The Writing Process: 2018

Monday, November 12, 2018

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

OVERVIEW: Notes on the Process of Writing

Notes on the Process of Writing

Created by Karen Coda

Content available at her website

None of the information below is of my own mind. I am simply supplying the content and weblinks for you from her site. PDF version available here. All credit belongs to Karen Coda.

Writing TUTORIAL

Research and Writing

Research on the Internet, evaluate sources, draft and publish a document.

How do I write so that I DOMINATE and not my sources??

Have you understood the writing assignment and written an ORIGINAL piece of writing with a new 'take' on the topic and your own argument leading the charge?

Even if you think that you have, you will want to review your essay--after the first draft--to make sure that YOU are leading the writing and not your sources. Write an Original Essay.

TRANSITIONS: Within Body Paragraphs and Between Paragraphs

Understanding HOW You will be Assessed

A General Assessment Rubric

This rubric will help students understand some of the basics that their instructors will be looking for in their academic writing.

Cause & Effect Guidelines, Hints, and Tips (part 6)

Cause & Effect
Guidelines, Hints, and Tips

(part 6)

Cause-and-Effect Sample #2

Cause & Effect Guidelines, Hints, and Tips (part 5)

Cause & Effect
Guidelines, Hints, and Tips

(part 5)

Cause-and-Effect Sample

Cause & Effect Guidelines, Hints, and Tips (part 4)

Cause & Effect
Guidelines, Hints, and Tips

(part 4)

Structuring a Cause-and-Effect Essay

Cause & Effect Guidelines, Hints, and Tips (part 3)

Cause & Effect
Guidelines, Hints, and Tips

(part 3)

How do I choose a topic and get started? Try choosing a major event, either in your own life or an event of historical significance. For example, The Great Depression.

Cause & Effect Guidelines, Hints, and Tips (part 2)

Cause & Effect
Guidelines, Hints, and Tips

(part 2)

This type of essay has five parts (not paragraphs!), with each part corresponding to a specific task the writer needs to perform, and each part consisting of one or more paragraphs.

Essay Part	Scope	Purpose (not all necessary for every essay)
Introduction	General	Background for the topic Setting out the issues Focusing the argument—the purpose of the essay
Description of the "Cause"	Begins general; becomes increasingly specific	What the specific conditions are Specific illustrations of these conditions How these specific illustrations are representative of (can stand in for) other situations In this first part of the analysis, the writer needs to provide enough detail for the reader so the reader can understand the present situation. In addition, the writer needs to focus the description of the situation in such a way as to prepare for the "effect" that the writer is arguing for. For example, if the writer wants to argue that the loss of privacy has led to (or will lead to) a loss of individual freedom, then the description of how technology affects our privacy should focus on technologies that affect an individual’s freedom to act.
Description of the "Effect"	Begins general; becomes increasingly specific	What the specific effect is (or effects are) How we get from the specific conditions to the specific effects Specific illustrations of these effects How these specific illustrations are representative of (can stand in for) others In this second part of the analysis, the writer needs to walk the reader through the logical steps the writer has used to move from cause to effect. For example, if the writer argues that loss of privacy leads to loss of individual freedom, the writer needs to explain carefully how privacy and freedom are linked. So perhaps the writer might claim that privacy allows an individual to be free from the observation of others. With our privacy becoming increasingly limited by surveillance, we are no longer free from the observation of others. If we believe that we are always being watched, we will probably change our behavior and be less willing to take chances or act independently. If we feel we cannot act independently then we are no longer free.
Explanation of the meaning of the cause-and-effect relationship	More General	Why this analysis is important How we might act upon the ideas the writer has presented In this third part of the analysis, the writer argues for the importance of the argument’s findings, often by putting in perspective the short-term or long-term consequences of the "effect." In addition, in this part the writer usually makes some sort of recommendation (what we should do). So if the writer is arguing that loss of privacy leads to loss of freedom, in this part the writer might speculate one what might happen if this trend towards further loss of privacy continues. In addition, the writer might describe some of the specific actions we can take to safeguard our existing privacy, or how legislation might provide such safeguards.
Conclusion	General	Summing up How our understanding of the larger issue might be changed by the writer's analysis Appeal to the reader—how this situation affects us

To write a cause and effect essay, you’ll need to determine a scenario in which one action or event caused certain effects to occur. Then, explain what took place and why! This essay allows us to identify patterns and explain why things turned out the way that they did.

[<<PART 1] [PART 3>>]

Content for this handout was modified using the Cause and Effect Argument Overview handout.

The original document was provided to The Study Library to assist students with writing.

You can find the original document at this address https://studylib.net/doc/6835548/cause-and-effect-essays

Content approved for download and usage 10.26.2018.

Cause and Effect Argument Overview

Cause & Effect Essays-Hints and Tips (part 1)

Cause & Effect
Guidelines, Hints, and Tips

(part 1)

Not all essays follow a 5-paragraph structure. Cause and Effect Essays are an example where this is the case.

It is important to understand that the five-paragraph essay is not necessarily bad. [It is simply a starting point for young writers.] However, most student writers are led to believe or rather, falsely believe, that all essays must follow the five-paragraph essay format. Just a little thought makes clear that format is very limiting and limited and does not provide an adequate organization for many types of writing assignments, especially at the higher academic levels.
Always think about the purpose and scope of your essay, so that you won't make the mistake of thinking that a 5-paragraph structure is the best way to organize your essays. Instead, student writers should see that the form of an essay (its organization) needs to match the purpose of the essay.

Explaining Cause and Effect

Often writers are asked to explain how certain conditions or events are related to the occurrence of other conditions or events. When a writer argues that "one thing leads to another," he or she is making a cause-and-effect argument. For example, in an Economics class, students might be asked to explain the impact of increasing oil prices on the nation’s economy. Inherent in the question is the assumption that increasing oil prices is a cause, which produces specific effects in the rest of the economy. So, higher oil prices produce higher gasoline prices raising the cost of shipping goods. Higher oil prices produce higher jet fuel costs raising the cost of travel, and so on. "Higher oil prices" is the cause, and increased shipping costs and travel expenses are among the effects.
Writing tasks involving cause and effect analysis usually take one of two forms:

1. explaining how a known cause produces specific effects. This type of analysis is what the Essay 3 topic requires.

2. explaining how specific effects are produced by a previously unknown cause (which the writer has discovered). This type of analysis is commonly referred to as root-cause analysis.

To argue that certain conditions will lead to other conditions (that the loss of privacy will lead to something else or that social media will have a profound impact with detrimental ramifications), first the writer needs to define clearly what those conditions are, and then the writer needs to make clear how those conditions lead to other conditions.

Finally, the writer needs to explain what this cause-and-effect relationship means.

This type of essay, then, has five parts (not paragraphs!), with each part corresponding to a specific task the writer needs to perform, and each part consisting of one or more paragraphs.

[<<PART 6] [PART 2>>]

Content for this handout was modified using the Cause and Effect Argument Overview handout.

The original document was provided to The Study Library to assist students with writing.

You can find the original document at this address https://studylib.net/doc/6835548/cause-and-effect-essays

Content approved for download and usage 10.26.2018.

Cause and Effect Argument Overview

Standards for Writing

Standards for Writing: Basics

As the class starts, you could be wondering, “What is she going to expect me to write?” Well, the beginning of this document contains basics to help you get a general feel for the writing that will be acceptable in our class, and the rest of this handout will explain more elaborately the details associated with writing in a persuasive, academic-style while arguing a point.

Learning from the Experts

I remember my years in college where I mistakenly believed that my professors had to allow me open-creativity while completing my assignments. After all, I was an adult, now. I was led to believe that after high school, I would get to begin making my own choices in life: whether positive or negative. However, this did not happen in my college classes, nor did it occur in the ‘jobs’ that I worked to help pay for my studies. Each professor—no matter the discipline of the course—had a specific requirement that I had to follow. Whether it was the precise set-up of my Chemistry lab reports, the required step-by-step showing of my equation solutions in Calculus, or the seemingly restrictive structure of my essays in Studies in Medieval Literature, I was certain that I knew how to organize, sort, and present my information better than they did.

Looking back, I now know that they were correct. Each professor—whether I liked or personally related to him or her—had insights that I did not. Each professor had experience in his/her field-of-study and knew best how to most productively succeed in it. It only took me my first year of college-level studies to realize that the structure and organization touted by each of these professors in their given fields were the most logical and useful way of proceeding. While I did not always agree with their personal views, one thing I could not dispute was that they all knew how to be methodical in their fields.

I retell this so that you can hopefully learn more quickly than I did to respect the experience of professors. While you may not always like their approach, beliefs, or views of the world, their experience in their fields are valuable. Once you have learned from them—throughout your years of study—you have the option of stepping out of that ‘box’ of organized, prescribed structure and venturing out on your own. However, while within the confines of the academic society, you will want to follow the pattern of presentation pre-set by your field. In our case, this is writing. There are basic standards for writing in English. While your content may be subjectively reflected upon at times, the structure of your writing is objectively scored based on whether you have followed the pre-set conventions that best work to order ideas in a predictable and informative way. Please review the organizational structure below and know that there is a method to my (writing) madness. There is a reason that I want you to follow a specific order in your writing. It is not so that I can have control over you. I want you to follow this order so that YOU can have CONTROL over your presentation of material and CONTROL over the way you lead your reader through your argument. I believe you will find ease and comfort in this structure once you use it effectively. Try to respect the experience of those whom you have gone to for education and guidance.

Inductive Flow of Essays

Written by Joe Moxley

Parent Category: The Writing Process

Category: Organizing

Content available through

https://writingcommons.org/specific-to-general

Use an inductive organizational structure to surprise readers or to address controversial topics.

While writers are under increasing pressure to organize information deductively, they can--and do--write inductively. Typically, writers employ a more inductive style when the topic is controversial or when they wish to surprise readers.

Controversial Issues

When writing documents that address controversial issues or matters that threaten the beliefs of their readers, writers may find it strategic to place their arguments in their conclusions rather than their introductions.

Surprise Readers

Readers of novels expect to be delighted with surprise endings. In contrast, readers of nonfiction don't expect the surprise ending, so they can be especially appreciative of a carefully constructed surprise. Note below, for example, the way Dianne Lynch surprises you with the line, "you are using the Internet to fight back"--a line in direct juxtaposition to the first 122 words of her short essay "Afghan Women Reach Out Via the Web."

You can't laugh or talk aloud in public, and even your shoes must make no sound. Wearing cosmetics or showing your ankles is punishable by whipping; women have had their fingers amputated for wearing nail polish.
You paint the windows of your house black so you cannot be seen from the outside. You are forbidden from walking on your balcony or in your backyard. It has been years since the sun shone on your face. And all public references to you have disappeared.
You are a woman in Afghanistan today, living under the regime of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban.
And if you are one of the nearly 2,000 women who belong to The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, or RAWA, you are using the Internet to fight back.

When writing essays for school contexts, be sure to check whether your instructor will permit an inductive organization. While an inductive approach can be an effective strategic approach, some readers--particularly in academic and business contexts--define "good writing" as writing that follows a deductive structure.

Deductive Flow to Essays

For students of ENGL101, you will only use source materials in an introduction paragraph if it serves as your 'hook' line of the paragraph: the very first line. Other than that line, there should be no other source content in an Introduction paragraph. Furthermore, the last sentence of the Introduction will hold the Thesis statement that guides the readers regarding the overall purpose of the writing. A Thesis is in your own words.

Written by Joe Moxley

Parent Category: The Writing Process

Category: Organizing

Content available at

https://writingcommons.org/general-to-specific-deductive

Provide thesis and forecasting statements in the introduction to help busy readers focus.

Approximately 100,000 books and millions of journal articles are published each year in the United States (see Bowker Annual). Digital Archivists estimate the size of the Deep Web at over 7.5 billion documents. The Internet Archive has archived 10 billion pages of the Open Web--over 100 terabytes of information. Now that the Internet has made it possible for just about anyone to publish and potentially reach millions of readers, we are truly overwhelmed by information.

Hook Your Readers - Get to the Point!

Accordingly, writers are under increasing pressure to get to the point, to grab the prospective reader's attention and deliver the goods. In many writing contexts, across genres, readers expect writers to define the purpose, organization, and significance of a document in a thesis statement that is provided in the introduction. As a result, most documents follow a deductive organization in which the authors make a general statement and then support it with specific examples. In other words, writers summarize their thesis and often forecast how they've organized a document. Here, for example, is a headline from today's newspaper:

"Self-Amputation. Frustrated Man Plans to Cut Off His Legs Online" by Paul Eng (ABCNEWS.COM)

This headline is designed to hook readers, enticing them to read the essay. Now, in the past--that is, long ago (read after the Ice Age but before the Internet)--readers may have given writers several pages to get to the point. Nowadays, you've got seconds. Literally seconds. The time it takes to click onto something more informative or entertaining.

Here, for example, is an abstract of "Cybersex and Infidelity Online: Implications for Evaluation and Treatment" prepared by Kimberly S. Young, James O'Mara, and Jennifer Buchanan for the 107th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association:

Prior research has examined how marital relationships can result in separation and divorce due to Internet addiction. This paper examines how the ability to form romantic and sexual relationships over the Internet can result in marital separation and possible divorce. The ACE Model (Anonymity, Convenience, Escape) of Cybersexual Addiction provides a workable framework to help explain the underlying cyber-cultural issues increasing the risk of virtual adultery. Finally, the paper outlines specific interventions that focus on strategies for rebuilding trust after a cyberaffair, ways to improve marital communication, and finally how to educate couples on ways to continue commitment.

Here's another example of an introduction that gets right to the point, extracted from "Blinded by Junk Food":

Over indulging in fat-filled snack foods may heighten the risk of developing advanced age-related muscular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness and vision impairment in the United States for those over 55, researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary said in a new study.

By the way, you should know that readers expect you to provide deductive summaries throughout a document, particularly in lengthy documents. Each time you begin a new section, consider:

1. Providing a quick, perhaps one-sentence review of what you've discussed.
2. Explaining ways the new topic relates to what has been discussed.
3. Explaining how one section relates to another section.

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Questioning as Pre-Writing

Written by Joe Moxley

Parent Category: The Writing Process

Category: Organizing

Available at https://writingcommons.org/asking-questions-heuristics

Determine the questions typically addressed in the document you are writing.

Writing and thinking involve asking and answering questions. The term heuristic is derived from the Greek word heuresis, which means to discover or invent. Heuristic questions refer to the questions both writers and readers commonly ask of documents.

Note: The heuristics discussed here can help you develop any of the writing assignments provided in the Projects section. These questioning strategies can help you develop an idea.

Journalistic Questions: Use the journalist's questions to probe your subject matter.

The Common Topoi and Tagmemic Questions: Use this online tool to systematically explore a topic.

Burke's Pentad:Use Burke's Pentad (a series of questions designed to generate insights) to interpret human events, stories, and movies.

Modeling/Theory Maps

Written by Joe Moxley

Parent Category: The Writing Process

Category: Organizing

Available at https://writingcommons.org/modeling-theory-maps

Use visual brainstorming to develop and organize your ideas.

Do you have a grand theory or an explanation for a fundamental question such as, "Do computers think?" or "How long have human beings existed?" If so, you may want to use visual language to reveal the complex details, interactions, and processes embedded within your theory.

When Are Model/Theory Maps Useful?

Use visual language to explore a theory or model. As your thinking evolves, redraw the theory or model. For major projects, you may want to do multiple revisions.
Describe how multiple processes interact within a complex, chaotic system.

Suggestions for Drawing Theory/Model Maps

A theory or model map draws on the strength of other maps, such as clustering/spider maps, timelines/flowcharts, hierarchy concept maps, systems and concept maps. In other words, a theory/model map may have clusters, timelines, circles, and arrows. Possible features for theory/model maps are:

Circles: You might have one large circle for the entire system and then, inside that, other circles, depicting sub-processes.
Arrows: Use arrows to illustrate how the system flows. Note when new components enter or leave the system.
Groupings: If a number of ideas are connected, go ahead and put a circle around them.

Online Theory Maps

Concept Map

Visual Understanding

Bottled into Bubbles: Concept Mapping

A concept map is a diagram or graphical tool that visually represents relationships between concepts and ideas. Most concept maps depict ideas as boxes or circles (also called nodes), which are structured hierarchically and connected with lines or arrows (also called arcs). These lines are labeled with linking words and phrases to help explain the connections between concepts.

Key features of concept maps

Concept maps are also referred to as conceptual diagrams. While other types of diagrams may look similar, concept maps have specific characteristics differentiating them from other visual tools.

Concepts

Concepts are defined as “perceived regularities or patterns in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label” and are depicted as shapes in the diagram.

Linking words/phrases

Linking words or phrases are located on the lines connecting objects in a concept map, and these words describe the relationship between two concepts. They are as concise as possible and typically contain a verb. Examples include "causes," "includes" and "requires."

Propositional structure

Propositions are meaningful statements made up of two or more concepts connected with linking words. These statements are also known as semantic units or units of meaning. Concepts and propositions are the foundation for the creation of new knowledge in a domain. Essentially, a concept map visually conveys a set of propositions about a certain topic.

Hierarchical structure

A key element of the concept map is its hierarchical structure. The most general and inclusive concepts are positioned at the top of a concept map with the more specific and exclusive concepts arranged hierarchically below. As such, a concept map is designed to read from top to bottom.

Focus question

A focus question defines the issue or problem the concept map needs to solve. Developing a focus question allows you to design with a context in mind and thus helps guide and maintain the direction of your concept map. Within the hierarchical structure, the focus question should be at the very top of the concept map and serve as a reference point.

Parking lot

Before beginning your concept map, it can be helpful to come up with a list identifying the key concepts that need to be included. Establish a rank-ordered list from the most general concept to the most specific. This list is referred to as a parking lot, as you will move the items into the map as you figure out where they fit in.

Cross-links

Cross-links are relationships between concepts in different domains of the concept map, allowing you to visualize how ideas within these different domains are connected. Both the cross-links and the hierarchical structure facilitate creative thinking, and these cross-links often indicate moments of creativity.

Using and Creating
Concept Maps

Here are the basic steps in constructing a concept map.

Identify the focus question or main topic—think about the problem or issue you want the concept map to resolve. This idea should connect to all others on your map and will guide the hierarchical structure.
Identify all the key concepts that relate to the main idea you identified. Order them with the most general concepts first and the more specific concepts last. This list is referred to as the parking lot.
Create a preliminary concept map linking the concepts together. Remember to add linking words or phrases on the lines to demonstrate how the concepts are related.
Add cross-links to connect concepts in different domains.
Continually revise your concept map as needed.

How to make a Concept Map:

See the video below or go to https://youtu.be/8XGQGhli0I0 for direct access.

LucidChart has an article with instructions on how to make a concept map and it explains the way different institutions and people use concept maps to organize information for themselves and so that they can communicate better with others.

[Who Uses Concepts Maps, and How Can I use them?]

I do not use nor receive funding from LucidChart. I am simply reposting their information on the topic of concept mapping for students to understand another possible pre-writing technique to better organize their thoughts which will result in better organizing their writings.

Content available through https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/concept-map

What is a Concept Map

What is a Concept Map

Use a concept map maker to help others better understand and visualize various ideas and how they work. This guide covers everything you need to know about concept maps, from definitions and key features to use cases and history.

12 min read

How to make a concept Map: see video or go to https://youtu.be/8XGQGhli0I0 for direct access.

What is a concept map?

Key features of concept maps

Concept maps are also referred to as conceptual diagrams. While other types of diagrams may look similar, concept maps have specific characteristics differentiating them from other visual tools.

Concepts

Concepts are defined as “perceived regularities or patterns in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label” and are depicted as shapes in the diagram.

Linking words/phrases

Propositional structure

Hierarchical structure

Focus question

Parking lot

Cross-links

Why use a concept map?

The brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than it processes text. Designed as a tool to organize and represent knowledge, concept mapping can help you visualize relationships between various concepts and test your understanding of complex subjects. Thinking through and visually representing relationships between ideas forms mental connections that allow for better retention of knowledge. This diagram is a popular way to capture understanding of a topic for work, school, or personal study. It's used most frequently in academia, but the process can be easily applied to other fields.

Concept mapping offers benefits for any learning process:

· Facilitates comprehension with its visual format

· Synthesizes information by integrating new and old concepts to better grasp the big picture

· Encourages brainstorming and high-level thinking

· Fosters discovery of new concepts and their connections

· Provides clear communication of complex ideas

· Promotes collaborative learning

· Sparks creativity

· Snapshots your current knowledge to assess understanding

· Identifies areas that need further knowledge or review

When to make a concept map

Concept maps are an optimal learning tool for students and educators, whether the contributors are enrolled in school, teaching or tutoring a subject, or developing new skills on their own. The process of connecting ideas in a tangible space can solidify your topical knowledge, as well as clarify which areas need a little work.

Making a concept map can be helpful when:

· Presenting concise overviews of a field

· Absorbing information while studying for an exam

· Assessing a student’s grasp of a particular topic

· Consolidating knowledge during the learning process

· Demonstrating an acceptable level of understanding on a subject

· Defining knowledge that exists in your head but hasn’t been formally documented

Concept maps are similar to other node-linking mapping methods such as topic maps or UML diagrams. However, concept maps differ due to their philosophical basis, which holds that concepts and propositions are the foundation of new knowledge and meaning.

Keep in mind that concept maps are not the same as mind maps, though they’re frequently confused (see below for more details). Concept maps aren’t the best tool for visualizing new ideas, organizing meetings, or managing tasks and projects. You may want to try mind maps or another type of diagram in these scenarios.

Concept maps vs. mind maps

Many people have trouble telling concept maps and mind maps apart. Here’s how to determine if you’re dealing with a concept map or a mind map:

Concept maps

· Are used to represent tacit knowledge, like an existing theory or concept. The ideas are usually generated externally.
· Tend to represent academic knowledge, so their application is more formal.
· Contain general knowledge near the top of the map, with related concepts arranged hierarchically below.
· Show topics with cross-linking and multiple relationships.

Mind maps

· Are used to flesh out a set of ideas, which are often generated internally.
· Tend to represent a greater variety of tasks and concepts, so their application is more flexible.
· Contain a single word, phrase, or image in the center of the map, with related ideas radiating outward in all directions.
· Show topics with a single parent and several children.

Concept mapping for education

Concept mapping can be a powerful tool in the world of education, helping students to perform at higher cognitive levels and helping teachers to explain complicated subjects and assess student understanding.

Students can use concept mapping to:

· Organize and structure new material

· Increase learning by relating new and old knowledge

· Map out relationships between things such as vocab words, characters in a story, events in history, etc.

· Plan/outline writing projects

· Design their own representations of knowledge

· Brainstorm new ideas

· Take notes

· Create study guides

· Design complex structures

· Teachers can use concept mapping to:

· Plan curriculum

· Assess understanding or diagnose misunderstanding of students

· Explain complex ideas

· Assist struggling readers

· As educators incorporate concept maps into their teaching methodology, they can provide aids to help facilitate the process for students:

· Give a focus question to get the wheels turning.

· Create a parking lot (list of key concepts) to help students determine what to include in their map.

· Provide expert skeleton maps so students have a structure to follow. These are small concept maps started by an expert on the topic which students can then expand upon.

Concept maps are especially useful as evaluation tools. For example, instructors can have students create a concept map at the beginning of the semester to assess existing knowledge. Students can then repeat this activity throughout the semester so both students and teachers can evaluate what is being learned. It helps to assess cognitive ability, as deciding what cross-links are most important to include requires high cognitive performance. This activity can also be used to identify and remedy misconceptions students might have.

Research indicates that students working in small groups and cooperating while learning results in positive cognitive and affective outcomes. Concept mapping allows for this productive small group work among students and teachers in any subject matter.

Concept mapping for business

While widely used in education, concept maps have expanded to the business world as well. Concept maps communicate ideas well and prompt intuitive visual thinking that aid business analysis. Concept mapping is a group process, making it an ideal activity for teams or groups of stakeholders, and it is especially when solving problems, whether they be in marketing, new product design or administration. They allow all organization members to evaluate where they are currently and where they would like to go, and they can be easily made and maintained by anyone, even the non-technical users.

Concept maps bring a creative and results-oriented approach known as design thinking to business. Within this approach, concept maps can be used for inspiration, ideation and implementation. These diagrams are excellent storytellers, helping in the ideation and inspiration phases. When it comes time for implementation, concept maps help with instruction, documentation and communication.

Experts within a company have a wealth of knowledge that has been compiled over the years, some of which they might not be able to communicate well to others. Nonaka and Takeuchi highlight the importance of documenting a corporate expert’s knowledge in order to become “the knowledge creating company”. The use of concept maps to record this valuable information is increasing in practice.

Concept mapping can serve a variety of purposes in a business organization:

· Promoting company-wide understanding of business requirements

· Spotting gaps and contradictions

· Identifying complex relationships among ideas

· Learning the “language” of a client

· Establishing a consistent language for a project

· Identifying potential requirements dependencies

· Modeling inventory flows, cash flows, relationship flows, etc

· Product development

· Market analysis

· Decision-making

· Formulating research projects

· Mapping team knowledge

· Archiving expert knowledge

· Creating a shared vision within a team or organization

· Generating advance organizers

· Training new employees

· Software design

· Ontology-building

Concept mapping for healthcare

Within the healthcare industry, concept mapping allows for prioritizing ideas, evaluating consensus, identifying gaps and creating improved action plans. It allows the various stakeholders of an organization to come together and formulate effective plans, as faculty are able to create a shared representation of the patient’s condition and situation and determine the proper next steps.

Applications of concept mapping within healthcare include:

· Organizing workloads

· Prioritizing patient assignments

· Critically thinking through abnormal assessments

· Mapping out plans of care

· Identifying relationships between symptoms

· Revealing diagnosis

· Training medical staff

History of concept mapping

Concept mapping as a method was developed by Joseph Novak and a team of researchers at Cornell University in the 1970’s. Dr. Novak was searching for a new tool to describe explicit changes in children’s conceptual understanding.

Both he and his colleagues at Cornell had studied psychologist Jean Piaget’s theories on cognitive operational stages. Piaget and other experts assumed that children weren’t capable of comprehending abstract concepts, like the nature of matter, before the age of 11. Dr. Novak decided to launch a research project that would observe minute changes in the way children learned new ideas. He was inspired by a theory from David Ausubel, a proponent of Piaget’s theories. Ausubel wrote,

“If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly” (Ausubel, 1968, p. vi)

With this idea as their guiding light, the Cornell team developed a new tool during their longitudinal study: the concept map. These maps were simple—just one or two words to represent the main idea, and lines showing linking words that created a meaningful statement. The most general concepts were grouped at the top of the map and the most specific ones at the bottom. Novak taught students to build concept maps to demonstrate their knowledge on focus questions such as “What is water”.

The research team explained,

“We found that a 15- or 20-page interview transcript could be converted into a one-page concept map without losing essential concept and propositional meanings expressed by the interviewee. We soon realized this was a very powerful and concise knowledge representation tool, a tool that changed our research program from this point on.”

Since 1972, concept mapping has become extremely popular, as specialists in fields from education to healthcare realize the unique benefits of this type of diagram.

Theoretical foundation

Concept maps are based on Ausubel’s Assimilation Theoryand Novak’s Theory of Learning, which discuss how people learn new information by incorporating new knowledge with knowledge they already posses. Novak stated,

“Meaningful learning involves the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing cognitive structures.”

Through meaningful learning, discussed more below, the integration of new concepts into our cognitive knowledge structure occurs through linking the new knowledge to concepts already understood. A concept map provides a visual demonstration of these relationships between concepts in our cognitive structure. The origin of concept maps stems is based in constructivism, which discusses how learners actively construct knowledge.

Physiological foundation

Children acquire concepts during the age of birth to three years as they start identifying labels or symbols for regularities they observe in the world around them. This early and autonomous learning is known as the discovery learning process. After age three, the reception learning process begins, where new meanings are formed by asking questions and understanding the relationships between old and new concepts—concepts are no longer defined by the learner but described by others and transferred to the learner.

In addition to exploring these two learning processes, Ausubel also differentiates between rote and meaningful learning. Rote learning occurs when there is little or no relevant knowledge to the new information being presented and no internal commitment to incorporate new and existing knowledge. As a result, information is easily forgotten. The cognitive structure is not enhanced to clear up faulty ideas.

Meaningful learning can only occur under the following three circumstances:

The new material being presented must be clear and relatable to the learner’s prior knowledge. Concept maps are helpful here, as they identify general concepts held by the learner which can then be built upon.

The learner needs to possess relevant prior knowledge, especially when trying to comprehend detailed and specific knowledge in an area.

The first two conditions can be controlled directly by the instructor. However, the third cannot, as it requires that the learner choose to learn meaningfully. In other words, they make an effort to assimilate new and old information rather than just memorizing.

The distinction between rote and meaningful learning is a continuum, as individuals possess different amounts of relevant knowledge and different motivation levels for knowledge assimilation. Creativity is a a very high level of meaningful learning on this continuum.

Working and short-term memory are the most important for getting knowledge into long-term memory. Information is processed in the working memory through interaction with knowledge in long-term memory; however, the working memory can only process a small number of units at a time. However, if these units can be grouped together, it is much easily recalled. Organizing large amounts of information requires repetition between working memory and long-term memory. Concept mapping is powerful for meaningful learning because it acts as a template to help organize and structure knowledge, even though the structure must be built piece by piece with small units of interacting concepts and propositions. This process allows for the use of knowledge in new contexts and for increased retention. In addition, research shows that our brain prefers to organize information in the hierarchical structure characteristic of concept mapping.

Epistemological foundation

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy dealing with knowledge and new knowledge creation. There exists a growing consensus that new knowledge creation is a constructive process that involves our knowledge and our emotions. Novak believes that new knowledge creation is high meaningful learning by those with an organized knowledge structure on a certain topic and a strong motivation to find new meaning.

Concept maps are associated with constructivist theories of learning in which learners are active participants rather than passive recipients of knowledge. Learners must make an effort to bring new meaning to information they already know. Building concept maps is a creative process, as concepts and propositions are the foundation for knowledge in any domain.

How to build a concept map

Here are the basic steps in constructing a concept map. We have a much more detailed article with instructions on how to make a concept map step by step, if you’re ready to learn more.

· Identify the focus question or main topic—think about the problem or issue you want the concept map to resolve. This idea should connect to all others on your map and will guide the hierarchical structure.

· Identify all the key concepts that relate to the main idea you identified. Order them with the most general concepts first and the more specific concepts last. This list is referred to as the parking lot.

· Create a preliminary concept map linking the concepts together. Remember to add linking words or phrases on the lines to demonstrate how the concepts are related.

· Add cross-links to connect concepts in different domains.

· Continually revise your concept map as needed.