{"id":135,"date":"2025-09-13T20:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/5-3-idea-mapping\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:19:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:19:31","slug":"5-3-idea-mapping","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/5-3-idea-mapping\/","title":{"raw":"5.3 Idea Mapping","rendered":"5.3 Idea Mapping"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"5.3-idea-mapping\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">As an alternative to free writing, you can even draw diagrams to help you connect your thoughts. Idea mapping allows you to visualize your ideas on paper using circles, lines, and arrows. This technique is also known as clustering because ideas are broken down and clustered or grouped together. Many writers like this method because the shapes show how the ideas relate or connect, and writers can find a focused topic from the connections mapped. Using idea mapping, you might discover interesting connections between topics that you had not thought of before. To create an idea map, start with your general topic in a circle in the center of a blank sheet of paper. Then write specific ideas around it and use lines or arrows to connect them together. Add and cluster as many ideas as you can think of. See Figure 5.2 for an example of idea mapping.<\/p>\n\n\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"804\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/09\/image3.jpg\" alt=\"An idea mapping model example using Rios Industrial Robotic Arm as the central topic. \" width=\"804\" height=\"631\"> Figure 5.2 An Example of Idea Mapping (Example and image created via Microsoft PowerPoint by Damla Ricks)[\/caption]\n<p class=\"import-Style3\">This section is adapted from <a class=\"rId13\" href=\"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglishabe\/chapter\/prewriting\/\"><span class=\"import-Hyperlink\">Prewriting <\/span><\/a>in <a href=\"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglishabe\/\">Provincial English<\/a> Copyright \u00a9 2022 by Allison Kilgannon l<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">icensed under a\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"rId15\" style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\"><span class=\"import-Hyperlink\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License<\/span><\/a><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">, except where otherwise noted.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"5.3-idea-mapping\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">As an alternative to free writing, you can even draw diagrams to help you connect your thoughts. Idea mapping allows you to visualize your ideas on paper using circles, lines, and arrows. This technique is also known as clustering because ideas are broken down and clustered or grouped together. Many writers like this method because the shapes show how the ideas relate or connect, and writers can find a focused topic from the connections mapped. Using idea mapping, you might discover interesting connections between topics that you had not thought of before. To create an idea map, start with your general topic in a circle in the center of a blank sheet of paper. Then write specific ideas around it and use lines or arrows to connect them together. Add and cluster as many ideas as you can think of. See Figure 5.2 for an example of idea mapping.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 804px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/09\/image3.jpg\" alt=\"An idea mapping model example using Rios Industrial Robotic Arm as the central topic.\" width=\"804\" height=\"631\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 5.2 An Example of Idea Mapping (Example and image created via Microsoft PowerPoint by Damla Ricks)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-Style3\">This section is adapted from <a class=\"rId13\" href=\"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglishabe\/chapter\/prewriting\/\"><span class=\"import-Hyperlink\">Prewriting <\/span><\/a>in <a href=\"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglishabe\/\">Provincial English<\/a> Copyright \u00a9 2022 by Allison Kilgannon l<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">icensed under a\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"rId15\" style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\"><span class=\"import-Hyperlink\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License<\/span><\/a><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">, except where otherwise noted.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-135","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":128,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/135\/revisions\/136"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/128"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/135\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}