Discover How Mind Mapping Software Can Help You Write Essays Faster Than Ever Before

By the time students reach college level; essay writing requires not only a creative flair for the written word but also sound organizational skills. Fortunately, for anyone struggling with how to write essays better and faster than before, mind mapping software such as NovaMind presents an attractive solution.

Digital mind mapping virtually eliminates writer's block because of the ease with which you can collect, filter and organize information before a single word is written. For example, let's assume you've been given an essay topic or theme. Add that to the center of your map as the primary keyword phrase. (Note this doesn't have to be the actual essay title - you can add branch notes to this keyword as your imagination comes up with possible essay titles throughout the project.)

One benefit of using software mind mapping to help write essays is in keep tracking of extensive research and documentation. Just add a branch labeled 'research' to the map, and then use sub-branches for naming the key diagrams, references and notes you will later use in the actual writing.

In many cases additional research will have sub-branches linking out to where the actual diagrams are stored, such as on the Internet or on your computer's hard disk. And as you'll also probably be quoting from other writers' published materials, you can add a branch for 'references' and then track every possible quote you might need as a sequence of sub-branches or using detailed branch notes.

Mind mapping's great for this type of research because you can go through your source materials and add the references as color-coded keywords to a 'references' branch (or even to a mind map dedicated just to references.) The branching keyword structure allows you to begin categorizing these references even while you're still researching because you can move the associated keywords around on the map, add connecting lines to show possible relationships, and also color-code them.

Having mind mapped much of the research; the next step is to create a detailed outline of exactly what you are going to write about. This level of detail can be recorded as related topics and sub-topics using the keywords and branching structure. With software like NovaMind it's easy to swap topics around as new connections are discovered and checked out. And many people who wince at the work required to track all quoted material in an essay will be pleased at how easy it is to use NovaMind checkboxes, color codes and links within and between maps, to start doing it for each idea and sub-idea on the map. (Avoiding any charges of plagiarism is an important part of how to write essays.)

As your research and detailed outline develop you will naturally be drawn to actually writing your essay. Mind mapping helps here by allowing you to pick and choose from among the outline keywords and paste these into the intro, middle and end branches of your map. If you want your essay to be widely read, it's vital that the introduction presents both the topic and your most eyeball-grabbing argument in one or two paragraphs. Exploring the map can help you find these important information nuggets.

You can experiment with what works by selecting groups of related research and ideas keywords, and then pasting them below the intro keyword. Seeing them presented together can be just the trick your mind needs to start coming up with creative and attention-grabbing opening sentences. And yes, you can undo these changes with a click of the mouse or even create a separate copy of the main map to safely experiment with. A similar approach can be applied to making a writing structure for the middle and end parts of your essay.

Running in parallel with this creative work is the clock! You'll often be working to a tight deadline and mind mapping software can help keep you on track. With NovaMind, it's simply a case of setting start and finish dates for each keyword and then updating the percentage completed on a regular basis. You can then see at a glance where exactly you are with your essay-writing project down to individual paragraph detail if necessary. And you can show completed sections with a digital tick. Taken together, the capabilities of software mind mapping tools have made how to write essays a simpler combination of logical and creative methods.