This is a transcript of one of the videos in the plain language training course Writing well at work. There are references to slides and visual material that are only available by viewing the video.
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When we come to write a document, I think there are two mind maps that are really useful.
Capture all the ideas that you could include in your document
The first one is everything you know about the topic. So this is a topic based mind map and it could be vast.
What we’re wanting to do is to explore all the possibilities, everything that could possibly be in this document. Now, not everything will end up in the document, but we do want to explore it as thoroughly as we possibly can.
One of the great frustrations when we write is we can start writing a document and then partway through the process we have a new idea. Ohh, where am I going to put that? How am I going to make that fit in? And sometimes that can result in a bit of rewriting and restructuring. Yeah, a bit of a waste of time.
Think as thoroughly as you possibly can about all the ideas, all the possibilities in your document, before you start writing. That will be really helpful. So that’s what this first mind map is all about.
So let me show you an example of a mind map. I’m going to suppose that I had to write a document about indoor air pollution, so I’m going to start my mind map with that idea at the centre of the page, indoor air pollution. And then I’ll let my mind I’ll wander or think about this idea. Look, it’s a problem. It can actually be worse than outside air, and it’s more likely to get into your lungs. And so it’s related to the amount of time you spend inside. And that means that groups like the unwell and the elderly, they might particularly be at risk. It’s also a costly problem. Some people reckon up to $12 billion worth. Then I might want to think about what some of the causes of indoor air pollution are. Maybe combustion, maybe smoking or my heaters. Or maybe building materials. How could it be controlled? Would ventilation help? What about research? There’s not a whole lot of that. What about regulations? Well, there are none.
And you can see how those ideas have come to be put onto the mind map. They haven’t come in a linear fashion. I haven’t gone step by step by step. These ideas have come from the left and from the right, but I’ve been able to grab them as they’ve come to me and put them down on the mind map.
I start to get an idea of the rich landscape of all the different ideas that I might be able to include in my document. These are all possibilities.
Well, I’ll stop this video in a moment and ask you to grab a piece of paper, a blank sheet of paper. Put the central idea or the central topic of your document, the one that you’re all working on. Put that in the centre of the page and just think about this topic and write down all the ideas that come to mind. Give yourself, I don’t know, maybe 5 or 10 minutes to think pretty solidly about this topic, to capture all the possibilities, all the different things that you might be able to include in this document.
We want to explore the landscape as thoroughly as you possibly can. So take a few minutes to do that now.
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