Create a cluster diagram.
Software-based diagramming tools
Software vendors have created a variety of electronic tools to help people better visualize complex projects. These flowcharts, webs, and outlines can make it easier for you to see how to proceed at any stage of your project.
Clustering is a strategy for revealing possible relationships among facts and ideas. Unlike listing (the next mapping strategy), clustering requires a brief period of initial preparation, when you divide your topic into parts or main ideas. Clustering works as follows:
- In a word or phrase, write your topic in the center of a piece of paper. Circle it.
- Also in words or phrases, write down the main parts or ideas of your topic. Circle these, and connect them with lines to the topic in the center.
- Next, write down facts, details, and examples related to these main parts or ideas.Connect them with lines to the relevant main parts or ideas.
Clustering can be useful in the early stages of planning an essay to find subtopics and organize information. You may try out and discard several clusters before finding one that is promising. Many writers also use clustering to plan brief sections of an essay as they are drafting or revising. (A model of clustering is shown in Figure 11.1.)
