The experts suggested a number of exercises to help students develop or extend a theoretical idea. Ideally, students would undertake all of these activities while working to reinforce and clarify a theoretical argument or view. The exer-
cises are (1) writing a paragraph explaining the basic idea and why it is important; (2) creating a visual representation, where relevant, of what the model looks like (e.g., a flowchart, a process model, a 2 3 2 matrix); (3) explaining the idea
verbally; (4) creating an annotated bibliography of approximately fifty articles that explains how each article relates to your idea; (5) developing a set of propositions; and (6) writing a “barebones” draft of the paper that outlines the basic
logic of your model. Engaging in these activities
multiple times is a prerequisite for developing
a clear argument. It is also valuable for students
to conduct peer reviews of others’ work, since it is
often easier to recognize conceptual gaps in logic
in others’ work than in one’s own. Reasoning
techniques, such as problematizing assumptions
and considering the counterfactual, are also
valuable in building theory. Whetten (2002) de-
scribed a particular approach that uses a number
of these exercises.