Freewriting, a term coined by writing teacher Peter Elbow in the 1970s, is similar to brainstorming but is done in sentence and paragraph form and thus increases the flow of ideas and reduces the chance that you’ll accidentally censor a good idea:

• As in brainstorming, write down every idea you can think of about your topic;
• UNLIKE with brainstorming, do not make a list but rather write in “sentence” and “paragraph” form;
• Still, do NOT worry about grammar or even complete sentences;
• Do NOT judge or skip any idea or word that comes to your mind, no matter if it is completely off your topic; judge later!
• Keep your hand and pen moving! If you can’t think of anything, just keep repeating your subject (e.g., “dark matter, dark matter”) or “I’m waiting for ideas to come, I’m waiting for ideas to come,” over and over until they do come, which they will!
• Don’t worry about sounding silly—no one else is going to see this;
• Keep going for 15 or 20 minutes or until you feel you have enough to build your paper or research on.

Here is an example for a problem-solution paper on finding the astrophysical phenomenon of “dark matter”:

Dark matter. How find it? First define. Missing mass. 85% of mass of universe! Why “missing”? Not really missing, just can’t see it. Non-luminous. (Luminous only 4-5% of universe!) Also not same as conventional matter. Non-baryonic. Which means? For non-expert!! Explain later. Dark matter, dark matter. How to explain it? This is stupid; I hate writing. Eric thinks he so smart. Sigh. I’m waiting for ideas to come and they will. I’m waiting for ideas…Wait, how do we even know dark matter is there? Yes! Holds universe together via gravity. Yes! Explain how we know it’s there!

Only by deduction, indirect observation. (Have to be convincing.) Fritz Zwicky, Coma Supercluster of Galaxies, 1926 (’31? check). Centripetal force (people always say “centrifugal”; translation: velocity of going around in orbit) vs. gravity of all mass of galaxies pulling on each other. Not enough mass in visible galaxies to hold cluster together. Same found in ‘80s for inside Milky Way. Still too vague? Use solar system as example. Mass of sun pulling on planets via gravity to keep system in orbit; otherwise planets would fly off. Constant tension. Need earthy metaphor. Like a dad swinging daughter around in a circle—gravity = his hands holding hers. Otherwise she flies away.  But imagine hands and arms invisible, so we see her spinning around him, so know there’s some force holding her in, but have to figure out what it is. So it’s stuff we know is there from what we can see of the universe, and has been confirmed by many observations: WMAP, background radiation, etc.

      Then came dark energy. Ay yay yay…

Either try freewriting now with pen and paper or follow these instructions [link] to do it on GoogleDocs, which will automatically save your work, allow you to have it up on your screen as you do Step 2, and facilitate sharing it with your instructor.