The Five Essential Characteristics of Mind Mapping:
- The main idea, subject or focus is crystallized in a central image
- The main themes radiate from the central image as 'branches'
- The branches comprise a key image or key word drawn or printed on its associated line
- Topics of lesser importance are represented as 'twigs' of the relevant branch
- The branches form a connected nodal structure
How to Make a Mind Map
- Think of your general main theme and write that down in the center of the page. i.e. Food
- Figure out sub-themes of your main concept and draw branches to them from the center, beginning to look like a spider web i.e. Meats, Dairy, Breads
- Make sure to use very short phrases or even single words
- Add images to invoke thought or get the message across better
- Try to think of at least two main points for each sub-theme you created and create branches out to those
1. Brainstorming mind map
Mind mapping is one of the best brainstorming techniques there is. Drawing a mind map when you’re trying to come up with ideas for an essay, project, or any other creative task can really help get your creative juices flowing.
Using mind maps for brainstorming:
- helps you easily retrieve information from your memory
- gets your thoughts flowing freely so you can come up with new ideas
- lets you identify connections between individual ideas
- helps you see the bigger picture
If you run out of ideas too early, try drawing blank branches into your mind map. Our brains don’t like unfinished business, so by drawing unfinished branches, we can often trick our brains into looking for creative ways to expand our mind maps.
2. Note-taking mind map
Most students use some form of linear note-taking to capture the information presented to them in class. Mind maps, however, are a much more effective tool when it comes to note-taking.
Instead of thoughtlessly transcribing what your teacher says, mind maps compel you to actively think about what you hear and only write down the most essential pieces of information.
Instead of writing whole sentences, you stick to keywords and meaningful images. This way, you save time both during the lesson and afterward when you go back to revise the material.
Mind maps also offer a much better overview of a topic than normal text documents do. Just take a look at the image above. The images on the left and right both offer the same information. But which one would you say is more memorable and would be quicker to review?
3. Memorization mind map
Mind maps can help you memorize all kinds of information, from a second language to important names and dates you need to know for your history exam.
In “The Mind Map Book,” Tony Buzan explains why mind maps are such a great tool for memorization:
“Mind maps utilize all our cortical skills and activate the brain on all levels, making it more alert and skillful at remembering. The attractiveness of mind maps makes the brain want to return to them and encourages the probability of spontaneous recall.”
4. Reading comprehension mind map
Some texts can be quite difficult to understand. Old novels, highly scientific articles, and scholarly essays can be full of words we’re not familiar with, and they often have a complex structure that can throw us off.
Taking notes in a mind map while reading such a text can make it much easier to understand its structure and content. Here are a few tips:
- Break the information down into smaller, more manageable chunks.
- Capture the key concepts and ideas of the text.
- Make a list of unfamiliar words and other questions that turn up while you read.
- Summarize the plot of a text and describe its main characters.
- Use the map to review your notes before an exam.
5. Group project mind map
If you’re one of the many students who dread group projects in school, mind maps can be the key to change this. A mind map can make it much easier to visualize what needs to be done and work together with your teammates to accomplish all tasks.
In this case, online mind mapping software is definitely the way to go. With an online tool, you can easily share your mind map with all team members so that everybody can access and edit it at the same time. You can also assign tasks to your team members right inside the mind map to ensure everybody knows what they need to do.
Great going. Superbly designed.
ReplyDeleteThank you sir
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