A young man wanted to know how to write a letter of application for a course. The guidelines below describe the process of brainstorming. They work for a job application, request for some service or favour, or anything similar.
1. Make a list of points as they come to you, without judgment or self-censoring. They can be silly points, because they can lead to good ones.
2. Keep doing this, adding to the list for a few days.
3. Put the list away for a while, concentrating on other things.
4. Next, critically examine each point. Discard bad ones. Remove or combine repetitions. If you have a submission guideline that specifies word count, use that to guide the number of points you will keep.
5. Put the remaining points in logical order.
6. Expand each point into a paragraph.
7. Write a suitable conclusion.
8. Last thing, write an introduction.
9. Put it away for a few days, then pretend that someone else had written it, and you are judging it in a contest. Revise.
10. Submit!
Bobbing Around 