How can I brainstorm to get ideas for a paper?
Brainstorming works for any kind of writing, but it's especially helpful in starting a research paper. For instance, your paper might be an analysis of a historical incident or a discussion of a poem for English class; brainstorming is also a good way to come up with ideas for a science experiment or sociological study. Brainstorming works well because it not only generates ideas, but also gives you some indications of how they're related.
If you're doing this kind of paper, you should begin with your sources. You might, for example, write down two or three quotations from your reading. Don't worry if the quotations don't seem related. You don't even have to know why you picked them; you just have to sense that they're interesting to you in some way.