Use this concept mapping tutorial and work sheet to help organize your research and formulate a research question.

Most people do not think in a linear style when they think creatively, such as when they are brainstorming a research topic or question. Our minds tend to work much like Web sites do – with groups of thoughts and concepts linked together and going off in different directions. Furthermore, what you learn while doing research is combined with what you already know, creating new links within your store of knowledge.

Concept mapping is a powerful tool to use during the early stages of research. It allows you to "free-think" about your topic: to explore material or questions that might be useful to you, to summarize what you've learned so far, and to help you discover additional topics to investigate.

Mapping will allow you to see the major categories of your topic, but will not impose an order on them. This will allow you to place your ideas in whatever sequence is most useful for your purposes.

Mapping can also help you think. You can use this technique as often as you like, particularly when you are stuck. When you are mapping, emphasize arguments, explanations, definitions, and abstract categories and relationships.

Concept Mapping Exercise Work Sheet
(For more details, see the Organizing Research Work Sheet.)

Do this exercise offline first -  use a pencil and a blank sheet of newsprint or other large format paper:

Write down your most important word or short phrase in the center of the sheet. Think for a minute about what you just wrote down, and then circle it.

Thinking freely, write down any and all other important words, concepts, or symbols related to the topic outside the circle. Now, use lines and/or arrows to connect items.

Leave lots of white space so your concept map can grow.

Don't worry about being exact or perfect – don't analyze your work at this point!

Analyze what you have done so far:

• Think about the relationship of outside items to the center item.

• Erase and either replace or shorten words to some key ideas.

• Relocate important items closer to each other for better organization.

• Link concepts with words to clarify relationships.

An example of a concept map on the topic "vegetarianism":