Coast Spas Reviews Gives Tips on How to Organize Your Writing

Mind Map vs. Outline

At some point in all of our lives, we have heard someone tell us to put our thoughts on paper to better organize them into a cohesive idea. Some suggest using an outline and others suggest using a mind map. Coast Spas Reviews is here to help you to decide which way is better for you. So, let’s take a look at the two different styles.

Mind Mapping

A mind map is similar in style to brainstorming. That is, you write down your main topic of discussion and expand “nodes” off into all directions which could be different paragraphs or just simply subcategories of the main subject. Take for example this article, Coast Spas Reviews could have a main topic called “Mind Mapping” and then list off all the requirements or suggestions on how to mind map. Better yet, why not make it a comparison. Therefore, we simply could put “How to Organize Your Writing” as we did. Then, we could put all the parts of the paper we want to write in separate nodes and list ideas within with talking points we would like to cover.

Outline

An outline is more linear in nature. Meaning, you write your topic at the top of the page and list below all the paragraph headings with the points you wish to talk about under those headings. It looks much cleaner, but if you make a mistake you have to erase a lot of things, so you can get it just the way you like it.

Decisions

To help you to choose Coast Spas Reviews is providing you with the following list. If you answer yes to any of the first three, use an outline. However, if you answer no to any of the first three and yes to the last one, it is best to use a mind map.

· Do you find yourself needing a specific order or linear flow?

· Do you find yourself needing a very exact level of detail with multiple smaller points?

· Do you need any of the structures that only outlines presently deliver?

· Do you need flexibility in showing any non-linear data or you want a good overall view of your data at a glance?

Software

Once you have made your decision, there are plenty of software options to help you. Below Coast Spas Reviews will list their favourites for each.

· Mind mapping

o Freemind

o Coggle

o MindMapple

o NovaMind

o Text2Mindmap

· Outline

o FocusWriter

o LibreOffice Writer

o Scribus

o WriteMonkey

o Workflowy

Final Thoughts

Mind maps have a superior visual capability as compared to outlines and they usually focus on giving a good graphic user interface as opposed to outlines that often cause a certain level of confusion. In our day to day writing, we tend to lean to mind maps. The reason is at Coast Spas Reviews, we tend to lean toward a more group dynamic and it helps everyone to see everything that is on the board. When we tried to function with an outline people found it easy to cross lines or skip them all together. This led to adding recurring instances of the same material. At the end of the day, you must figure out which method works best for your needs.