Have you ever gone to the website “www.stumbleupon.com”?
If you have not, you probably should. On the home page of this website, you are able to click certain subjects that interest you and then click ‘start stumbling’ which will take you to a random webpage that has to do, somewhat, with one of your chosen topics. Or, if you would rather, you can click ‘discover’, which will take you directly to a list of top rated, random, websites. On a more personal level, you are also able to go a member's page and find more random pages which they have found an interest in. Basically, it is easy to start in on place, perhaps searching for one thing, and find yourself in a very unidentifiable place only minutes later.
When conducting research for a piece of writing, Donald M. Murray claims this may be the best way. In chapter 13 of “Write to Learn”, he explains that, yes, you must have a plan in place, but only so that you know where to return after you have strayed. He emphasizes the fact that if you do not stray, “you will only write what you-and your readers-already know” (Murray, 2005, p. 131). If you begin with a question, you must already know at least a small amount about the topic. Therefore, if you do not let yourself explore, you will never find anything other then information about the topic you already know something about.
I personally find that my best results occur when I let myself explore the topic through the research. The more curious you allow yourself to be, the more information you will find. You may even discover facts that completely surprise you; this can often be a great reward to time spent exploring your research. So do not be afraid! Just stumble.
Andrea,
ReplyDeleteThat website sounds perfect for kick-starting a paper. I remember I used to go on a website that had writing prompts and you just click the button and it gives you a random topic and you are meant to freewrite about it for about ten minutes. I used to faithfully do it everyday. Although I don't have time to use writing prompts as often anymore, they are still very good practise.
It is neat the tools us writers can find on the internet if we know where to search for them.
~Lauren Bersaglio
So true. When thinking about the most random the best ideas tend to come to your mind. If I think of what I talk about with my close friends and the random correlations we give to different subjects. The reasons for these correlations are most of the time so bizarre and strange that they make for great stories.
ReplyDeletePS - I just wasted 20mins on that site