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select one or two of the best ideas and then free-write again on those specific topics. This process is
called looping. Several rounds of looping can help writers narrow down their thinking to a usable thesis.

Clustering

Clustering explores the relationship between ideas by creating a map of concepts and their relationships
to one another. Physically rendering the relationships between topics and ideas helps clarify thinking as
well as reveal new directions for inquiry.

For instance, the beginning of a cluster map for a paper on Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from the
Birmingham Jail” might look something like this:

If you already know what your main topic or thesis is, you can put it in the circle that’s at the center of your
cluster map and work outwards. If you don’t yet know your thesis, you can use the cluster map to get a
sense of which topics are most important (Which circles have the most lines drawn to them?)

Each group of connected circles represents a larger topic that can become a paragraph in an essay or
paper. Circles in a cluster map also can include questions that arise during the course of creating the
map.

Remember that:

• Prewriting is the generation of ideas preliminary to formal writing.

• Brainstorming is the process of generating ideas and information based on word associations.

• Free-writing is an unstructured, associative form of writing that closely mirrors the process of
brainstorming.

• Looping is the process of performing several rounds of free-writing on increasingly narrow topics.

• Clustering explores the relationship between ideas by creating a physical “map” of concepts and their
relationships to one another.