how to make an essay map

PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
EDIT Edit this Article
EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
Browse Articles
Learn Something New
Quizzes Hot
This Or That Game
Train Your Brain
Explore More
Support wikiHow
About wikiHow
Log in / Sign up
Education and Communications
College University and Postgraduate
Academic Writing

How to Create a Mind Map for Essay Writing

Last Updated: December 1, 2023 Fact Checked

Generating Your Map

Organizing your map for writing, expert q&a.

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 286,905 times.

If you’re a visual learner or just looking to switch up how you outline your essays, mind maps can be a game-changer. They make coming up with ideas for your essay and organizing them super easy. If you’ve never used a mind map for essay writing before, don’t worry—we break down everything you need to know to get started in the steps below.

Things You Should Know

Get out a piece of paper and write your topic in the center. This can be a single word or sentence.
Then, write down any words and ideas that relate to your topic. Circle them and then draw lines or arrows to connect them to the topic.
Label each bubble idea according to where it fits into your paper. This can be a specific paragraph or a general section, like the introduction.

Lay out the colored markers or pencils to which you have assigned meaning.
Orient your paper so that it is in landscape position.
If you don't have colored pencils or markers, don't worry. You can still make a mind map with just a pen or pencil!

Step 2 Write your topic in the center of the page.

Circle your topic.

Each thing you write down may give you another association. Write that down as well. For instance, writing "Impairment vs. disability" might remind you of "wheelchair ramps."
Try to cluster related thoughts together ("wheelchair ramps"—"access to public life"), but don't worry if it doesn't always happen—you can draw a line between things you wish to connect.
Look for connections between your unrelated thoughts and jot them into the picture.

Step 4 Draw empty bubbles if you're stuck.

You might also label them "supporting argument," "evidence," "counterargument" etc.

Include doodles if they occur to you, but again, don't get caught up in making them perfect.
Depending on your age and essay topic, you might want to focus more on drawing pictures than writing out words.

While there are plenty of programs available for purpose, you can also use free online mapping tools like Bubble.us, Mind42, or Coggle.

Add details as you go. For instance, you may write some of the sources you are planning to use to the sections of your essay to which they apply.

If you do this, you can start by drawing bubbles for the sections and continue by filling in the thoughts and associations.
You can also organize your revised mind map into bubble for topic sentences that branch into smaller bubbles for supporting arguments and evidence.
Once you've done this, you practically have a rough draft of your paper.

Step 3 Keep your map by your side as you write.

Start each paragraph with a sentence that introduces the ideas of that paragraph, and write until you have incorporated all the information for that section.
If you end up adding things that weren't on your map, look at your map to check that they fit, and consider penciling them in. One of the virtues of the map is that it keeps you on topic.
Make sure you're not cramming too many points from your mind map into a single paragraph.

↑ https://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/sites/default/files/docs/learningguide-mindmapping.pdf
↑ https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/how-create-mind-map
↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/using-concept-maps/
↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 20 May 2020.

About This Article

Send fan mail to authors

Reader Success Stories

Mashudu Munzhedzi

Nov 21, 2016

Did this article help you?

Mar 8, 2017

Nov 8, 2023

Feb 19, 2017

Featured Articles

Watch Articles

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Do Not Sell or Share My Info
Not Selling Info

wikiHow Tech Help Pro:

Level up your tech skills and stay ahead of the curve

Mind Maps for Essay Writing (Guide + Examples)

In this article we’ll show you how to use mind maps for essay writing . Mind maps can not only make this often dreadful task a whole lot easier, but also save you a huge amount of time. If you want to learn how this simple yet effective technique works, just follow the steps as outlined below.

Looking for even more ways to use mind maps? Get inspired with these 13 mind map examples .

What Is a Mind Map?

A mind map is a diagram that displays information visually. You can create mind maps using pen and paper, or you can use an online mind mapping tool such as MindMeister . Whatever you use, the rules for creating a mind map are simple:

1) Write the subject in the center of your paper / canvas.

2) Draw branches that point away from the center. Each branch symbolizes one thought or idea related to the subject. Use meaningful keywords to write these ideas onto the branches.

3) From each branch more ideas can branch off . There is no limit to the number of hierarchical levels in a map.

4) Use colors, icons and images whenever possible. These function as mental triggers and can help spark new ideas in you, which is important during brainstorming sessions .

Now that you know how to create a basic mind map, let’s go over how you can use mind maps for essay writing.

Step 1: Using a Mind Map to Find a Good Topic for Your Essay

If you have the opportunity to choose the topic for your paper yourself, try to find one that’s been covered by other researchers before but still gives you a chance to come up with new findings and conclusions . If you choose a topic that has already been explored in depth by a gazillion other researchers, you might be hard-pressed to develop a unique perspective.

Ideally, the topic should be something you are also personally interested in, or at least something you can relate to in some way. This will make the whole task of writing your essay a little less dreadful. The best way to find such a topic is a brainstorming session .

How to brainstorm topic ideas in a mind map

Create a new mind map and simply write “My Essay” or “My Paper” in the center of the map. Now, start adding ideas around the center. These can be things your professor suggested, related subjects you discussed in class, or anything else relevant to get you started.

Next, note down your own areas of interest and see where they intersect with the former. Once you have a few good ideas for the subject of your paper, you can start weighing them against each other, noting down pros and cons . Eliminate topics until you’re left with only one. This will be the topic of your paper.

In the example below, the only requirement that had been given was to write a paper about literature from the English Renaissance. You’ll see various famous writers of this time mentioned in the map, as well as various aspects of their work that could be examined in a paper, such as the symbolism, dramatic conflicts or themes.

Mind map for essay writing (brainstorming topic ideas)

Step 2: Start the Research Process

While working through both primary and secondary sources, it’s quite easy to get confused about the numerous arguments and counterarguments mentioned by the different authors. Many students get frustrated and waste time just trying to figure out how to make all the different pieces of information fit together into a coherent text.

What you need, therefore, is a system to collect and structure all this information in one central place, so you can easily review the materials while you write.

How to collect research in a mind map

Create a new mind map for each source (book, article, essay) you read and take notes in this mind map while you work through the text . Alternatively, you can use one single map where you list all your sources and create branches for every page/paragraph/quote you want to use in your paper.

In the map below, you’ll see that — based on our initial brainstorming session — we chose ‘Love in Romeo and Juliet’ as the topic of our paper. For our research map, we wrote this topic in the center and created individual branches for each secondary source we read.

Next to the book title, we noted down the topics covered in the source, its central question as well as important passages that we thought we might want to quote in our essay.

Here are some practical tips to set you up for success:

Use colors , arrows and icons to indicate connections between the arguments and quotes.
Be sure to add the page numbers of your secondary sources to the topics in the map so you can quickly go back to do some more fact checking if necessary. If you’re working with online sources, you can also attach their links directly to the topics in your map.
As you go along, you can restructure the sources according to their common themes. This usually provides a better overview of the material you have available for each section of your paper.

Here’s another example of a research map. This is the map we used to take notes while reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , the subject of our paper. As you can see, we created branches for each of the text passages we wanted to analyze in the essay.

Step 3: Outline Your Paper in a Mind Map

Before you start with the actual writing , it’s very important that you first create an outline of your paper . This will help you create a coherent structure of your arguments, counterarguments, examples, quotes, and the sources you want to reference in each argument.

You can quickly review this outline whenever you get sidetracked in your writing process, or when you’re unsure about how to continue. A mind map is a great format for such an outline because it provides you with a visual overview of your thesis statement and the entire text structure .

If you’re using mind mapping software such as MindMeister , you can also…

Link the individual topics in your map with the respective research maps you’ve created.
Add notes and deadlines to each step to make sure your writing stays on schedule.
Export your finished outline as a Word document and use it as the basis for your paper.

Using mind maps to plan and outline your essay will not only make the writing process a lot easier. It will also enable you to work through sources more efficiently and help you find and review information more quickly . Of course, you can use mind mapping for all types of writing assignments — from essays to short stories and from book reports to blog posts . Try it out!

Plan and outline your essays

See also: The Student’s Guide to Mind Mapping

Free Mind Map for Essay Templates by GitMind

Making an essay is a common piece of advice offered to you along with your writing assignment. In that case, this post will teach you how to make mind maps as well as how to use pre-made mind maps for essay models. Mind mapping organizes information in a way that mirrors how our brains truly operate, as opposed to standard note-taking or linear text that you’ve been taught or have grown accustomed to. It can also help you avoid the stumbling blocks and overload created by overt analytical thinking. It lets you view more than one notion at a time, which helps to clarify your thoughts.

Free Mind Map for Essay by GitMind

Effective essay writing, essay topic template, paragraph essay organizer, mind map for essay benefits, how to create a mind map for an essay.

A mind map for writing an essay is a written piece in which you convey a certain topic and then back it up with facts, claims, analyses, and explanations. The five-paragraph essay is the most common style of an essay, though an essay can have as many parts as necessary. A 5 essay is comprised of five paragraphs. An essay, on the other hand, is divided into 3 sections: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

According to the mind map essay example, an essay is a written piece in which you convey a certain topic and then back it up with facts, claims, analyses, and explanations. The five-paragraph essay is the most common style of an essay, though an essay can have as many parts as necessary. A 5 essay is comprised of five paragraphs. An essay, on the other hand, is divided into 3 sections: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

Plan essay mind map template with this paragraph organizer. The introduction should begin with a broad statement and end with a thesis statement that zooms in on the themes you will discuss in considerable depth. The proof of your idea should be included in the body paragraphs. Lastly, the conclusions affirm your topic and the key ideas of your work and then zoom out with an assessment or comment on the greater issue.

Mind map for essay may be an excellent method for you to try if you want to attain higher levels of attention and creativity, as well as the improved organization and more succinct communication. The advantages of concept maps are numerous and diverse. In essence, they include: presenting an overview of a vast subject/broad issue and enabling you to portray it in a more compact manner and also creating a more appealing and entertaining structure for your ocular to look at, ruminate over, and remember.

Creating a mind map essay example is always challenging, even if you are a superb writer and are well-versed in the subject. In contrast to other types of writing, you need to cultivate an interesting way of thinking in order to persuade readers of your point of view. In this instance, a program like GitMind might be useful. It will enable you to write essays that need ordered thought. While there are various strategies for arranging the thoughts you want to include in your essay, many people connect using a mind map for essay writing to utilizing a mind map. This program makes it easy to brainstorm, convey your ideas, and clarify your position.

To get started, go to the GitMind official website. and then press the “Get Started” button.

Start designing your mind map for writing an essay by clicking the “Create MindMap” button.

Select your favorite layout and begin entering data into each node.

When you’re finished, just click the “Save” button to save your changes.

In summary, making a mind map for essay writing is a basic yet very efficient method of brainstorming and outlining your thoughts. A mind map represents your topic by using a primary thought and branches that explain the center notion. Terms and keyphrases, color codes for phrases and branching, and visual materials like doodles or symbols are all used in well-drawn mind maps. On a single page, you may generally summarize all of your essay’s main points.

Best 8 Free Online UML diagram tools in 2024
What is A Probability Tree Diagram and Real Life Uses

Comment (0).

This website uses cookies that are essential for the operations of this website and its core functions. Other cookies will only be placed with your consent. For more details visit our Cookies Policy .

Mind Maps for Essay Writing: A Comprehensive Guide with Examples and Tips

5 minutes read

Mastering essay writing is an essential skill for academic success. One valuable tool to enhance this skill is mind mapping, a dynamic and visual approach to organize thoughts. This article will guide you through the benefits, creation process, practical examples, and expert tips for effective mind mapping.

Mind Maps for Essay Writing: A Comprehensive Guide with Examples and Tips

TRY FOR FREE

Understanding Mind Maps: Definition and Benefits

A Mind Map is a powerful graphic technique that provides a universal key to unlock the potential of the brain. It harnesses the full range of cortical skills – word, image, number, logic, rhythm, color, and spatial awareness – in a single, uniquely powerful manner.

Utilizing mind maps in essay writing offers several benefits. Not only does it provide a visually engaging way to organize ideas, but it also enhances understanding and memory recall. The science behind this phenomenon lies in the way our brain works. By representing information spatially and with images and color, mind mapping stimulates the brain in a much richer and more varied way than traditional note-taking.

How to Create a Mind Map for an Essay

Mind mapping is an easy process that can be mastered with practice. Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Start in the center : Write your main idea or essay prompt in the center of the page and draw a circle around it.

2. Branch out : From your central idea, draw lines out towards the edges of your page representing the main thoughts or ideas related to your topic. At the end of each line, write a single word or phrase that summarizes the point, then draw a circle around that word or phrase.

3. Add details : Draw smaller lines branching off from each main idea line that represent supporting details. At the end of these lines, write a brief detail or example and circle it.

4. Color your thoughts : Add colors to your different ideas to highlight them. Use pictures or symbols wherever applicable.

Essential tools for mind mapping range from simple pen and paper to advanced mind mapping software like Boardmix or EdrawMind.

How to Use Mind Maps for Effective Essay Writing

Mastering the use of mind maps for essay writing entails three primary steps – identifying an apt essay topic, kickstarting the research process, and finally, outlining your essay within a mind map. Here's a detailed exploration of these stages:

Step 1: Using a Mind Map to Find a Good Topic for Your Essay

Selecting an engaging and manageable topic forms the bedrock of an impactful essay. Mind mapping can be instrumental in this process by helping to generate and connect ideas creatively and logically.

Brainstorming Topic Ideas with a Mind Map

To brainstorm topics, start by jotting down a general area of interest at the center of your mind map. Let's say, "Climate Change." Now, let your mind flow freely and create branches from this central node, each representing a different aspect or question related to Climate Change - "Causes," "Effects," "Solutions," "Controversies," etc. From these primary branches, draw secondary branches for further thoughts, arguments, or subtopics. After creating this mind map, assess the feasibility and interest level of each potential essay topic, and choose the one that resonates the most with you.

Step 2: Start the Research Process

Once you've chosen your topic, it's time to delve into research. A well-researched essay strengthens your arguments and adds credibility to your work.

Collecting Research in a Mind Map

Begin by creating a new mind map with your chosen topic at the center. As you start reading relevant resources - books, articles, or websites - extract key points and note them as branches on your mind map. For instance, under the "Causes" branch for Climate Change, you could add sub-branches like "Industrialization," "Deforestation," or "Carbon Emissions." Under each of these, note relevant data or quotations from your sources. This approach helps to visualize how various bits of information relate to each other and makes it easier to structure your essay later.

Step 3: Outlining Essay Paper in a Mind Map

Having gathered adequate research material, it's time to structure it coherently through an essay outline. Creating this outline within a mind map ensures that no crucial point is overlooked and allows you to visualize the logical flow of your essay.

From your research mind map, create another one specifically for your essay outline. The central node should be your essay title or thesis statement. Create major branches for each key argument or point you plan to discuss. Attach supporting evidence, examples, or sub-arguments as sub-branches. Under each major branch, ensure that there is a claim or unique viewpoint that you will defend or explain in your essay.

In essence, this mind map will act as the skeleton of your essay, providing a clear roadmap for your writing process.

5 Examples of Mind Maps for Essay Writing

Analyzing examples of mind maps for essay writing can provide a better understanding of how this powerful brainstorming tool works. Here are five detailed examples that demonstrate different ways to utilize mind mapping in academic writing.

Example 1: Argumentative Essay Mind Map

Let's consider a mind map developed for an argumentative essay about "Climate Change". The central node, in this case, states "Climate Change". From this central idea, branches emerge that represent the main arguments for the essay. One branch could say "Evidence of Climate Change," with sub-branches exploring different scientific studies that support climate change. Another branch might state "Effects of Climate Change," delving into the impact on polar ice caps, rising sea levels, and wildlife extinction. A third branch may argue "Solutions to Climate Change," examining renewable energy sources, deforestation reduction, and government policies. Each branch further divides into smaller branches providing details, examples, or counterarguments.

Example 2: Descriptive Essay Mind Map

Now, imagine a descriptive essay about "A Winter Morning". The central node would depict the essay's main theme. Major branches could represent sensory details, such as sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. For instance, the sight branch might have sub-branches like "white snow," "gray skies," or "bare trees." Each of these would break down into more detailed descriptions.

Example 3: Compare and Contrast Essay Mind Map

In a compare and contrast essay on "Traditional Classrooms vs. Online Learning," each of these educational modes could form a major branch from the central node. Sub-branches would then depict aspects for comparison, such as learning flexibility, student-teacher interaction, technology usage, assessment methods, etc. Each of these sub-branches would further branch out into specific points for both traditional classrooms and online learning environments.

Example 4: Cause and Effect Essay Mind Map

For a cause and effect essay on "Smoking", one major branch might represent "Causes of Smoking" such as peer pressure, stress, and advertising influence. Another major branch could depict the "Effects of Smoking," branching out into health impacts (lung cancer, heart disease), financial costs, and societal effects. Each point could be further elaborated through additional branches.

Example 5: Narrative Essay Mind Map

A narrative essay on "My First Camping Trip" would involve major branches for each key event in the story's progression - setting up camp, exploring the forest, facing a wildlife encounter, and handling a campfire accident. Sub-branches of these main events would provide specific details and dialogue to enrich the narrative.

Some Tips and Tricks for Effective Mind Mapping

For effective mind mapping, follow these tips:

Be creative and make your map vibrant.
Use single words or simple phrases for information brevity.
Keep your mind map clear by using radial hierarchy or outlines to embrace your branches.
Review regularly to reinforce memory.

While creating a mind map, avoid cluttering information on one branch. Use balance across your mind map while distributing information.

Reinventing Essay Writing with Mind Maps

Mind mapping , when mastered, can be a game-changer in your academic writing. It helps organize thoughts, enhances memory and understanding, and can make the essay writing process smoother and more efficient.

Through this guide, you've learned the benefits of mind mapping, how to create a mind map, seen some examples, got expert tips, and learned how to incorporate it into your essay writing process. Now it's time to put this knowledge into practice and start revolutionizing your essay writing with mind maps!

Join Boardmix to collaborate with your team.

Enhanced Risk Management through Decision Tree Analysis

What is Go-to-Market Strategy and How to Build One?

How to Create a Visual Customer Journey Map – Practical Guide for PM

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

Knowledge Base

The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples

An academic essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

There are many types of essays you might write as a student. The content and length of an essay depends on your level, subject of study, and course requirements. However, most essays at university level are argumentative — they aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.

The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
Writing : Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
Revision: Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Essay writing process, preparation for writing an essay, writing the introduction, writing the main body, writing the conclusion, essay checklist, lecture slides, frequently asked questions about writing an essay.

The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay .

For example, if you’ve been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you’ll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay , on the other hand, you’ll need to spend more time researching your topic and developing an original argument before you start writing.

1. Preparation	2. Writing	3. Revision
	, organized into Write the	or use a for language errors

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

Before you start writing, you should make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. There are a few key steps you can follow to make sure you’re prepared:

Understand your assignment: What is the goal of this essay? What is the length and deadline of the assignment? Is there anything you need to clarify with your teacher or professor?
Define a topic: If you’re allowed to choose your own topic , try to pick something that you already know a bit about and that will hold your interest.
Do your research: Read primary and secondary sources and take notes to help you work out your position and angle on the topic. You’ll use these as evidence for your points.
Come up with a thesis: The thesis is the central point or argument that you want to make. A clear thesis is essential for a focused essay—you should keep referring back to it as you write.
Create an outline: Map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline . This makes it easier to start writing and keeps you on track as you go.

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to discuss, in what order, and what evidence you’ll use, you’re ready to start writing.

The introduction sets the tone for your essay. It should grab the reader’s interest and inform them of what to expect. The introduction generally comprises 10–20% of the text.

1. Hook your reader

The first sentence of the introduction should pique your reader’s interest and curiosity. This sentence is sometimes called the hook. It might be an intriguing question, a surprising fact, or a bold statement emphasizing the relevance of the topic.

Let’s say we’re writing an essay about the development of Braille (the raised-dot reading and writing system used by visually impaired people). Our hook can make a strong statement about the topic:

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

2. Provide background on your topic

Next, it’s important to give context that will help your reader understand your argument. This might involve providing background information, giving an overview of important academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms. Don’t provide too much detail in the introduction—you can elaborate in the body of your essay.

3. Present the thesis statement

Next, you should formulate your thesis statement— the central argument you’re going to make. The thesis statement provides focus and signals your position on the topic. It is usually one or two sentences long. The thesis statement for our essay on Braille could look like this:

As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness.

4. Map the structure

In longer essays, you can end the introduction by briefly describing what will be covered in each part of the essay. This guides the reader through your structure and gives a preview of how your argument will develop.

The invention of Braille marked a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Write your essay introduction

The body of your essay is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its purpose is to present, interpret, and analyze the information and sources you have gathered to support your argument.

Length of the body text

The length of the body depends on the type of essay. On average, the body comprises 60–80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8–10 pages.

Paragraph structure

To give your essay a clear structure , it is important to organize it into paragraphs . Each paragraph should be centered around one main point or idea.

That idea is introduced in a topic sentence . The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.

After the topic sentence, present evidence such as data, examples, or quotes from relevant sources. Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall argument.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

See the full essay example

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10–15% of the text . A strong essay conclusion :

Returns to your thesis
Ties together your main points
Shows why your argument matters

A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that leaves the reader with a strong final impression.

What not to include in a conclusion

To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you should avoid. The most common mistakes are:

Including new arguments or evidence
Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Write your essay conclusion

Checklist: Essay

My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic and length ).

My introduction sparks the reader’s interest and provides any necessary background information on the topic.

My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and position of the essay.

I use paragraphs to structure the essay.

I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.

Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.

I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

My conclusion doesn’t just repeat my points, but draws connections between arguments.

I don’t introduce new arguments or evidence in the conclusion.

I have given an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I got from another source.

I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my sources.

My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style .

My essay has an interesting and informative title.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (e.g. font, page numbers, line spacing).

Your essay meets all the most important requirements. Our editors can give it a final check to help you submit with confidence.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

It gives your writing direction and focus.
It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Is this article helpful?

Other students also liked.

How long is an essay? Guidelines for different types of essay
How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples
How to conclude an essay | Interactive example

Get unlimited documents corrected

✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Academic Editing and Proofreading

Tips to Self-Edit Your Dissertation
Guide to Essay Editing: Methods, Tips, & Examples
Journal Article Proofreading: Process, Cost, & Checklist
The A–Z of Dissertation Editing: Standard Rates & Involved Steps
Research Paper Editing | Guide to a Perfect Research Paper
Dissertation Proofreading | Definition & Standard Rates
Thesis Proofreading | Definition, Importance & Standard Pricing
Research Paper Proofreading | Definition, Significance & Standard Rates
Essay Proofreading | Options, Cost & Checklist
Top 10 Paper Editing Services of 2024 (Costs & Features)
Top 10 Essay Checkers in 2024 (Free & Paid)
2024’s Best Proofreaders for Authors, Students & Businesses
Top 10 English Correctors to Perfect Your Text in 2024
Top 10 Essay Editing Services of 2024

Academic Research

Research Paper Outline: Templates & Examples
How to Write a Research Paper: A Step-by-Step Guide
How to Write a Lab Report: Examples from Academic Editors
Research Methodology Guide: Writing Tips, Types, & Examples
The 10 Best Essential Resources for Academic Research
100+ Useful ChatGPT Prompts for Thesis Writing in 2024
Best ChatGPT Prompts for Academic Writing (100+ Prompts!)
Sampling Methods Guide: Types, Strategies, and Examples
Independent vs. Dependent Variables | Meaning & Examples

Academic Writing & Publishing

Difference Between Paper Editing and Peer Review
What are the different types of peer review?
How to deal with rejection from a journal?
Editing and Proofreading Academic Papers: A Short Guide
How to Carry Out Secondary Research
The Results Section of a Dissertation
Checklist: Is my Article Ready for Submitting to Journals?
Types of Research Articles to Boost Your Research Profile
8 Types of Peer Review Processes You Should Know
The Ethics of Academic Research
How does LaTeX based proofreading work?
How to Improve Your Scientific Writing: A Short Guide
Chicago Title, Cover Page & Body | Paper Format Guidelines
How to Write a Thesis Statement: Examples & Tips
Chicago Style Citation: Quick Guide & Examples
The A-Z Of Publishing Your Article in A Journal
What is Journal Article Editing? 3 Reasons You Need It
5 Powerful Personal Statement Examples (Template Included)
Complete Guide to MLA Format (9th Edition)
How to Cite a Book in APA Style | Format & Examples
How to Start a Research Paper | Step-by-step Guide
APA Citations Made Easy with Our Concise Guide for 2024
A Step-by-Step Guide to APA Formatting Style (7th Edition)
Top 10 Online Dissertation Editing Services of 2024
Academic Writing in 2024: 5 Key Dos & Don’ts + Examples
What Are the Standard Book Sizes for Publishing Your Book?
MLA Works Cited Page: Quick Tips & Examples
2024’s Top 10 Thesis Statement Generators (Free Included!)
Top 10 Title Page Generators for Students in 2024
What Is an Open Access Journal? 10 Myths Busted!
Primary vs. Secondary Sources: Definition, Types & Examples
How To Write a College Admissions Essay That Stands Out
How to Write a Dissertation & Thesis Conclusion (+ Examples)
APA Journal Citation: 7 Types, In-Text Rules, & Examples
What Is Predatory Publishing and How to Avoid It!
What Is Plagiarism? Meaning, Types & Examples
Additional Resources
Plagiarism: How to avoid it in your thesis?
Final Submission Checklist | Dissertation & Thesis
7 Useful MS Word Formatting Tips for Dissertation Writing
How to Write a MEAL Paragraph: Writing Plan Explained in Detail
Em Dash vs. En Dash vs. Hyphen: When to Use Which
The 10 Best Citation Generators in 2024 | Free & Paid Plans!
2024’s Top 10 Self-Help Books for Better Living
Citation and Referencing
Citing References: APA, MLA, and Chicago
How to Cite Sources in the MLA Format
MLA Citation Examples: Cite Essays, Websites, Movies & More
Citations and References: What Are They and Why They Matter
APA Headings & Subheadings | Formatting Guidelines & Examples
Formatting an APA Reference Page | Template & Examples
Research Paper Format: APA, MLA, & Chicago Style
How to Create an MLA Title Page | Format, Steps, & Examples
How to Create an MLA Header | Format Guidelines & Examples
MLA Annotated Bibliography | Guidelines and Examples
APA Website Citation (7th Edition) Guide | Format & Examples
APA Citation Examples: The Bible, TED Talk, PPT & More
APA Header Format: 5 Steps & Running Head Examples
APA Title Page Format Simplified | Examples + Free Template
How to Write an Abstract in MLA Format: Tips & Examples
10 Best Free Plagiarism Checkers of 2024 [100% Free Tools]
5 Reasons to Cite Your Sources Properly | Avoid Plagiarism!
Dissertation Writing Guide
Writing a Dissertation Proposal
The Acknowledgments Section of a Dissertation
The Table of Contents Page of a Dissertation
The Introduction Chapter of a Dissertation
The Literature Review of a Dissertation
The Only Dissertation Toolkit You’ll Ever Need!
5 Thesis Writing Tips for Master Procrastinators
How to Write a Dissertation | 5 Tips from Academic Editors
The Title Page of a Dissertation
The 5 Things to Look for in a Dissertation Editing Service
Top 10 Dissertation Editing & Proofreading Services
Why is it important to add references to your thesis?
Thesis Editing | Definition, Scope & Standard Rates
Expert Formatting Tips on MS Word for Dissertations
A 7-Step Guide on How to Choose a Dissertation Topic
350 Best Dissertation Topic Ideas for All Streams in 2024
A Guide on How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper
Dissertation Defense: What to Expect and How to Prepare
Essay Writing Guide
Essential Research Tips for Essay Writing

What Is a Mind Map? Free Mind Map Templates & Examples

How to Write an Essay Outline: 5 Examples & Free Template
How to Write an Essay Header: MLA and APA Essay Headers
What Is an Essay? Structure, Parts, and Types
How to Write an Essay in 8 Simple Steps (Examples Included)
8 Types of Essays | Quick Summary with Examples
Expository Essays | Step-by-Step Manual with Examples
Narrative Essay | Step-by-Step Guide with Examples
How to Write an Argumentative Essay (Examples Included)
Guide to a Perfect Descriptive Essay [Examples & Outline Included]
How to Start an Essay: 4 Introduction Paragraph Examples
How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay (Examples Included!)
How to Write an Impactful Personal Statement (Examples Included)
Literary Analysis Essay: 5 Steps to a Perfect Assignment
Compare and Contrast Essay | Quick Guide with Examples
Top 10 Essay Writing Tools in 2024 | Plan, Write, Get Feedback
Top AI Essay Writers in 2024: 10 Must-Haves
100 Best College Essay Topics & How to Pick the Perfect One!
College Essay Format: Tips, Examples, and Free Template
Structure of an Essay: 5 Tips to Write an Outstanding Essay

Still have questions? Leave a comment

Add Comment

Checklist: Dissertation Proposal

Enter your email id to get the downloadable right in your inbox!

Examples: Edited Papers

Need editing and proofreading services.

Tags: Academic Writing , Essay

Whether you’re writing an essay, creating a presentation, or brainstorming strategies with your team, it’s a challenge to sort ideas effectively. There’s a simple solution to this, used by students and established writers alike: mind maps! A mind map helps you organize your ideas in a systematic manner and reveals clues for you to arrange your material better.

In this article, we’ll explore what mind mapping is and learn how to make a creative map for your ideas. We’ll also take a look at some mind map examples to show you unique and innovative ways to create a mind map. But before we begin, let’s establish a mind mapping definition.

What is a mind map?

A mind map is a visual tool used for brainstorming, problem-solving, and organizing ideas. It is a diagram that starts with a central idea and branches out to related subtopics and details.

As you lay out different topics and subtopics visually, you can clearly see the connections between them. In this way, mind mapping helps you see the relationships between different ideas and understand complex topics easily. It’s time to throw away those hefty notes and make note-taking a fun activity!

Let’s see how you can use a mind map in different ways.

Why use mind maps?

Is there any advantage to mind mapping beyond the obvious joy of drawing out your thought process? It’s all very well that you avoid working like a grumpy professor, but what beyond this?

Here are some benefits of using a mind map:

Learning becomes a stimulating process.
Difficult topics can be simplified and easy to understand.
You can visualize complex points to easily remember and recall dense pieces of information.
The freedom to connect ideas without a specific order leads to creative and innovative solutions.
You can come up with a hierarchy of points by easily differentiating between primary and secondary topics.
The engaging act of making a mind map speeds up brainstorming and improves productivity.
Easy collaboration allows an entire team or group to work together on a presentation or project.

Mind mapping allows you to see connections and relationships between different ideas. The process makes it easier to understand complex topics and make the right decisions. In this way, a mind map enhances your memory, comprehension, and productivity.

How to make a mind map

It’s quite easy to create a mind map. All you need is a pen and paper! If you prefer working on a laptop, there are several tools you can use, our mind map template being one of them. Scroll down and you’ll find our template.

Follow these steps to make a mind map:

1. Start with a central idea

Write down the central idea or topic in the center of a blank page. This can be your essay title, an area of research, or a problem you need to solve. Make sure you leave enough space on all sides to create a spreading map.

We’ll add a step-by-step mind map example to help you understand the process. Let’s say you had to brainstorm an essay on types of democracy. Your first step will begin at the central point.

2. Add related ideas

Think of the most important subtopics or areas of interest and arrange them around the central idea. Connect these to the main topic with lines or arrows to indicate the relationship between the two.

So for an essay mind map, the first relevant bubble will be the essay introduction, which will further lead to your thesis statement . For now, we’ll show you the second stage of mind mapping in this example:

3. Create a hierarchy of ideas

Keep adding more layers until you get a spreading map that starts with your central idea and ends with specific facts, evidence, and examples. As you break down your information into smaller and smaller points, you’ll also need to denote the connections between them.

If any facts from separate subtopics are connected, draw a dotted line or arrow between them to indicate this. When you open your mind map later, all hierarchies and connections should be instantly clear to you. Come up with a system of arrows and lines to denote various types of connections between points and subpoints.

Our mind map example will outline this for you:

4. Review and refine the map

If you don’t have a rough essay outline in your mind, you can just focus on getting everything out on the page. After seeing the rough layout, you can decide on the final set of points and remove everything else.

So, the last step is to review your mind map and refine it until you are satisfied with the outcome. In this stage, you’ll add all the smallest details to your mind map and establish important connections through lines.

In a mind map for essay writing, the last few points will be the evidence you use to support your arguments. It’s a good idea to mark the page numbers or other citation indicators so you don’t have to go looking for them later.

Your mind map should look something like the example below:

5. Add symbols and images to help you remember

While making mind maps for writing essays, it’s essential to use any techniques that can help you remember information better. A great way to ensure this is to use symbols and images to signify specific things.

You could develop a system of meanings for different signs. A star can represent important data figures, while a vertical arrow can highlight ascending or descending order. While you can utilize mind mapping tools and software to achieve this, it helps to use symbols that are personal to you. This way, it’s much easier to memorize things!

Let’s add some symbols to our mind map example and breathe life into it.

If you’d like us to add more mind mapping examples, let us know in the comments below!

Note: Keep your mind maps clean! Add only the most central points in one or two words rather than writing entire phrases or sentences. Making a cluttered and chaotic mind map serves no purpose. Keep your focus on the bigger picture and what you want to achieve through the mind map.

If you’re using the mind map for essay writing, you should know how to transfer ideas and information from your map to your essay. Knowing how to write a MEAL paragraph can help!

Done brainstorming and writing your essay? Let’s make it perfect Get started

Free mind map templates

If you need innovative mind map ideas and templates, we have no shortage of them! Mind mapping for writing differs from mind mapping for a presentation or brainstorming session. Accordingly, mind mapping methods also differ from one another.

So, we’ve created four blank mind map templates to help you find the format that works best for you. Based on your requirements, you can choose from the mind map templates available below.

1. Basic map that radiates outward

2. template to brainstorm a topic, 3. mind map for writing an essay, 4. mind map that uses arrows for cause-and-effect.

If you’ve created a mind map for your assignment and need an editing and proofreading service , we’re here to help.

Keep reading with more resources from your loyal editors and proofreaders:

Top 10 Essay Editing Services of 2023
5 Elements of a Short Story & 6 Stages of a Plot
An Exclusive List of Writing Contests in 2023
Research Paper Outline: Templates & Examples
Why is it Important to Cite Your Sources?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is mind mapping software, what are the compulsory elements of a mind map, how do students create a mind map, what are some other names for a mind map, what is the best mind mapping method.

Found this article helpful?

Your vs. You’re: When to Use Your and You’re

Your organization needs a technical editor: here’s why, your guide to the best ebook readers in 2024, writing for the web: 7 expert tips for web content writing.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get carefully curated resources about writing, editing, and publishing in the comfort of your inbox.

How to Copyright Your Book?

If you’ve thought about copyrighting your book, you’re on the right path.

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Self Publishing Guide
Pre-Publishing Steps
Fiction Writing Tips
Traditional Publishing
Academic Writing and Publishing
Partner with us
Annual report
Website content
Marketing material
Job Applicant
Cover letter
Resource Center
Case studies

Essay Mapping Tool

Instructions.

Effective writing at university is a process:

Analyse the task → Gather content → Plan → Draft → Edit

This tool may help you to bridge from planning to drafting by helping you arrange your sentences in a logical order. It also provides tips for each component of an essay – the introduction, body, and conclusion. It can be used to improve your understanding of essay writing in general or as a planning tool for one of your university assignments.

Because this tool is for your personal use only, you may decide to write in bullet points, but we recommend full sentences. Once you have filled in each section, a complete essay overview will be generated which can be printed.

1. Introduction

Three paragraphs planning spaces have been provided for you. You can add or delete as necessary.

The purpose of the body is to logically develop the points made in your thesis and outline statements. There are no rules about the number of paragraphs required in assignment, but in general, you are advised to develop one idea per paragraph. This is done with a clear and coherent structure which introduces the topic in a topic sentence, defines or clarifies which aspect of the topic you are going to discuss, develops and supports your discussion and (optionally) concludes your discussion.

A topic sentence generally has two parts. You may refer to the overall essay topic and also introduce the specific aspect you plan to discuss in this paragraph. This is referred to as topic + controlling idea . You can also use a topic sentence to link to or contrast with the previous paragraph. This is an effective strategy to use with the second body paragraph onwards. You may choose to conclude the paragraph with a summary sentence; however, you are advised not to overuse this type of sentence as it may seem repetitious.

Cohesion and coherence refer to how effectively sentences are connected and how smoothly the writing flows. This is not simply achieved by following a logical paragraph structure, but also by using linking words (e.g. however/furthermore/consequently ) and referring words (e.g. this/that/these/those )

When you develop your argument, remember to use a range of support. You can use examples, logical reasoning, speculation, statistics and citations

Paragraph 1

Write the topic and controlling idea (one sentence).

Support your controlling idea using evidence, examples, elaboration or explanations. Do not go off topic. Do use in-text references.

Sum up the paragraph and link to your thesis OR link to the next paragraph (one sentence).

Paragraph 2

Paragraph 3, 3. conclusion.

The purpose of the conclusion is to summarize the key points you have discussed; however, it often contains a paraphrase of the thesis statement. This helps link the whole essay together. A conclusion may also contain a statement which links the essay to the broader topic or suggests a future action.

You can begin with the phrase ' In conclusion, ' but there are other phrases you could consider: In summary/This assignment has…/In this essay, I have… . Avoid Finally/Briefly/

Remember to reference any sources you have used. Refer to CDU Library for more information on referencing.

Introduction

To save as a PDF, click the Print button and then change your printer destination to "Save As PDF".

Scroll for more content

Mind Map for Essay: Complete Guide With Useful Tips

Edraw content team, planning to create mind map for essays.

EdrawMind is a powerful tool that lets you create mind maps for essays. Learn from this essay writing tips guide to know everything about different essay writing. Try this mind-mapping tool today!

Essay writing is one of the most crucial parts of any academic curriculum. Most students consider writing an essay a dreadful task, but with the correct essay writing tips, one can easily master the techniques. In this article, we will show you the importance of mind maps for essay writing. Creating a mind map for essay writing helps academic students visualize the idea before they start writing it. Here, we will discuss different essays and illustrate how just by creating a mind map in EdrawMind, one can easily write long essays for their academic purpose.

1. What is mind mapping?

Before we begin understanding the benefits of making a mind map for essay writing, we should first understand mind mapping in detail.

In general, mind mapping is a diagramming technique that helps display information visually. Let us suppose you have to write about yourself, including your hobbies, details about your parents, the video games you love to play, and more. In this case, mind mapping would be the technique you will use to visualize the content going along in your 'about me' essay. Since most students prefer to outline their essays before actually converting them into long paragraphs, it is always considered good practice to make a mind map in and around the essay's primary topic.

There are a couple of ways that mind mapping benefits the students who intend to write a good essay.

A student can visualize the entire essay even before starting to write it.
A student can prioritize the segments based on their subtopics.s
A student can go back to the mind map and understand if they have missed out on any important topic.

Once students have created a mind map, they can seemingly convert it into long paragraphs for an essay. In most cases, if a student can add the mind map to the essay, it will help the reader understand the important topics covered in the submitted long piece.

2. Mind Map Helps with All Types of Essays

In academic writing, there are six different types of essay writing. As a student, you can create a mind map for different essays and later use these steps to write the essay itself. Here, we have covered all the six different types of essays and helped you understand how mind maps benefit someone who intends to write astonishing essays.

1. Argumentative Essay

An argumentative essay is a form of essay writing that requires a student to go analytical by investigating a topic, collecting the data, generating the points, evaluating all the gathered evidence, and establishing a position on the topic. As you see, an argumentative essay requires the student to go in-depth about their research. If the student works on a mind map for an argumentative essay, they will be able to properly create different segments while outlining their investigative and evaluative stages.

When a student creates a mind map, it facilitates a visual sketch of the entire material the student has gathered to write the argumentative essay. In addition, by creating a mind map, the student ensures that they have all the relevant information before proceeding to write the essay.

2. Admissions Essay

Admission essays are essays that one writes to get themselves enrolled at any particular college or university. Admission essays mostly consist of a statement of purpose (SOP), a student's academic record, a student's record of extra-curricular activities, references, and personal details. An admission essay is considered a very important piece of writing because it allows the college or university to know the student better and learn more about any specific situation.

College-Admissions-Essay-Sections-mind-map

When a student is writing an admission essay, creating a mind map is extremely handy because it allows the students to jot down the details of all of their achievements in a manner that resonates with the admission process. In a mind map, the student can dedicate a specific portion to their SOP, add their academic record in other subtopics, and then work ahead to showcase their achievements. Once the mind map for the admission essay is created, the student can follow the basic steps to writing an essay.

3. Persuasive Essay

A persuasive essay is a type of essay where a researcher or a student supports their content with facts and logical reasons to sway readers to a particular standpoint. In general, while writing a persuasive essay, the primary intention of the writer is to persuade the reader and convince them on a specific issue.

As you see, a persuasive essay requires a detailed logical argument and an emotional appeal. Most students tend to create a mind map before writing their persuasive essay to find the loopholes in the early stages of essay writing. A persuasive essay consists of three important parts: issue, side, and argument. By creating a mind map for an essay, a student can create these subtopics and work on them individually.

4. Compare-and-Contrast Essay

When students need to point out the similarities and differences between two or more subjects, they create a compare-and-contrast essay around it. Writing a compare-and-contrast essay is great for illustrating what separates and unites related topics, particularly those topics or concepts that are often misinterpreted by each other. In a compare-and-contrast essay, a student does not choose two specific topics to provide a contrast. Rather, they compare and contrast two types of similar topics to highlight subtle differences. For instance, when someone has to compare and contrast between watermelon and muskmelon, they will choose two different breeds of dogs and cats to convey the exact difference.

By creating a contrast-and-compare essay mind map, one can easily note the differences and similarities between two subjects. A mind map will help brainstorm the topic, collect the sources, and outline the essay structure.

5. Personal Essay

As the name suggests, a student writes about their experiences without having to prove any particular point in a personal essay. In personal essays, the author only intends to introduce the topic to the reader and make them aware of the subject and the theme. In most cases, a personal essay is based on feelings, emotions, personal experiences, and personal opinions.

While creating a mind map for a personal essay, the author can work on some important elements, like creating a compelling hook, presenting an engaging story, introducing interesting characters, having an immersive setting, and presenting meaningful conversations. With the help of a mind map, one can easily separate all these elements into subtopics and work on them individually. This way, they can present a more compelling story without missing out on important details.

6. Expository Essay

An expository essay is a long-form essay where the author's primary intent is to explain or describe a particular topic by providing factual information. When an author starts preparing for an expository essay, they start by investigating an idea, evaluating the gathered evidence, expounding on the idea, and concisely presenting an argument. Often, students get confused between expository and argumentative essay writing. The core difference between the two genres is that an expository essay will contain the information and explain the topic in brief. At the same time, an argumentative essay will contain the writer's personal ideas, facts, and other statistics.

Since expository essays contain information based on investigation and evaluation, creating a mind map for such essay writing is recommended. Using a mind map, the author can easily visualize all the evidence related to the information and brainstorm the topic before starting the writing process.

3. Mind Map for Essay: Step by Step

Now that you have understood how students can easily visualize their ideas by creating mind maps for essays, let us give you a detailed step-by-step description of how you can use mind maps for essay writing. It should be noted here that these are generic steps and can easily be applied to all the different types of essay writing.

1 Find Essay's Topic:

The first step in essay writing is coming up with a unique idea or a topic less explored. If you work on an essay topic that is already covered several times by different authors, your research might be hard-pressed to develop a unique standpoint. Instead, it is recommended to come up with the essay topic you are personally interested in, or at least something you can talk about without major complications. Choosing your essay's topic that is close to you will make the entire task of essay writing less monotonous.

Create a mind map in a tool like EdrawMind and name the primary topic, 'Essay Topic.' Now start adding different ideas as its subtopics. These subtopics can be anything that you are closely associated with. For instance, you can add different ideas that your professors might have suggested or some ideas that were previously discussed in the classroom.
Add your own areas of interest to the mind map and try to connect the dots with the ideas that you must have added in the previous step. Once you have a few good ideas that intersect with your interest and the ideas that were previously discussed, you can start weighing them against one another by noting down their respective pros and cons. Remove the ideas that have several cons and start working on that essay topic with maximum pros.

2 Commence Research Process:

Research is one of the most important processes in essay writing. At the same time, students often get confused between different arguments and counterarguments presented to them from different research papers. Students often waste an enormous amount of time just trying to figure out how to put all the different information into one piece. What all these students need is to make a mind map for essay writing where they can easily collect and structure their data and information.

Create a mind map for different sources and make additional notes in these mind maps as you go on through the text. EdrawMind provides you with a comment option that helps in taking additional notes as and when they are required.
Sometimes, students create one single mind map where they list all of their resources and branch them out for every quote and information, they want to use in the essay paper.

3 Outlining Essay Paper in a Mind Map:

Before you start writing your essay, you first create an outline of your paper that will help create a coherent structure of your arguments, counter arguments, examples, and sources. By using a mind map, one can easily review the outline and access the information they require in their essay.

Creating a mind map to outline your essay ensures that one will walk through sources and information more efficiently. It also enables the author to find and review information whenever they are stuck at any point.

4. Useful Tips for Your Essay

Essay writing can be a fun exercise if you follow some of the general steps to writing an essay. A couple of important essay writing tips ensure that your final submission has no plagiarism, no errors, has a proper citation, and does not divert from the primary topic. Some of the most useful essay writing tips are:

Plan & Schedule: After coming up with the right topic for the essay, a student must allocate proper time and schedule their research hours. Most of the time, students underestimate the amount of work required to conduct proper research to write a professional essay and end up submitting an essay that will fetch them poor grades. It is always advisable to plan and schedule the essay writing in such a way that they get proper time for researching, and a good amount of time in writing, followed by sufficient time to conduct the second round of editing.
Structure, Flow, & Focus: If you have not decided on the right flow of your essay, chances are your reader might not be able to relate to it. So, whenever you start writing the essay, ensure that you have properly summarized the core introduction and main body and presented your case that leads towards a proper conclusion. By structuring and focusing on the flow, each section of your essay will add a definitive value to the argument that you are presenting. At the same time, you should also perform multiple revisions just to confirm that the different parts of your essay fit together as a logical whole.
Proper Style and Formatting: A good essay is about the argument and the narrative structure, but at the same time, the style tends to influence your readers, as that is the very first thing the reader will see when they look at your essay submission. Before writing down the essay, understand the formatting and styling criteria from your professor. You can even consult them about the language guide and the style that you have to follow while submitting the essay. It might look like a very simple or a basic step, but when an author submits an essay that has a proper table of content, introduction pages, bibliography, indexes, annexures, and references, the reader will get an idea that the author has done their proper research before writing the essay.
Visualize the idea: In most cases, authors start writing the essay as soon as they get an idea. However, if the content is large and the project demands multiple rounds of revisions, it is highly recommended to go ahead and create a mind map. A mind map for essays will help the author visualize the content in a concrete manner. At the same time, by creating a mind map, you will be able to follow the timeline and have sufficient time to make revisions.

5. Key Takeaways

Regardless of the course of study and institution, essay writing is one of the most important curriculum activities for all grades. Even the graduates and postgraduate students need to submit their research paper that somehow starts by writing long-form essays. In this elaborate guide, we walked you through different types of essay writing and helped you understand how making a mind map for an essay is not only a logical activity but also saves you time and other important resources. Instead of wasting your time and money on complicated tools, you should start using EdrawMind, which has hundreds of templates for educational, business, and personal use.

Unlike other tools, EdrawMind has an amazing user interface that provides easy drag-and-drop features. From changing the theme of your mind map to adding different comments in subtopics, you can modify your mind map in any way you desire. So, what are you waiting for? Download EdrawMind today and make a mind map for the essay. You can also try using EdrawMind Online, which comes with a personal cloud.

Health Mind Map Complete Guide With 10+ Examples

Personal mind map complete guide with 10+ examples, business mind map complete guide with 30+ examples, mind map ideas for students: explained with 30+ examples, biology concept map complete guide with 30+ examples.

A clear, arguable thesis will tell your readers where you are going to end up, but it can also help you figure out how to get them there. Put your thesis at the top of a blank page and then make a list of the points you will need to make to argue that thesis effectively.

For example, consider this example from the thesis handout : While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake”(54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well”(51) is less convincing.

To argue this thesis, the author needs to do the following:

Show what is persuasive about Sandel’s claims about the problems with striving for perfection.
Show what is not convincing about Sandel’s claim that we can clearly distinguish between medically necessary enhancements and other enhancements.

Once you have broken down your thesis into main claims, you can then think about what sub-claims you will need to make in order to support each of those main claims. That step might look like this:

Evidence that Sandel provides to support this claim
Discussion of why this evidence is convincing even in light of potential counterarguments
Discussion of cases when medically necessary enhancement and non-medical enhancement cannot be easily distinguished
Analysis of what those cases mean for Sandel’s argument
Consideration of counterarguments (what Sandel might say in response to this section of your argument)

Each argument you will make in an essay will be different, but this strategy will often be a useful first step in figuring out the path of your argument.

Strategy #2: Use subheadings, even if you remove them later

Scientific papers generally include standard subheadings to delineate different sections of the paper, including “introduction,” “methods,” and “discussion.” Even when you are not required to use subheadings, it can be helpful to put them into an early draft to help you see what you’ve written and to begin to think about how your ideas fit together. You can do this by typing subheadings above the sections of your draft.

If you’re having trouble figuring out how your ideas fit together, try beginning with informal subheadings like these:

Introduction
Explain the author’s main point
Show why this main point doesn’t hold up when we consider this other example
Explain the implications of what I’ve shown for our understanding of the author
Show how that changes our understanding of the topic

For longer papers, you may decide to include subheadings to guide your reader through your argument. In those cases, you would need to revise your informal subheadings to be more useful for your readers. For example, if you have initially written in something like “explain the author’s main point,” your final subheading might be something like “Sandel’s main argument” or “Sandel’s opposition to genetic enhancement.” In other cases, once you have the key pieces of your argument in place, you will be able to remove the subheadings.

Strategy #3: Create a reverse outline from your draft

While you may have learned to outline a paper before writing a draft, this step is often difficult because our ideas develop as we write. In some cases, it can be more helpful to write a draft in which you get all of your ideas out and then do a “reverse outline” of what you’ve already written. This doesn’t have to be formal; you can just make a list of the point in each paragraph of your draft and then ask these questions:

Are those points in an order that makes sense to you?
Are there gaps in your argument?
Do the topic sentences of the paragraphs clearly state these main points?
Do you have more than one paragraph that focuses on the same point? If so, do you need both paragraphs?
Do you have some paragraphs that include too many points? If so, would it make more sense to split them up?
Do you make points near the end of the draft that would be more effective earlier in your paper?
Are there points missing from this draft?
picture_as_pdf Tips for Organizing Your Essay

Graduate Writing Center

Introductions, thesis statements, and roadmaps - graduate writing center.

Citations / Avoiding Plagiarism
Critical Thinking
Discipline-Specific Resources
Generative AI
iThenticate FAQ
Types of Papers
Standard Paper Structure

Introductions, Thesis Statements, and Roadmaps

Body Paragraphs and Topic Sentences
Literature Reviews
Conclusions
Executive Summaries and Abstracts
Punctuation
Style: Clarity and Concision
Writing Process
Writing a Thesis
Quick Clips & Tips
Presentations and Graphics

The first paragraph or two of any paper should be constructed with care, creating a path for both the writer and reader to follow. However, it is very common to adjust the introduction more than once over the course of drafting and revising your document. In fact, it is normal (and often very useful, or even essential!) to heavily revise your introduction after you've finished composing the paper, since that is most likely when you have the best grasp on what you've been aiming to say.

The introduction is your opportunity to efficiently establish for your reader the topic and significance of your discussion, the focused argument or claim you’ll make contained in your thesis statement, and a sense of how your presentation of information will proceed.

There are a few things to avoid in crafting good introductions. Steer clear of unnecessary length: you should be able to effectively introduce the critical elements of any project a page or less. Another pitfall to watch out for is providing excessive history or context before clearly stating your own purpose. Finally, don’t lose time stalling because you can't think of a good first line. A funny or dramatic opener for your paper (also known as “a hook”) can be a nice touch, but it is by no means a required element in a good academic paper.

Introductions, Thesis Statements, and Roadmaps Links

Short video (5:47): " Writing an Introduction to a Paper ," GWC
Handout (printable): " Introductions ," University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Writing Center
Handout (printable): " Thesis Statements ," University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Writing Center
NPS-specific one-page (printable) S ample Thesis Chapter Introduction with Roadmap , from "Venezuela: A Revolution on Standby," Luis Calvo
Short video (3:39): " Writing Ninjas: How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement "
Video (5:06): " Thesis Statements ," Purdue OWL

Writing Topics A–Z

This index makes findings topics easy and links to the most relevant page for each item. Please email us at [email protected] if we're missing something!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

How to Use Mind Map In Writing – A Thorough Guide

This guide is brought to you by Zen Mind Map, the simplest mind map maker.

Before we can delve into using a mind map for writing, we must first understand what a mind map is. Apparently, there are many self-published authors who launch successful book releases by a creative writing exercise called mind mapping.

Mind mapping is one of many idea-generating strategies that rely on the association, which then comes out as a diagram with figures, facts, concept maps, phrases, keywords, etc. Overall, it is a powerful writing habit inspiration, especially for first-time authors.

There can never be two similar mind maps, even if you use the same mapping software . However, there are some arbitrary steps that you must follow for this approach:

Choosing a central idea
Creating ideas connecting to this subject
Adding in colors / images to associate with these ideas
Rearranging the map so that it doesn’t look confusing
Reviewing and storing the map for a subsequent writing process

How To Use Mind Map For Writing Process?

Using a mind map to find your topic, choose the central idea .

Indeed, the very first thing to do is to decide on the backbone of your essay, which is the subject. The best approach is to pick a topic that allows you to provide new findings/conclusions.

The ideal topic should interest you, as it makes the process much less unbearable. At this stage, put something like “My Essay” in the center of your piece of paper.

Write Down Areas Of Interest (Potential Topics)

The next thing to do is surround the center with ideas, which is very easy if you have some mind mapping tools. They can range from suggestions from your professor, subjects discussed in class to anything relevant.

Subsequently, quickly start noting down some areas in which you find interesting - They can be anything, as it does not need to be related to the main topic at this step strictly. Remember to use mind map templates with a clear color scheme.

All you need to do is write down anything that pops up in your mind, preferably instinctively.

Review Their Relationships/Intersection

Now you have two sets of branches, one being the relevant ideas and the other being your personal interest. Find areas where these two sets intersect with each other.

This process results in a set of ideas that are both relevant to your goal and your interest.

Weigh Them Against Each Other With Pros And Cons

The next step is to weigh every idea in the set, analyzing each idea’s pros and cons.

Start The Elimination Process

Start the elimination process once you get the pros and cons of every single concept. Compare the list of advantages and disadvantages carefully, but mostly on the disadvantages.

Yet, remember that challenges are inevitable, but they should never hinder you from turning in your work.

Eliminate the choices until there is only one.

Using A Mind Map Standard To Compile Research Materials

Make a new branch for each source .

With this approach, the topic will be listed in the center of your map, and the child branches will be the secondary sources. From these branches, create smaller ones consisting of the secondary source’s topic, central idea, and quotes.

This method most benefits projects that do not require you to focus entirely on primary source material. Instead, find other similar types of writing and present the link between them to enforce your point.

Make A Branch For Each Area Of Your Topic

There are some involvements from the secondary sources, but they are not prominent.

Note everything you need onto the map while working through the source’s text. You need to work a lot more, but the payback will absolutely be worth it.

Using A Mind Map To Layout Your Outline

You will get a well-structured thesis outline out from the mind map. It allows you to generate a coherent structure consisting of examples, quotes, arguments, counter-arguments, etc., without losing grasp.

The visual representations of mind maps mean that you can quickly review your outline whenever you need to. All it takes is one look, and you can track your entire text structure from the thesis statement.

However, there certainly are some specific things that you need to pay attention to for a better creative process:

Put a link between each topic with a corresponding research map created independently.
Next, put in some notes or deadlines at each level, ensuring that the writing project is never behind schedule.
Going over the deadline is always the clearest sign of bad writing.
The last thing to do is export your finished mind map for easier access.

The Rules Of Mind Map For Writing Process

The subject you want to discuss should always be at the center of the map.
Branches should be going out, each representing one single idea relating to the subject.
The last rule to keep in mind is the use of visuals such as images, icons, and color themes. They will serve as mental triggers, sparking more ideas within your brain to create a positive loop within your brain.

What Are The Benefits Of Mind Map For Writing?

Newbie authors will have a complete overview of the entire topic and a clear flow of ideas.
The second benefit of mind maps is that they let you see how the main topic connects with its supporting pieces. This results in an easier time planning resource materials and when to use them.
Finally, this approach provides a much more enjoyable and attractive format to supply information to your brain. You will, in turn, remember the information more clearly, improving your writing potential.

Related Guides

Flowchart guides, brought to you by, zen flowchart.

Ebooks & Courses
Practice Tests

How To Write an IELTS Map Essay

IELTS map questions are the easiest to answer. There are no numbers to analyse, just 2 or 3 maps to compare. Very occasionally, there might only be a single map, but this is rare.

The maps will be of the same location at different times. This could be in the past, the present time or a plan for a proposed development in the future. You are required to write about the changes you see between the maps.

There are 5 steps to writing a high-scoring IELTS map essay:

1) Analyse the question

2) Identify the main features

3) Write an introduction

4) Write an overview

5) Write the details paragraphs

I must emphasise the importance of steps 1 and 2. It is essential that you complete this planning stage properly before you start writing. You’ll understand why when I guide you through it. It should only take 5 minutes, leaving you a full 15 minute to write your essay.

In this lesson, we’re going to work through the 5 stages step-by-step as we answer a practice IELTS map question.

Before we begin, here’s a model essay structure that you can use as a guideline for all IELTS Academic Task 1 questions.

Ideally, your essay should have 4 paragraphs:

Paragraph 1 – Introduction

Paragraph 2 – Overview

Paragraph 3 – 1 st main feature

Paragraph 4 – 2 nd main feature

We now have everything we need to begin planning and writing our IELTS map essay.

Here’s our practice question:

The maps below show the village of Stokeford in 1930 and 2010.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Step 1 – Analyse the question

The format of every Academic Task 1 question is the same. Here is our practice question again with the words that will be included in all questions highlighted.

Every question consists of:

Sentence 1 – A brief description of the graphic
Sentence 2 – The instructions
The graphic – map, chart, graph, table, etc.

Sentence 2 tells you what you have to do.

You must do 3 things:

1. Select the main features.

2. Write about the main features.

3. Compare the main features.

All three tasks refer to the ‘ main features ’ of the graphic. You do not have to write about everything. Just pick out 2 or 3 key features and you’ll have plenty to write about.

Step 2 – Identify the Main Features

All you are looking for are the main features. Start with the earliest map. Identify the key features and look to see how they have changed in the later map, and again in the final map if there are three.

Here are some useful questions to ask?

1) What time periods are shown?

Are the maps of past, present or future situations? This is important to note because it will determine whether you write your essay using past, present or future tenses.

The two maps in our practice IELTS map question show the village of Stokeford at two different times in the past. This immediately tells us that we will need to use the past tense in our essay.

2) What are the main differences between the maps?

What features have disappeared? What new features are in their place?

3) What features have remained the same over the time period?

Although the location on the maps will have undergone major development, some features may remain unchanged.

Also, think about directional language you can use, such as:

So, what information is contained our maps? Here they are again.

Source: IELTS past paper

There are a number of different features we could select such as, the loss of the shops, the disappearance of farmland, the enlargement of the school and the development of the large house into a retirement home.

Many maps will contain far more changes than our sample maps and the changes may be more complex. In such cases, you won’t have time to write about all of them and will need to select just 2 or 3 main features to focus on.

Our maps are quite simple so we’ll list all 4 of the major changes I’ve just identified.

Main feature 1: The farmland has been built on.

Main feature 2: The large house has been converted into a retirement home.

Main feature 3: The school has been enlarged.

Main feature 4: The shops have disappeared.

The key features you select will be the starting point for your IELTS map essay. You will then go on to add more detail later. However, with just 20 minutes allowed for Task 1, and a requirement of only 150 words, you won't be able to include many details.

We’re now ready to begin writing our essay. Here’s a reminder of the 4 part structure we’re going to use.

For this essay, we’ll adapt this a little to write about two of the features in Paragraph 3 and the other two features in Paragraph 4.

Step 3 – Write an Introduction

In the introduction, you should simply paraphrase the question, that is, say the same thing in a different way. You can do this by using synonyms and changing the sentence structure. For example:

Introduction (Paragraph 1):

The two maps illustrate how the village of Stokeford, situated on the east bank of the River Stoke, changed over an 80 year period from 1930 to 2010.

This is all you need to do for the introduction.

Step 4 – Write an Overview (Paragraph 2)

In the second paragraph, you should describe the general changes that have taken place. The detail comes later in the essay.

State the information simply. No elaborate vocabulary or grammar structures are required, just the appropriate words and correct verb tenses.

For example:

Overview (Paragraph 2):

There was considerable development of the settlement over these years and it was gradually transformed from a small rural village into a largely residential area.

Two sentences would be better than one for the second paragraph but we’ll be getting into the detail if we say more about these maps at this point, so we’ll leave the overview as one sentence.

Step 5 – Write the 1st Detail Paragraph

Paragraphs 3 and 4 of your IELTS map essay are where you include more detailed information. In paragraph 3, you should give evidence to support your first 1or 2 key features.

In the case of our main features, 1 and 3 are closely related so we’ll write about these two together.

Here they are again:

And this is an example of what you could write:

Paragraph 3 :

The most notable change is the presence of housing in 2010 on the areas that were farmland back in 1930. New roads were constructed on this land and many residential properties built. In response to the considerable increase in population, the primary school was extended to around double the size of the previous building.

Step 6 – Write the 2nd Detail Paragraph

For the fourth and final paragraph, you do the same thing for your remaining key features.

Here are the two we have left:

This is an example of what you could write:

Paragraph 4 :

Whilst the post office remained as a village amenity, the two shops that can be seen to the north-west of the school in 1930, no longer existed by 2010, having been replaced by houses. There also used to be an extensive property standing in its own large gardens situated to the south-east of the school. At some time between 1930 and 2010, this was extended and converted into a retirement home. This was another significant transformation for the village.

Here are the four paragraphs brought together to create our finished essay.

Finished IELTS Map Essay

This sample IELTS map essay is well over the minimum word limit so you can see that you don’t have space to include very much detail at all. That’s why it is essential to select just a couple of main features to write about.

Now use what you’ve learnt in this lesson to practice answering other IELTS map questions. Start slowly at first and keep practicing until you can plan and write a complete essay in around 20 minutes.

Want to watch and listen to this lesson?

Click on this video.

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

Click on the HTML link code below.
Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Like this page?

Ielts academic writing task 1 – all lessons.

IELTS Academic Writing – A summary of the test including important facts, test format & assessment.

Academic Writing Task 1 – The format, the 7 question types & sample questions, assessment & marking criteria. All the key information you need to know.

Understanding Task 1 Questions – How to quickly and easily analyse and understand IELTS Writing Task 2 questions.

How To Plan a Task 1 Essay – Discover 3 reasons why you must plan, the 4 simple steps of essay planning and learn a simple 4 part essay structure.

Vocabulary for Task 1 Essays – Learn key vocabulary for a high-scoring essay. Word lists & a downloadable PDF.

Grammar for Task 1 Essays – Essential grammar for Task 1 Academic essays including, verb tenses, key sentence structures, articles & prepositions.

The 7 Question Types:

Click the links below for a step-by-step lesson on each type of Task 1 question.

Table Chart
Process Diagram
Multiple Graphs
IELTS Writing
IELTS Maps Essays
Back To Top

* New * Grammar For IELTS Ebooks

$9.99 each Full Set Just $ 23.97

Find Out More >>

IELTS Courses

Full details...

IELTS Writing Ebook

Discount Offer

$7 each Full Set Just $ 21

Find out more >>

Testimonials

“I am very excited to have found such fabulous and detailed content. I commend your good work.” Jose M.

“Thanks for the amazing videos. These are ‘to the point’, short videos, beautifully explained with practical examples." Adari J.

"Hi Jacky, I bought a listening book from you this morning. You know what? I’m 100% satisfied. It’s super helpful. If I’d had the chance to read this book 7 years ago, my job would be very different now." Loi H.

"Hi Jacky, I recently got my IELTS results and I was pleased to discover that I got an 8.5 score. I'm firmly convinced your website and your videos played a strategic role in my preparation. I was able to improve my writing skills thanks to the effective method you provide. I also only relied on your tips regarding the reading section and I was able to get a 9! Thank you very much." Giano

“After listening to your videos, I knew I had to ditch every other IELTS tutor I'd been listening to. Your explanations are clear and easy to understand. Anyways, I took the test a few weeks ago and my result came back: Speaking 7, listening 9, Reading 8.5 and Writing 7 with an average band score of 8. Thanks, IELTS Jacky." Laide Z.

Contact

About Me

Site Map

Disclaimer

IELTS changes lives.

Let's work together so it changes yours too.

IELTS is a registered trademark of the University of Cambridge, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia. This site and its owners are not affiliated, approved or endorsed by the University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia.

Skip to primary navigation
Skip to main content
Skip to primary sidebar
Skip to footer

Don't Miss a Post! Subscribe

Guest Posts

Educational AI
Edtech Tools
Edtech Apps
Teacher Resources
Special Education
Edtech for Kids
Buying Guides for Teachers

Educators Technology

Innovative EdTech for teachers, educators, parents, and students

Canva Magic Write: A Great AI Writing Tool for Teachers and Students

By Med Kharbach, PhD | Last Update: May 16, 2024

As an EdTech blogger and educator, I have always found immense joy in bringing you the latest advancements from the intersecting worlds of education and technology. Today, we journey together into the burgeoning world of educational AI . My aim? To help you harness the power of these innovations, not just to augment your teaching techniques but also to bolster your professional growth.

Today, I am thrilled to introduce you to a groundbreaking tool, Magic Write, from the creators of the well-loved design platform – Canva. Fusing the power of AI with the intricacies of writing, Magic Write promises to be a powerful assistant for students across various educational levels.

Its primary mission? To combat the infamous writer’s block, helping students to confidently take the first step on their writing journey.

I must emphasize, however, that as we delve into the world of AI, it is essential to remember the role these tools play in our lives and classrooms. AI tools like Magic Write are akin to supportive companions on our educational journey.

They’re here to aid in idea generation, refine writing styles, and polish our content. But they should never replace the creative thinking and unique expression that is intrinsic to each individual learner.

That being said, let’s now take a closer look at Magic Write and explore its affordances and applications in educational settings.

Why Magic Write?

Like several other AI text writers I covered here in Educators Technology, Magic Write is a great tool to help students and teachers overcome the blank page syndrome, aka, the writer’s block.

The sight of a blank page can be intimidating, especially when you’re trying to start an essay or create a lesson plan. Magic Write is here to help. Simply tell Magic Write your idea or topic, and it will provide a suitable starting point, turning the daunting blank page into a springboard for your thoughts.

Whether you’re brainstorming for a class project or designing a lesson plan, type your requirements into Magic Write, and watch as your document begins to take shape in mere seconds. Need to convert a paragraph into a list or paraphrase an existing text? Magic Write has you covered.

Enhance Your Educational Content

Educators can take their lesson plans, lectures, and learning materials to the next level with Magic Write. It effortlessly generates drafts for lesson plans, classroom activities, study guides, and more, all ready for you to proofread and fine-tune. What’s more, Magic Write can adapt to any tone of voice, making it versatile for every classroom setting.

Empower Student Creativity

Students can now spend less time worrying about how to start assignments and more time exploring their creativity. With Magic Write, all it takes is a few clicks to generate a starting point for essays, projects, and presentations. Even non-academic tasks like creating an invitation for a school event or writing a birthday card are made easier and fun with Magic Write.

Visual Learning and Collaboration

Staying true to Canva’s visually-focused approach, Canva Docs makes it simple for teachers to create engaging visual aids and for students to produce eye-catching assignments. With Design Blocks, you can create and edit any Canva design within your document. And don’t forget about Canva’s impressive library of over 100 million design elements ready to be incorporated into your work.

Canva Docs encourages real-time collaboration, allowing teachers to work together on lesson plans or students on group projects. You’ll also receive notifications when you’re tagged in a Canva Doc, someone comments on your document, or when you’re invited to review a document.

Transformative Features on the Horizon

In addition to Magic Write, Canva introduces Docs for Decks, a feature that allows you to convert your Canva Doc into a full-fledged presentation in an instant.

Sharing your work has never been easier. Share your Canva Docs with your classmates, teachers, or make them public with options to comment, view, or even edit. They can even be shared as an interactive website for a truly engaging experience.

Examples of how students can use Canva Magic Write

Here are some examples of how students can leverage Magic Write in their academic work. Remember, Magic Write is designed to assist in the writing process, not replace it. It can provide a great starting point, but students should always review and adjust the generated content to ensure it meets their assignment’s specific requirements and reflects their unique perspective.

Essay Writing : Magic Write can be a boon for students struggling to start their essays. By simply inputting their essay topic, students can receive a well-crafted introduction or outline to kick-start their writing process.
Project Proposals : When planning for a group project, students can use Magic Write to draft a project proposal. They can input their project’s objectives and expected outcomes, and Magic Write will create a professional-looking proposal that they can then fine-tune.
Presentation Creation : Crafting a compelling presentation can be challenging. With Magic Write, students can enter their presentation topic, and it will generate relevant content, which can then be further customized.
Paraphrasing and Summarizing : Magic Write can help students paraphrase or summarize dense academic texts. They can highlight the text they need help with and ask Magic Write to rewrite it in a simpler format or summarize the key points.
Creative Writing : For assignments involving creative writing like short stories or poems, students can provide Magic Write with a theme or a starting sentence, and it will generate a creative piece for them to expand upon.
Resume Writing : When preparing for internships or job applications, students can use Magic Write to create a professional resume . By providing their academic achievements and skills, Magic Write can draft a strong resume, which they can then personalize.
Learning Reflections : After completing a chapter or a course, students can ask Magic Write to help draft a reflection or a review. They can input what they’ve learned and their thoughts about the course, and Magic Write will generate a reflective piece that they can then modify.

Is Magic Write Free?

Canva’s Magic Write is designed to cater to both free and Pro users of the platform. If you’re a free user, you can access and use Magic Write up to 25 times, providing ample opportunities to try out this innovative feature and see how it enhances your writing process.

For those who have a Pro subscription, the access is even broader. Pro users can take advantage of Magic Write up to 75 times per billing month. This significantly expanded access allows Pro users to fully integrate Magic Write into their regular writing and content creation tasks.

To utilize this AI-powered assistant, you need to head over to Canva Docs, where you can create new documents and access Magic Write directly from the text editor. It’s designed to be as user-friendly and accessible as possible, ensuring you can start leveraging this AI technology to enrich your writing experience in no time.

Join our mailing list

Never miss an EdTech beat! Subscribe now for exclusive insights and resources .

Meet Med Kharbach, PhD

Dr. Med Kharbach is an influential voice in the global educational technology landscape, with an extensive background in educational studies and a decade-long experience as a K-12 teacher. Holding a Ph.D. from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, he brings a unique perspective to the educational world by integrating his profound academic knowledge with his hands-on teaching experience. Dr. Kharbach's academic pursuits encompass curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, emerging literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies. His work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in various esteemed academic journals.

Join our email list for exclusive EdTech content.

IMAGES

Top 9 Essay Generator Tools To Get Quick Essays Instantly
Essay Map Examples
Essay Map
How To Write An Essay Map
PPT
Mind Map for Essay: Complete Guide With Useful Tips

VIDEO

How To Make Essay Recipe Mini Zinger Pockets by Eman Cook Show//Mini Chicken Pockets Recipe#
CONCLUSIONS
If you want to write your name in Minecraft with concrete art 👍 #gaminggenix #minecraftbuild #2024
How to Write an Essay in One Minute #viral #exam
10 Lines On Maps In English / Essay About Maps In English / Uses Of Maps /
10 Lines Essay On Map

COMMENTS

PDF The Thesis Statement and the Essay Map
The Thesis Statement: What It Does. The thesis statement expresses the central idea of the essay; i.e., it unifies the content of the essay by stating the main idea of the paper. EXAMPLE: Increasing the state tax on cigarettes will adversely affect not only the nicotine addict but his or her family as well. This sentence states that the essay ...
How to Plan an Essay Using a Mind Map: Useful Tips & Examples
Orient your paper so that it is in landscape position. If you don't have colored pencils or markers, don't worry. You can still make a mind map with just a pen or pencil! 2. Write your topic in the center of the page. This can be just a word or two, or it can be the thesis you have already decided on.
Mind Maps for Essay Writing (Guide + Examples)
A mind map is a diagram that displays information visually. You can create mind maps using pen and paper, or you can use an online mind mapping tool such as MindMeister. Whatever you use, the rules for creating a mind map are simple: 1) Write the subject in the center of your paper / canvas. 2) Draw branches that point away from the center.
Mind Map for Essay: Guide, Models, and Examples
Mind Map for Essay Benefits; How to Create a Mind Map for an Essay; Effective Essay Writing Edit this example. A mind map for writing an essay is a written piece in which you convey a certain topic and then back it up with facts, claims, analyses, and explanations. The five-paragraph essay is the most common style of an essay, though an essay ...
The Writing Center
Outlining is a tool we use in the writing process to help organize our ideas, visualize our paper's potential structure, and to further flesh out and develop points. It allows the writer to understand how he or she will connect information to support the thesis statement and the claims of the paper. An outline provides the writer with a space ...
PDF Essay Map
Essay Map Introduction: Write one or two sentences that introduce your topic, including a brief description of the main ideas. Main Ideas: List the main ideas about your topic that you will include in your essay. There can be important facts you'd like to describe, points you'd like to explain, or elements you'd like to define.
How to Structure an Essay
The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body. This article provides useful templates and tips to help you outline your essay, make decisions about your structure, and ...
PDF Essay Planning: Visual Mapping
Place the topic of the essay in the middle of the page or flush against one side of the page. The topic can be a word, phrase, or complete sentence. It should be the thing around which the visual map focuses. All main points of the visual map should relate directly to the topic. The topic in this example is in a large box. Main Points
Essay Map
Use Essay Maps that were completed by students to create a class-generated essay. Begin by assigning a single topic to the class. Topics for younger or less advanced students might include, "A Description of Our School," "Field Trip Ideas for Our Class," and "Things to Do in Our Town/City.". Topics for older or advanced students can ...
Essay Map
Use Essay Map to plan and organize your essays with an interactive graphic organizer. Learn expository writing skills and improve your grades.
Mind Maps for Essay Writing
Here's a step-by-step guide: 1. Start in the center: Write your main idea or essay prompt in the center of the page and draw a circle around it. 2. Branch out: From your central idea, draw lines out towards the edges of your page representing the main thoughts or ideas related to your topic.
Idea Map/Web
Thus making an idea map (also sometimes called an idea web) may be for you. To make an idea map: Put your topic at the center, draw a circle around it, and draw four or five lines extending from it: At the ends of those lines, write down any related ideas you think of and circle those. Add any ideas and lines coming off of those "subtopics" (I ...
The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay
Come up with a thesis. Create an essay outline. Write the introduction. Write the main body, organized into paragraphs. Write the conclusion. Evaluate the overall organization. Revise the content of each paragraph. Proofread your essay or use a Grammar Checker for language errors. Use a plagiarism checker.
What Is a Mind Map? Free Mind Map Templates & Examples
Your mind map should look something like the example below: 5. Add symbols and images to help you remember. While making mind maps for writing essays, it's essential to use any techniques that can help you remember information better. A great way to ensure this is to use symbols and images to signify specific things.
Essay Mapping Tool
Analyse the task → Gather content → Plan → Draft → Edit. This tool may help you to bridge from planning to drafting by helping you arrange your sentences in a logical order. It also provides tips for each component of an essay - the introduction, body, and conclusion. It can be used to improve your understanding of essay writing in ...
Mind Map for Essay: Complete Guide With Useful Tips
Most students tend to create a mind map before writing their persuasive essay to find the loopholes in the early stages of essay writing. A persuasive essay consists of three important parts: issue, side, and argument. By creating a mind map for an essay, a student can create these subtopics and work on them individually. 4. Compare-and ...
Tips for Organizing Your Essay
Strategy #1: Decompose your thesis into paragraphs. A clear, arguable thesis will tell your readers where you are going to end up, but it can also help you figure out how to get them there. Put your thesis at the top of a blank page and then make a list of the points you will need to make to argue that thesis effectively.
Introductions, Thesis Statements, and Roadmaps
Introductions, Thesis Statements, and Roadmaps. The first paragraph or two of any paper should be constructed with care, creating a path for both the writer and reader to follow. However, it is very common to adjust the introduction more than once over the course of drafting and revising your document. In fact, it is normal (and often very ...
Essay Map
Grades. 3 - 12. Launch the tool! Expository writing is an increasingly important skill for elementary, middle, and high school students to master. This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline that includes an introductory statement, main ideas they want to discuss or describe, supporting details, and a conclusion that ...
PDF Essay Planning: Outlining with a Purpose
Outlining is a vital part of the essay planning process. It allows the writer to understand how he or she will connect all the information to support the thesis statement and the claims of the paper. It also provides the writer with a space to manipulate ideas easily without needing to write complete paragraphs.
How to Use Mind Map In Writing
Mind Map in Writing. The ideal topic should interest you, as it makes the process much less unbearable. At this stage, put something like "My Essay" in the center of your piece of paper. Write Down Areas Of Interest (Potential Topics) The next thing to do is surround the center with ideas, which is very easy if you have some mind mapping tools.
IELTS Map
You are required to write about the changes you see between the maps. There are 5 steps to writing a high-scoring IELTS map essay: 1) Analyse the question. 2) Identify the main features. 3) Write an introduction. 4) Write an overview. 5) Write the details paragraphs. I must emphasise the importance of steps 1 and 2.
Canva Magic Write: A Great AI Writing Tool for Teachers and Students
Essay Writing: Magic Write can be a boon for students struggling to start their essays. By simply inputting their essay topic, students can receive a well-crafted introduction or outline to kick-start their writing process. Project Proposals: When planning for a group project, students can use Magic Write to draft a project proposal. They can ...

How to Create a Mind Map for Essay Writing

Generating Your Map

Things You Should Know

You Might Also Like

About This Article

Reader Success Stories

Did this article help you?

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

Mind Maps for Essay Writing (Guide + Examples)

What Is a Mind Map?

Step 1: Using a Mind Map to Find a Good Topic for Your Essay

How to brainstorm topic ideas in a mind map

Step 2: Start the Research Process

How to collect research in a mind map

Step 3: Outline Your Paper in a Mind Map

Free Mind Map for Essay Templates by GitMind

Free Mind Map for Essay by GitMind

Related posts:

Leave a Comment

Mind Maps for Essay Writing: A Comprehensive Guide with Examples and Tips

Understanding Mind Maps: Definition and Benefits

How to Create a Mind Map for an Essay

How to Use Mind Maps for Effective Essay Writing

Step 1: Using a Mind Map to Find a Good Topic for Your Essay

Brainstorming Topic Ideas with a Mind Map

Step 2: Start the Research Process

Collecting Research in a Mind Map

Step 3: Outlining Essay Paper in a Mind Map

5 Examples of Mind Maps for Essay Writing

Example 1: Argumentative Essay Mind Map

Example 2: Descriptive Essay Mind Map

Example 3: Compare and Contrast Essay Mind Map

Example 4: Cause and Effect Essay Mind Map

Example 5: Narrative Essay Mind Map

Some Tips and Tricks for Effective Mind Mapping

Reinventing Essay Writing with Mind Maps

Join Boardmix to collaborate with your team.

Enhanced Risk Management through Decision Tree Analysis

What is Go-to-Market Strategy and How to Build One?

How to Create a Visual Customer Journey Map – Practical Guide for PM

Have a language expert improve your writing

The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Table of contents

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

1. Hook your reader

2. Provide background on your topic

3. Present the thesis statement

4. Map the structure

Length of the body text

Paragraph structure

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

What not to include in a conclusion

Checklist: Essay

Is this article helpful?

More interesting articles

Get unlimited documents corrected

Academic Editing and Proofreading

Academic Research

Academic Writing & Publishing

What Is a Mind Map? Free Mind Map Templates & Examples

Checklist: Dissertation Proposal

Examples: Edited Papers

What is a mind map?

Why use mind maps?

How to make a mind map

1. Start with a central idea

2. Add related ideas

3. Create a hierarchy of ideas

4. Review and refine the map

5. Add symbols and images to help you remember

Free mind map templates

1. Basic map that radiates outward

Frequently Asked Questions

Your vs. You’re: When to Use Your and You’re

Essay Mapping Tool

1. Introduction

Paragraph 1