Brief description:

Do you find writing difficult? Do you have any of the following problems?

• I have no ideas.

• I don’t know how to start.

• It takes me a long time to write one sentence.

If you answered yes to any of the above, you may have ‘writer’s block’. This describes the problem where we can write, but we don’t know what to write.

This short series of lessons suggests some techniques to overcome writer’s block. In this session we look at mind mapping: a technique to help you quickly organize your ideas.

KEY CONCEPT:

Using mind mapping as a way to generate and organize ideas. It shows the connections between different ideas.

WHAT IS MIND MAPPING?

Mind mapping was developed by the British educational consultant, Tony Buzan. It is effective because it copies the way the brain works.

Our brain thinks of ideas in a random way and then creates connections between those ideas. In mind mapping, we can brainstorm ideas and write them on paper. We use lines to show the connections between them.

HOW DO I MIND MAP?

Create a basic mind map in the following way:

1. Write the topic in a circle in the centre of your paper.

2. As ideas come to your mind, draw lines radiating out from the central topic. Write your ideas on these lines.

3. When you have ideas connected to another idea, draw a new branch.

4. Continue until your brain runs out of ideas!

HOW CAN I MAKE MY MIND MAPS MORE EFFECTIVE?

Tony Buzan suggests some guidelines for creating effective mind maps. These include:

1. Use many different colours throughout your mind map to help stimulate your brain.

2. Use images and symbols throughout your mind map.

3. Write key words rather than sentences.

4. Keep each idea separate on its own line.

5. All the lines should be connected, starting from the central idea. This helps the eye and brain see the connections more easily.

6. Make lines thicker nearer the central idea and thinner as you move away from the central idea.

7. Develop your own personal style of mind mapping.

You can see these techniques in the example below:

HOW WILL MIND MAPPING HELP MY WRITING?

Mind mapping is a very natural way of planning as it works in the same way as our brain. Because of this, mind mapping works very well with brainstorming (see lesson 2).

When you plan your essay, brainstorm your ideas and put them down in a mind map. When you finish you will find it easier to organize your ideas into paragraphs. In the mind map we drew above, for example, the topics of our environment essay would be land, air, water and other. We can use each topic to create one paragraph in the essay.

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER USES OF MIND MAPPING?

Learning vocabulary

Example of part of a mind map for reviewing transport vocabulary

You can use mind mapping to review vocabulary. Start with a topic and then create a mind map of all the words you can think of related to that topic. You can then compare your mind map with your vocabulary notebook to find the words you forgot!

Summary

Mind mapping is a powerful tool for recalling and summarizing what you have read. In particular, it helps you understand the structure of the article.

After you read an article create a mind map as a summary. Put the title of the article in the central circle and then put down all the things you can remember. Then look back at the article to see what you missed.

Project planning

When you are planning a project, brainstorm the tasks that need to be completed as part of the project and put them in a mind map. The free structure of the mind map helps us to put down ideas without worrying about details.

After you have finished the mind map, transfer the tasks to a schedule and assign them to personnel.

CAN I CREATE MIND MAPS ON COMPUTER?

There are a number of software packages available for mind mapping, both proprietary (for sale) and freeware. The mind map examples in this article were created using Freemind. A list of mind mapping software is available on Wikipedia.

WHEN CAN I START?

Why not start now? Try one of the following tasks:

1. Create a mind map to summarise the main ideas of this article. Then read the article again and check if you have included the main ideas.

2. Think of a topic you have studied recently in English (e.g. transport, environment) and create a mind map of vocabulary.

Go on….try it!!!

This material is provided by the Australian Centre for Education and Training (ACET).