Mind-Mapping

Mind-mapping or Clustering, and Branching are terms used to label ways of visually plotting the relationship between ideas—a form of visual free-association that for some writers helps to generate ideas. For the visually oriented writer, one of these methods may be the ideal prewriting strategy by which to discover ideas about a topic and to organize them at the same time.

To create a Mind-map or Cluster diagram, first write your subject in the middle of a page and draw a circle around it. Next, take the first thing that comes to mind about your main topic and write it down somewhere around your circled subject. Circle it and draw a line connecting it to the subject circle.

As you think of further ideas or points associated with your main topic, write them down and circle them or enclose them in some way, and connect them with a line to other parts or points of your diagram with which they correspond. Writers who use this prewriting method sometimes indicate different types of ideas by enclosing them in different shapes: a circle, a square, a cloud. Any idea that comes to mind, jot it down, and look to see where it fits.

Below is a Mind-map / Cluster diagram representing one writer's thinking about the value and importance of distance education programs offered to members of the Canadian Forces:

Visualizing an argument in this way can help you to discover the most important points about your topic and help you to explore what you know about each point, and how one point connects with another or others. It is a visual way of taking your subject apart to find out what it is made of—like building a molecular model.