essay map university

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

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• How to structure an essay: Templates and tips

How to Structure an Essay | Tips & Templates

Published on September 18, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

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.

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Table of contents

The basics of essay structure, chronological structure, compare-and-contrast structure, problems-methods-solutions structure, signposting to clarify your structure, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay structure.

There are two main things to keep in mind when working on your essay structure: making sure to include the right information in each part, and deciding how you’ll organize the information within the body.

Parts of an essay

The three parts that make up all essays are described in the table below.

Order of information

You’ll also have to consider how to present information within the body. There are a few general principles that can guide you here.

The first is that your argument should move from the simplest claim to the most complex . The body of a good argumentative essay often begins with simple and widely accepted claims, and then moves towards more complex and contentious ones.

For example, you might begin by describing a generally accepted philosophical concept, and then apply it to a new topic. The grounding in the general concept will allow the reader to understand your unique application of it.

The second principle is that background information should appear towards the beginning of your essay . General background is presented in the introduction. If you have additional background to present, this information will usually come at the start of the body.

The third principle is that everything in your essay should be relevant to the thesis . Ask yourself whether each piece of information advances your argument or provides necessary background. And make sure that the text clearly expresses each piece of information’s relevance.

The sections below present several organizational templates for essays: the chronological approach, the compare-and-contrast approach, and the problems-methods-solutions approach.

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The chronological approach (sometimes called the cause-and-effect approach) is probably the simplest way to structure an essay. It just means discussing events in the order in which they occurred, discussing how they are related (i.e. the cause and effect involved) as you go.

A chronological approach can be useful when your essay is about a series of events. Don’t rule out other approaches, though—even when the chronological approach is the obvious one, you might be able to bring out more with a different structure.

Explore the tabs below to see a general template and a specific example outline from an essay on the invention of the printing press.

• Thesis statement
• Discussion of event/period
• Consequences
• Importance of topic
• Strong closing statement
• Claim that the printing press marks the end of the Middle Ages
• Background on the low levels of literacy before the printing press
• Thesis statement: The invention of the printing press increased circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation
• High levels of illiteracy in medieval Europe
• Literacy and thus knowledge and education were mainly the domain of religious and political elites
• Consequence: this discouraged political and religious change
• Invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg
• Implications of the new technology for book production
• Consequence: Rapid spread of the technology and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible
• Trend for translating the Bible into vernacular languages during the years following the printing press’s invention
• Luther’s own translation of the Bible during the Reformation
• Consequence: The large-scale effects the Reformation would have on religion and politics
• Summarize the history described
• Stress the significance of the printing press to the events of this period

Essays with two or more main subjects are often structured around comparing and contrasting . For example, a literary analysis essay might compare two different texts, and an argumentative essay might compare the strengths of different arguments.

There are two main ways of structuring a compare-and-contrast essay: the alternating method, and the block method.

Alternating

In the alternating method, each paragraph compares your subjects in terms of a specific point of comparison. These points of comparison are therefore what defines each paragraph.

The tabs below show a general template for this structure, and a specific example for an essay comparing and contrasting distance learning with traditional classroom learning.

• Synthesis of arguments
• Topical relevance of distance learning in lockdown
• Increasing prevalence of distance learning over the last decade
• Thesis statement: While distance learning has certain advantages, it introduces multiple new accessibility issues that must be addressed for it to be as effective as classroom learning
• Classroom learning: Ease of identifying difficulties and privately discussing them
• Distance learning: Difficulty of noticing and unobtrusively helping
• Classroom learning: Difficulties accessing the classroom (disability, distance travelled from home)
• Distance learning: Difficulties with online work (lack of tech literacy, unreliable connection, distractions)
• Classroom learning: Tends to encourage personal engagement among students and with teacher, more relaxed social environment
• Distance learning: Greater ability to reach out to teacher privately
• Sum up, emphasize that distance learning introduces more difficulties than it solves
• Stress the importance of addressing issues with distance learning as it becomes increasingly common
• Distance learning may prove to be the future, but it still has a long way to go

In the block method, each subject is covered all in one go, potentially across multiple paragraphs. For example, you might write two paragraphs about your first subject and then two about your second subject, making comparisons back to the first.

The tabs again show a general template, followed by another essay on distance learning, this time with the body structured in blocks.

• Point 1 (compare)
• Point 2 (compare)
• Point 3 (compare)
• Point 4 (compare)
• Advantages: Flexibility, accessibility
• Disadvantages: Discomfort, challenges for those with poor internet or tech literacy
• Advantages: Potential for teacher to discuss issues with a student in a separate private call
• Disadvantages: Difficulty of identifying struggling students and aiding them unobtrusively, lack of personal interaction among students
• Advantages: More accessible to those with low tech literacy, equality of all sharing one learning environment
• Disadvantages: Students must live close enough to attend, commutes may vary, classrooms not always accessible for disabled students
• Advantages: Ease of picking up on signs a student is struggling, more personal interaction among students
• Disadvantages: May be harder for students to approach teacher privately in person to raise issues

An essay that concerns a specific problem (practical or theoretical) may be structured according to the problems-methods-solutions approach.

This is just what it sounds like: You define the problem, characterize a method or theory that may solve it, and finally analyze the problem, using this method or theory to arrive at a solution. If the problem is theoretical, the solution might be the analysis you present in the essay itself; otherwise, you might just present a proposed solution.

The tabs below show a template for this structure and an example outline for an essay about the problem of fake news.

• Introduce the problem
• Provide background
• Describe your approach to solving it
• Define the problem precisely
• Describe why it’s important
• Indicate previous approaches to the problem
• Present your new approach, and why it’s better
• Apply the new method or theory to the problem
• Indicate the solution you arrive at by doing so
• Assess (potential or actual) effectiveness of solution
• Describe the implications
• Problem: The growth of “fake news” online
• Prevalence of polarized/conspiracy-focused news sources online
• Thesis statement: Rather than attempting to stamp out online fake news through social media moderation, an effective approach to combating it must work with educational institutions to improve media literacy
• Definition: Deliberate disinformation designed to spread virally online
• Popularization of the term, growth of the phenomenon
• Previous approaches: Labeling and moderation on social media platforms
• Critique: This approach feeds conspiracies; the real solution is to improve media literacy so users can better identify fake news
• Greater emphasis should be placed on media literacy education in schools
• This allows people to assess news sources independently, rather than just being told which ones to trust
• This is a long-term solution but could be highly effective
• It would require significant organization and investment, but would equip people to judge news sources more effectively
• Rather than trying to contain the spread of fake news, we must teach the next generation not to fall for it

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Signposting means guiding the reader through your essay with language that describes or hints at the structure of what follows.  It can help you clarify your structure for yourself as well as helping your reader follow your ideas.

The essay overview

In longer essays whose body is split into multiple named sections, the introduction often ends with an overview of the rest of the essay. This gives a brief description of the main idea or argument of each section.

The overview allows the reader to immediately understand what will be covered in the essay and in what order. Though it describes what  comes later in the text, it is generally written in the present tense . The following example is from a literary analysis essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

Transitions

Transition words and phrases are used throughout all good essays to link together different ideas. They help guide the reader through your text, and an essay that uses them effectively will be much easier to follow.

Various different relationships can be expressed by transition words, as shown in this example.

Because Hitler failed to respond to the British ultimatum, France and the UK declared war on Germany. Although it was an outcome the Allies had hoped to avoid, they were prepared to back up their ultimatum in order to combat the existential threat posed by the Third Reich.

Transition sentences may be included to transition between different paragraphs or sections of an essay. A good transition sentence moves the reader on to the next topic while indicating how it relates to the previous one.

… Distance learning, then, seems to improve accessibility in some ways while representing a step backwards in others.

However , considering the issue of personal interaction among students presents a different picture.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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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.

An essay isn’t just a loose collection of facts and ideas. Instead, it should be centered on an overarching argument (summarized in your thesis statement ) that every part of the essay relates to.

The way you structure your essay is crucial to presenting your argument coherently. A well-structured essay helps your reader follow the logic of your ideas and understand your overall point.

Comparisons in essays are generally structured in one of two ways:

• The alternating method, where you compare your subjects side by side according to one specific aspect at a time.
• The block method, where you cover each subject separately in its entirety.

It’s also possible to combine both methods, for example by writing a full paragraph on each of your topics and then a final paragraph contrasting the two according to a specific metric.

You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.

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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.

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

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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

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Target Audience: All Ages

Link:  http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/essaymap/ Essay Map is an interactive graphic organizer that allows students to map out their essay by filling in boxes for an introduction, main ideas, supporting details, and a conclusion.

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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 287,086 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!

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

You Might Also Like

• ↑ 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.

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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.

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.

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How Mind Maps Can Help You With University Essays

It’s cliché to say that essay writing is an art form, but it’s true. Like any art, you can perfect it with practice. Part of the secret to producing great art lies in the technique used.

Developing the special technique of mind mapping is one perspective you could apply to the university essay-writing process. Typically  between 1,500 and 5,000 words  long, the undergrad college essay induces panic and causes unnecessary anxiety. Yet, by using a conceptual technique called mind mapping, you can organize your ideas to produce coherent, well-structured essays deserving of top grades.

Let’s look at how mind maps can help you improve your essay writing skills.

Table of Contents

Mind Mapping Third-Century Style

As long as human beings have had an imagination, mind maps have been in existence. While we cannot promise that they were used to write essays, they were used to show the interrelationship of elements within a structure.

The 3rd-century philosopher Porphyry of Tyre created the earliest known mind map. He used the Porphyrian tree to classify Aristotle’s Categories. Logical concepts and how they related to each other were not actually depicted in tree-form until much later.

It was in the Middle Ages when much use was made of  this diagrammatic representation,  from which the basic principles of the modern mind map are derived. The tree could be as simple or as complex as its creator wished. The common threads running through them all are those of logic and conceptual mapping.

Parchment is long gone. Software is our friend now.

Related Reading: Ai Copywriting Tools – Blog Smarter

The University Essay – Form and Flow

In general, essays are useful, for they contain ideas and arguments aimed at persuading the reader to think differently about the subject of the essay. In the English-speaking world, it is a versatile format. It can vary in length and intensity, as a quick look at Susan Sontag’s  Essays of the 1960s & 70s  will reveal.

The United States has produced many other essayists, of course. You are spoilt for choice as to where to start with these famous female essayists, not to mention the great tradition given momentum by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In many respects, the  modern op-eds  in reputable newspapers are essays too.

Essayist  Scott Russell Sanders  explores tangential and associative words in essays. Tangential and associative keywords are the basis of any mind map. We cannot know which, if any, essayists use mind-mapping software or draw mindmaps by hand. We do know enough about the human brain, however, to know that their process of conceptualization would be similar to that cultivated by the practice of mind mapping.

Your lecturers will tell you that reading great essayists of any age will improve your own essay writing. This is sound advice, but it does not give you the kickstart you need to complete that essay assignment by the due date!

A good essay has a logical flow to the ideas presented in it. A mind-map gives you a visual portrayal of where your ideas are going and, more importantly, where gaps in your argumentation lie. Mindmaps are extremely effective for providing an outline of what you want to write, without one of those complex and confusing wordlists parading as an essay outline.

Mind-Mapping Basics

You could attempt to draw mindmaps freehand, but we recommend that you use  mind mapping software.  Many, like Xmind or  Mindmeister , can be downloaded for free and used to get up to speed on this effective way of tapping into what thoughts and ideas are present in your mind.

Mind mapping is a visual presentation of those ideas that can stimulate your brain. It also helps people to retain information. This is why using  mind mapping techniques for advertisements  is such a good idea, as  Peer Through Media’s portfolio  shows.

Software enables the addition of notes to the keywords and images. Research has shown that images are powerful as triggers of memory, and therefore worth inserting in your essay mindmap for that reason alone.

Mind mapping helps you to order your thoughts and bring all the facts and ideas you have into one place. Mind maps are also useful as reminders of what your initial ideas about the essay are. By doing a mindmap before you write your university essay, you gain clarity, and you have unwittingly done much of the normally tedious preparation you should always do before writing an essay!

If you make mind mapping part of your approach to note-taking and planning, you will likely start to think in ways that access your creative output much more easily.

Mind Mapping Essentials

Regardless of the software used, all mind maps share the same essential features as the inventor of mind mapping, Tony Buzan, explains in this short video on  rules for mind-mapping.

Buzan recommends that you use only one word per branch because, as single keywords, they are free to have a greater number of associations and naturally induce greater creativity. The more words you have on a branch, the more restrictive that particular branch becomes.

The branch length and the keyword length should be the same. This has the effect of keeping associated words close together and, in a sense, more connected.

The use of color and images in your mind map makes it easy to see closely related items once the mind map is complete. It also stimulates the brain much more than the traditional black, blue, and grey found in school textbooks. It lights up the topic and brings it to life, which means writing essays need never be boring again.

Keeping your mind map clear makes it easier for the brain to register the information on the mind map. The need for clarity is one reason we recommended software mind map solutions as opposed to handwritten mind maps. The clearer the mind map, the more powerful it is as a thinking tool.

There is more to it, of course, and we’ll deal with each aspect below.

Mind Map Your University Essay Organically

The simplified traditional format of the university essay is:

• introduction
• bibliography

With a mind map, however, you might be better off starting with a  thematic representation radiating  out from your central theme. You can use connections to identify elements that will feature in your introduction, body, and conclusion of your essay later.

If you’re new to mind maps or feel you have not yet got a handle on them, the following notes might be helpful.

Central theme

Most mind-mapping software starts with the central theme rectangle slap-bang in the middle of the blank mind map page. Your central theme, of course, will be your essay question or title.

The point of the essay is to write about the subject of the essay. Your mind map is an exploration of that. Start by adding three to five main topics to be covered in the essay as sister nodes. Your mind map can have many more topics or first-level associations, but it is worth noting that most human minds cannot grasp more than seven at once.

The objective of a mind map is to get all your ideas out of your mind and onto the mind map where you can see them.

Associations

Once you have this first level of associations, you can start filling in child nodes under each of them.

Your overview will help you to order your thoughts on each theme. You could begin to have some “light bulb moments” around about now. Unless they are truly remarkable ideas, resist the urge to flesh them out (i.e., start writing your essay) at this mind-mapping stage.

It is useful to learn how to type quickly if you have not already mastered that skill. Your brain’s imaginative capacity works by association. One association leads to another.

Don’t worry if your associations seem messy at this point or your mind map is untidy. You can work on rearranging it later. The important thing is to work organically. Imagine that you are emptying out everything in your mind about this essay onto the mind map, and do it without being judgemental.

Associations are usually drawn using curved lines; the brain responds well to curves.

Connections

Once you have entered all your associations, and you will be surprised how many there are, you can draw in connections between associations. You can also use color in various ways, for example, to highlight the things you want to be sure to say in your introduction and conclusion. You can also color code the various themes that you want to develop in the body of your essay.

Another advantage of using software to create your essay mind map is that once you have everything down, you can make adjustments and rearrange items easily. Adding images and notes (possible with most software) at this stage will give you an extra boost when you start writing your essay.

Brainstorming In Action

If you have only ever had in-person brainstorming sessions with other people, you will soon realize that you can  brainstorm all on your own  by using the mind-mapping technique.

Now that you have generated ideas by association, you can take a hard look at your mind map and identify the gaps in your knowledge that you need to fill before you start writing your essay. Gaps could include:

• reading works that you need to reference in your essay
• fact-checking
• finding material that backs up the main claims you want to make — or — contradict in your essay
• reinforcing your understanding of areas that your mind map reflects as being weak.

All that might sound like hard work, but actually, it is a lot easier with mind mapping than it is with traditional note-taking because, in the process of mind mapping, you gain clarity of thought you did not know you had.

And taking notes for the stuff you don’t know? Well, you can use mind mapping for that too.

Armed with new knowledge, you can add it to your mind maps to plug those gaps before beginning your essay.

Take another look at your mind map after doing that, and examine it for the relationships between the different associations. These relationships might assume importance in the form of individual paragraphs in your essay or the transitions or links between them.

You should also be able to identify in your mind map possible arguments that neatly fit into the  thesis-antithesis-synthesis dialectic  so often required of university essays, and a good basis for argumentation if it is not.

The Importance of an Essay Mind Map

Far and away, the most powerful reason to mind map your essay is so that when you start writing, you are not staring at a blank page! You have a comprehensive guide in front of you. You can refer to this repeatedly throughout your writing process.

In effect, your mind map provides not only the ideas for your essay but the structure for it too. By mind mapping first, you are able to observe this structure, but seamlessly, in a way that is not formulaic and rigid. Your structure will appear organic, and your writing will flow.

Talking of flow, if you have problems expressing yourself in writing, you could experiment with dictating what you want to say while looking at your mind map and then editing your output later. There are some good voice-to-text apps out there, and you might even have one on your phone already.

Another significant point to make is that your essay will be authentic because it has definitely come from your mind and your mind alone. Preparing your mind map of your university essay will enable greater clarity of thought as you write. You are sure to notice that when your thoughts are clear, your writing skills improve, as if by magic.

Last but not least, your essays will not be boring because the mind map allows you to tap into your inner thoughts and the things that you find most interesting, and that have captured your attention. By revealing those in your university essay, you’ll end up with an interesting, coherent piece worthy of a top grade!

Life Is More Than a University Essay

As a student, you need to focus on your university essay assignments. As we have shown, mind mapping is a powerful tool to do that. Beyond college, when your degree certificate begins to resemble that third-century parchment, you’ll probably still be writing. Personal narrative essays,  blog posts , op-eds, content for your company brochure, ad copy, etc.

You can use mind maps for project planning, either alone or in collaboration with colleagues. In fact, any creative project where you wish to explore possibilities adapts itself well to mind mapping.

Mind mapping is a great way to sharpen your mind. As the father of the essay, Michel de Montaigne said, “‘Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures.”

We would argue that mind mapping will make university essay-writing a pleasure rather than a pain. And a  creative one  at that.

• 7 Different Tasks That Mind Maps Can Help With
• Get Organized: How Mind Maps Can Help With Project Management
• Mind Mapping 2020: Best Softwares, Tips & More
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Kevin Fisher is a part time blues musician and full time day trader. Kevin likes to think about numbers and larger systems. Music is math.

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• Reading, writing and referencing

Writing a great essay

This resource covers key considerations when writing an essay.

While reading a student’s essay, markers will ask themselves questions such as:

• Does this essay directly address the set task?
• Does it present a strong, supported position?
• Does it use relevant sources appropriately?
• Is the expression clear, and the style appropriate?
• Is the essay organised coherently? Is there a clear introduction, body and conclusion?

You can use these questions to reflect on your own writing. Here are six top tips to help you address these criteria.

1. Analyse the question

Student essays are responses to specific questions. As an essay must address the question directly, your first step should be to analyse the question. Make sure you know exactly what is being asked of you.

Generally, essay questions contain three component parts:

• Content terms: Key concepts that are specific to the task
• Limiting terms: The scope that the topic focuses on
• Directive terms: What you need to do in relation to the content, e.g. discuss, analyse, define, compare, evaluate.

Look at the following essay question:

Discuss the importance of light in Gothic architecture.

• Content terms: Gothic architecture
• Limiting terms: the importance of light. If you discussed some other feature of Gothic architecture, for example spires or arches, you would be deviating from what is required. This essay question is limited to a discussion of light. Likewise, it asks you to write about the importance of light – not, for example, to discuss how light enters Gothic churches.
• Directive term: discuss. This term asks you to take a broad approach to the variety of ways in which light may be important for Gothic architecture. You should introduce and consider different ideas and opinions that you have met in academic literature on this topic, citing them appropriately .

For a more complex question, you can highlight the key words and break it down into a series of sub-questions to make sure you answer all parts of the task. Consider the following question (from Arts):

To what extent can the American Revolution be understood as a revolution ‘from below’? Why did working people become involved and with what aims in mind?

The key words here are American Revolution and revolution ‘from below’. This is a view that you would need to respond to in this essay. This response must focus on the aims and motivations of working people in the revolution, as stated in the second question.

2. Define your argument

As you plan and prepare to write the essay, you must consider what your argument is going to be. This means taking an informed position or point of view on the topic presented in the question, then defining and presenting a specific argument.

Consider these two argument statements:

The architectural use of light in Gothic cathedrals physically embodied the significance of light in medieval theology.

In the Gothic cathedral of Cologne, light served to accentuate the authority and ritual centrality of the priest.

Statements like these define an essay’s argument. They give coherence by providing an overarching theme and position towards which the entire essay is directed.

3. Use evidence, reasoning and scholarship

To convince your audience of your argument, you must use evidence and reasoning, which involves referring to and evaluating relevant scholarship.

• Evidence provides concrete information to support your claim. It typically consists of specific examples, facts, quotations, statistics and illustrations.
• Reasoning connects the evidence to your argument. Rather than citing evidence like a shopping list, you need to evaluate the evidence and show how it supports your argument.
• Scholarship is used to show how your argument relates to what has been written on the topic (citing specific works). Scholarship can be used as part of your evidence and reasoning to support your argument.

4. Organise a coherent essay

An essay has three basic components - introduction, body and conclusion.

The purpose of an introduction is to introduce your essay. It typically presents information in the following order:

• A general statement about the topic that provides context for your argument
• A thesis statement showing your argument. You can use explicit lead-ins, such as ‘This essay argues that...’
• A ‘road map’ of the essay, telling the reader how it is going to present and develop your argument.

Example introduction

"To what extent can the American Revolution be understood as a revolution ‘from below’? Why did working people become involved and with what aims in mind?"

Introduction*

Historians generally concentrate on the twenty-year period between 1763 and 1783 as the period which constitutes the American Revolution [This sentence sets the general context of the period] . However, when considering the involvement of working people, or people from below, in the revolution it is important to make a distinction between the pre-revolutionary period 1763-1774 and the revolutionary period 1774-1788, marked by the establishment of the continental Congress(1) [This sentence defines the key term from below and gives more context to the argument that follows] . This paper will argue that the nature and aims of the actions of working people are difficult to assess as it changed according to each phase [This is the thesis statement] . The pre-revolutionary period was characterised by opposition to Britain’s authority. During this period the aims and actions of the working people were more conservative as they responded to grievances related to taxes and scarce land, issues which directly affected them. However, examination of activities such as the organisation of crowd action and town meetings, pamphlet writing, formal communications to Britain of American grievances and physical action in the streets, demonstrates that their aims and actions became more revolutionary after 1775 [These sentences give the ‘road map’ or overview of the content of the essay] .

The body of the essay develops and elaborates your argument. It does this by presenting a reasoned case supported by evidence from relevant scholarship. Its shape corresponds to the overview that you provided in your introduction.

The body of your essay should be written in paragraphs. Each body paragraph should develop one main idea that supports your argument. To learn how to structure a paragraph, look at the page developing clarity and focus in academic writing .

Your conclusion should not offer any new material. Your evidence and argumentation should have been made clear to the reader in the body of the essay.

Use the conclusion to briefly restate the main argumentative position and provide a short summary of the themes discussed. In addition, also consider telling your reader:

• What the significance of your findings, or the implications of your conclusion, might be
• Whether there are other factors which need to be looked at, but which were outside the scope of the essay
• How your topic links to the wider context (‘bigger picture’) in your discipline.

Do not simply repeat yourself in this section. A conclusion which merely summarises is repetitive and reduces the impact of your paper.

Example conclusion

Conclusion*.

Although, to a large extent, the working class were mainly those in the forefront of crowd action and they also led the revolts against wealthy plantation farmers, the American Revolution was not a class struggle [This is a statement of the concluding position of the essay]. Working people participated because the issues directly affected them – the threat posed by powerful landowners and the tyranny Britain represented. Whereas the aims and actions of the working classes were more concerned with resistance to British rule during the pre-revolutionary period, they became more revolutionary in nature after 1775 when the tension with Britain escalated [These sentences restate the key argument]. With this shift, a change in ideas occurred. In terms of considering the Revolution as a whole range of activities such as organising riots, communicating to Britain, attendance at town hall meetings and pamphlet writing, a difficulty emerges in that all classes were involved. Therefore, it is impossible to assess the extent to which a single group such as working people contributed to the American Revolution [These sentences give final thoughts on the topic].

5. Write clearly

An essay that makes good, evidence-supported points will only receive a high grade if it is written clearly. Clarity is produced through careful revision and editing, which can turn a good essay into an excellent one.

When you edit your essay, try to view it with fresh eyes – almost as if someone else had written it.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Overall structure

• Have you clearly stated your argument in your introduction?
• Does the actual structure correspond to the ‘road map’ set out in your introduction?
• Have you clearly indicated how your main points support your argument?
• Have you clearly signposted the transitions between each of your main points for your reader?
• Does each paragraph introduce one main idea?
• Does every sentence in the paragraph support that main idea?
• Does each paragraph display relevant evidence and reasoning?
• Does each paragraph logically follow on from the one before it?
• Is each sentence grammatically complete?
• Is the spelling correct?
• Is the link between sentences clear to your readers?
• Have you avoided redundancy and repetition?

See more about editing on our  editing your writing page.

6. Cite sources and evidence

Finally, check your citations to make sure that they are accurate and complete. Some faculties require you to use a specific citation style (e.g. APA) while others may allow you to choose a preferred one. Whatever style you use, you must follow its guidelines correctly and consistently. You can use Recite, the University of Melbourne style guide, to check your citations.

Further resources

• Germov, J. (2011). Get great marks for your essays, reports and presentations (3rd ed.). NSW: Allen and Unwin.
• Using English for Academic Purposes: A guide for students in Higher Education [online]. Retrieved January 2020 from http://www.uefap.com
• Williams, J.M. & Colomb, G. G. (2010) Style: Lessons in clarity and grace. 10th ed. New York: Longman.

* Example introduction and conclusion adapted from a student paper.

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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. 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. Write the subject in the center of your paper / canvas. 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. From each branch more ideas can branch off. 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.

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. 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. While working through both primary and secondary sources, it’s quite easy to get confused about the numerous arguments and counterarguments. Many students get frustrated and waste a lot of 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.

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 child topics 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 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. Use colors, arrows and icons to indicate connections between the arguments and quotes. Be sure to add the page numbers to the topics in your 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 topics, which 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. 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. 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 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.

How to Use Mind Maps for an Effective Essay Writing

Edraw content team, do you want to learn more about using mind maps for an effective essay writing.

EdrawMind specializes in diagramming and visualizing. Learn from this article to know everything about How to Use Mind Maps for an Effective Essay Writing !

Being a student, writing an effective essay is a difficult task for you. But you can make it easy if you know how to use mind maps. Creating a mind map for essay writing helps you visualize the idea before writing it.

So, do you want to create mind maps? If yes, read this article explaining how to use mind maps for essays .

1. What Are Mind Maps for Essays

A mind map is a technique for centrally organizing thoughts on a particular concept. This visual thinking tool makes it easier to analyze, remember, understand, summarize, and develop new ideas by managing the data. Let us know by taking a mind map essay example . You want to write about your best friend, including his hobbies, details about his parents, and his likes and dislikes. Mind mapping would be the technique you will use to visualize the content going along in your 'best friend' essay.

Here are some benefits of using a mind map for writing an essay:

• The student can order the segments according to their subtopics.
• The student can refer to the mind map to see if they missed any important topics.
• If a student includes a mind map in an essay, it will help a reader to understand the issues quickly.
• The student makes sure they have all the necessary information before writing the essay by creating a mind map.
• Before an exam, a student can quickly review his mind maps for revision.

2. How to Prepare the Essay Using a Mind Map

Now that you know what a mind map is and how beneficial it is for essay writing. So, let's learn how to prepare an English essay mind map for essay writing .

2.1 Research the essay's topic

Finding a unique concept or a less popular subject is the first step in essay writing. If you choose to write about a topic for your essay that has already been discussed, it may be difficult for your research to take a real stand.

Instead, choosing an essay topic that interests you personally, or at least isn't too difficult for you to discuss, is advised. The process of writing an essay will be less tedious if you select a topic that is personal to you. To research the case of an article, do brainstorming.

To brainstorm, take a piece of paper and write down everything you know about a particular topic. Then, write your ideas by using keywords.

2.2 Planning the essay

One of the critical steps in writing an essay is research. Unfortunately, students often waste a lot of time simply attempting to put all the various pieces of information together. So, creating an essay planning mind map is essential so students can easily organize and collect their data.

Moreover, making notes in a mind map as you read each source (book, article, or essay) helps you retain the information. You could also use a single map where you list all your references and make branches for each page, paragraph, and quote you plan to use in your essay.

To organize the information from the brainstorming, decide on the main categories. Then, tie the additional information to those in the manner described below:

2.3 Outline and write the essay

The third step is to create an outline of your essay before you start writing it. It will help you to organize your arguments, counterarguments, examples, and sources in a logical order. A mind map makes it simple to review the outline and find the data one needs for their essay.

Whenever you find yourself getting off track while writing or when you are unsure of where to go next, you can quickly review this outline. Then, once outlining is done, start writing.

3. Mind Map Templates for Different Essays

There are different kinds of essays in academic writing. You can make a mind map as a student for various essays and then use these procedures to write the essay. Let's see 5 different types of essay outlines explained with mind maps. These essay mind map templates help you to write outstanding essays.

3.1 Argumentative Essay Mind Map

To write an argumentative essay, a student must be analytical. He must research a subject, gather information, come up with points, analyze the evidence gathered, and take a position.

So, use an argumentative essay mind map. By doing so, you will have different segments while outlining the essay's investigative and evaluative stages.

3.2 Comparative Essay Mind Map

Students write this type of essay when they need to highlight the similarities and differences between two or more subjects. Writing this type of essay is a fantastic way to show those topics or concepts frequently misunderstood by one another. It is easy to see the differences and similarities between the two subjects in this essay by using a comparison essay mind map.

3.3 Research Essay Mind Map

A research essay is an essay that offers information on a specific subject that you have looked into and is unrelated to you. By doing research, you can find out more about the subject. The research outline mind map gives students a plan of action, especially at the beginning of the research. It can be applied as a critical thinking technique for problem-solving. Looking at this essay mind map template, you can easily concentrate on and comprehend the target ideas.

3.4 Thesis Statement Essay mind map

A thesis statement is a statement that summarizes the key idea of your essay. Usually, it follows your introduction. Your thesis will be slightly different depending on the type of essay you are writing. But the main point you want to make is always stated in the thesis statement. For this, follow the thesis statement essay mind maps. This essay mind map template is beneficial in deciding the best thesis statement for your essay.

3.5 Interpretive essay mind map

An interpretive essay is a form of writing that recognizes, assesses, and analyzes the author's methods in a specific work. This essay offers an interpretation of a previously published form of writing.

4. Tips for Essay Mind Maps

If you adhere to some tips for  mind maps for essays , writing essays can be enjoyable. So, here are some tips for essay mind maps that you must follow:

• Always place the topic you want to talk about in the middle of the mind map. 

You should save money to cover any unexpected financial needs.

• Use images, icons, and colors whenever you can. These serve as mental triggers and can help in your ability to generate fresh ideas.

Investing is essential for growing money so that you can achieve your goals.

• To write the ideas on to the branches, always use relevant keywords.

Financial security through insurance ensures that you and your family can get through difficult times.

• Draw lines to indicate cross-links between the information in different parts of a mind map.

5. Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed everything that you must know. So, if you want to save time and other resources, use mind map templates for different essays.

You can find these templates on EdrawMind . Unlike other software, this has an excellent user interface with straight forward drag-and-drop features. So what are you waiting for, then? Create a mind map for the essay right away by downloading EdrawMind.

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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.

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Rethinking English essay scores: The argument for argument over grammar

• Linguistics
• Foreign language education

To get high scores at essay writing tests, learners of English as a foreign language need to focus on good arguments more than on complex grammar. The Kobe University finding challenges conventional approaches to test preparation and scoring rubrics.

Writing essays is a well-established tool for monitoring progress in learning English as a foreign language, as it provides a snapshot of a student’s mastery of grammar and vocabulary. Especially in Japan, where English language tests are often required for university admission and students closely follow advice on how to achieve high scores on these tests, a “good essay” is often seen as one that demonstrates a high level of grammatical complexity. But is this actually reflected in test scores?

Kobe University linguist YASUDA Sachiko expresses her doubts: “Based on my experience of teaching academic writing to students at various levels in Japan, I believe that linguistically complex texts do not always result in better writing.” She therefore decided to conduct an experiment with over 100 Japanese high school students. Yasuda had them write a short essay on a given topic and looked at the relationship between the linguistic complexity of the texts and the writers’ ability to present complex arguments, and how these two related to how the texts were graded according to official rubrics. She adds, “This study is the first to focus on the relationship between features of linguistic complexity and features of meaning complexity; no one else in the relevant fields has looked at the relationship between these two.”

The results, published in the journal Assessing Writing , confirmed her suspicions. She found that high-scoring essays shared features related more to the ability to express complex meaning, such as lexical diversity, noun modification, and soundness and number of arguments, than to structural complexity. “Interestingly, low scoring essays showed the highest level of complexity in finite adverbial dependent clauses,” the linguist writes in her paper. Emphasizing this point, the ability to express complex meaning was strongly correlated only with using diverse expressions and the ability to modify their meaning, but not with grammatical features. Yasuda concludes, “Simply having complex sentence structures does not necessarily lead to a better essay.”

The findings have implications for how essay writing tests are scored. The Kobe University researcher explains: “Current rubrics for writing questions on language tests instruct test-takers to ‘use complex grammar appropriately’ or ‘a variety of complex structures.’ However, since sentence complexity does not significantly affect overall essay quality, it may be more appropriate to use terms such as ‘contextually appropriate grammar’ or ‘genre-appropriate grammar.’” Thus arguing that the ability to express one’s opinion in varied and complex ways is a marker of students’ writing ability, she advocates that this characteristic should be more represented both in the way tests are scored and how feedback is provided to students.

This so-called washback effect of test scoring rubrics on the way language is taught is at the heart of what drives Yasuda. She says: “I am committed to using the results of this study for practical applications, such as refining assessment criteria for evaluating students’ writing, developing tasks and materials to improve their writing skills, and identifying the key knowledge that teachers need to help students become better writers. The ability to write in English has become increasingly important in the 21 st century, as it is a crucial medium that allows us to connect with others around the world.”

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant JP24K04031JSPS).

Original publication

S. Yasuda:  Does “more complexity” equal “better writing”? Investigating the relationship between form-based complexity and meaning-based complexity in EFL learners’ argumentative writing . Assessing Writing  (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.asw.2024.100867

Release on EurekAlert!

Researchers.

Yasuda Sachiko

• Institute for Promotion of Higher Education
• Graduate School of Intercultural Studies

More about these topics

What Makes a Class Attractive to University Students?

Now open: The Judith Yates Essay Prize in Economics

Eligible students completing the Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Advanced Studies can win $10,000 courtesy of The Judith Yates Essay Prize in Economics . The annual prize celebrates one winner who presents a solution to a real-world challenge facing Australia’s economy and population.

To enter, eligible students must write an essay in response to a single question addressing the issue of unmet social needs. In 2024, the question is: 

"Within the next 20 years, it is predicted that 25% of the Australian population will be over the age of 65. This significant shift in demographics will impact older individuals, their families and communities, as well as the organizations that provide support for them. Identify and describe the possible challenges that the Australian economy may encounter due to this demographic change. Discuss appropriate government policies to address these challenges."

To be eligible to enter, students must be studying the Advanced Economics program in the Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Advanced Studies at the University of Sydney. They must also be enrolled in their second or third year of the pre-Honours pathway or enrolled in Honours (fourth year).

Applications for the prize are now open and will close on 12 October 2024 at 11:59 pm.

Why should you enter?

We spoke to the 2022 prize winner, Khloe Lizardo, about what winning the prize meant to her.

“Trying to balance work while studying as a full-time student was something I personally found a bit challenging,” says Khloe. “However, prizes that offer financial awards can be an incredibly helpful alternative, allowing you to study and spend quality time with family and friends.” 

Outside of the financial incentive, Khloe found the process of writing her essays rewarding – helping her grow in confidence, improve her problem-solving skills, and tackle complex problems.

Read on to learn more about Khloe’s experience writing her award-winning essay, where she found inspiration, and how the prize has impacted her future.  

2022 winner, Khloe Lizardo pictured with Associate Professor Marian Vidal-Fernandez at the 2023 ceremony.

Meet our 2022 winner: Khloe Lizardo

Khloe won the Judith Yates Essay Prize in Economics when COVID-19 was one of the biggest socio-economic problems facing Australia. In response, Khloe wrote an essay about fiscal consolidation within the context of rising interest rates and record-high levels of public debt.

“As a productivity-boosting measure, I proposed the development of a school-level intervention aimed at upskilling the non-cognitive skills of students,” she explains. “Lastly, I suggested supporting our agricultural sector, as it is thought to be one of the most productive in the world.”   

Khloe found one of the great benefits of entering the prize was discovering new-found confidence in being able to tackle the big issues affecting our world. 

“Although I was constantly second-guessing myself throughout the whole writing process, I was still determined to give it my best shot,” she remembers. “Ultimately, winning the Judith Yates Essay Prize was particularly symbolic for me as it gave me the opportunity to challenge my self-limiting beliefs and inspired me to pursue even more ambitious academic challenges.” 

The Judith Yates Essay Prize

Related articles, bridging the past and present: the new vere gordon childe centre, sydney anthropologist awarded three prestigious book prizes, arts and social sciences students shine at the honours showcase.

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Dr. Chris Holstege, Featured in More Than 120 News Outlets Nationally

June 20, 2024 by [email protected]

View full article on  Medicine in Motion News

Chris Holstege, MD

Chris Holstege, MD, was featured in more than 120 news outlets nationally – including  U.S. News & World Report – discussing the growing severity of calls to U.S. poison centers. Dr. Holstege is a professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics, chief of the division of medical toxicology, executive director of the Elson Student Health Center, and director of the Blue Ridge Poison Center .

Congratulations and thank you to Dr. Chris Holstege for informing the community and world!

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Interactive map shows future climate of your city based on emissions scenarios

by University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

The impacts of climate change are being felt all over the world, but how will it impact how your hometown feels? An interactive web application from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science allows users to search 40,581 places and 5,323 metro areas around the globe to match the expected future climate in each city with the current climate of another location, providing a relatable picture of what is likely in store.

You may have already experienced these changes where you live and may be wondering: What will climate of the future be like where I live? How hot will summers be? Will it still snow in winter? And perhaps how might things change course if we act to reduce emissions? This web application helps to provide answers to these questions.

For example, if you live in Washington, D.C., you would need to travel to northern Louisiana to experience what Washington, D.C., will feel like by 2080, where summers are expected to be 11.5°F warmer in 50 years. If you live in Shanghai, China, you would need to travel to northern Pakistan to experience what Shanghai's climate could be like in 2080.

"In 50 years, the northern hemisphere cities to the north are going to become much more like cities to the south. Everything is moving towards the equator in terms of the climate that's coming for you," said Professor Matthew Fitzpatrick.

"And the closer you get to the equator there are fewer and fewer good matches for climates in places like Central America, south Florida, and northern Africa. There is no place on Earth representative of what those places they will be like in the future."

A spatial ecologist, Fitzpatrick used climate-analog mapping, a statistical technique that matches the expected future climate at one location—your city of residence, for instance—with the current climate of another familiar location, to provide a place-based understanding of climate change . He used the most recent available data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, to illustrate anticipated temperature changes over 30 years under two different scenarios.

Because the answer to these questions depends on how climate is expected to change and the specific nature of those changes is uncertain, the app provides results for both high and reduced emissions scenarios, as well as for several different climate forecast models. You can map the best matches for your city for these different scenarios and models as well as map the similarity between your city's future climate and present climates everywhere (based on the average of the five forecasts for each emission scenario).

The first scenario that users can search is similar to our current trajectory and assumes very high greenhouse gas emissions, in which the planet is on track to warm around 9 degrees F by the end of this century. This scenario would make the Earth warmer than it likely has been in millions of years. The second scenario is similar to what the planet would feel like if nations pursue Paris Climate Accord goals. Under that scenario, the planet warms by about 3 degrees F by immediately and drastically reducing human-caused greenhouse gases emissions.

"I hope that it continues to inform the conversation about climate change. I hope it helps people better understand the magnitude of the impacts and why scientists are so concerned," said Fitzpatrick.

Search the interactive climate map for your city at https://fitzlab.shinyapps.io/cityapp/

Provided by University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

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