down the relevant material.
- Hypothesis: Piling up alternatives by way of ideas.
- Incubation: Letting up, to invite illumination.
- Synthesis: Putting the pieces together.
- Verification: Judging the resultant ideas.
Osborne established these four basic rules for brainstorming:
- Criticism is ruled out. Adverse judgment of ideas much be withheld until later.
- "Free-wheeling" is encouraged. The wilder the idea, the better.
- Quantity is the goal. The greater the number of ideas, the more likely it is that useful ideas will result.
- Combination and improvement are sought. "In addition to contributing ideas of their own, participants should suggest how ideas of others can be turned into better ideas; or how two or more ideas can be joined into still another idea" (Osborn, 1953).
