Page 91 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

1. transportation
2. newspapers

3. competition

4. littering

Clustering

Clustering is a technique designed to boost your creativity by

stimulating both hemispheres, or halves, of your brain. Some

scientists believe that the left brain performs logical tasks that move in
1-2-3 order. When you count to ten, write a sentence, or make an

outline, you are using your left hemisphere. Your right hemisphere

specializes in tasks involving imagery or intuition. When you look at a

painting or sculpture, your right brain goes to work. Since clustering

involves both listing (a left-brain task) and drawing (a right-brain task),
it allows you to tap both your logical side and your creative side.

To cluster, begin with a circled word—your topic. From there, “map

out” associations. Some people branch out ideas from the central

word like quills on a porcupine. Others group ideas when they cluster,
with smaller clusters branching out from larger ones. This type of

cluster resembles the diagram of a molecule in a chemistry textbook.

What your diagram looks like does not matter. In clustering, what

matters is that you get your thoughts on paper using both images and

words.