Spidergrams

Having trouble organising your ideas? Spidergrams or spider diagrams are an efficient and useful tool for putting your ideas down on paper and planning assignments, creating a web of ideas and phrases which you can use to plan what you will say and when.

For instance, if you want to decide where to go on holiday you can use a spidergram.


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How to make a spidergram

A spidergram is meant to fit on a relatively small space. Try to use one piece of paper, two if absolutely necessary. You are trying to present your ideas in a compact form, save the in depth detail for the assignment itself. However you should not make your spidergram too small either, space it out so you can read each branch of the web, and see what it is connected to. It can get confusing if you cannot see which points link to each other, or cannot read a point

Start with the subject. Place it in the middle of the diagram (in this case the question of where to go on holiday). It is a good idea to indicate which is the central ‘bubble’ – maybe highlight it or use a different shape/lettering/etc. From here all your ideas will flow, and they are connected to the central subject.

Each branch of the web represents a different main point. Around the central point write your secondary points. If there are further points to be made have them branching off from the secondary ideas. In the example above the secondary points are examples of countries the writer is considering going to on holiday. The branches coming off the points marked “Spain” and “Thailand” are thoughts which the writer has related specifically to those countries.

Each point needs to contain just enough information to tell you what the point is about. Summarise what you want to say. Too many words and the spidergram won’t be useful as there will be too many words on it. Smaller branches are used as examples to support the ideas and points in bigger branches.

When doing a spidergram for your assignments make sure that you know where any information you use comes from. You could have small branches coming off each example to note where it came from, or you can include the reference location in the text on each branch. Do whatever makes most sense for you.



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In summary:
- Use a whole piece of paper - leave yourself lots of space for you ideas.
- Put the subject/question in the centre.
- Put each main point on a new branch - the examples and related thoughts will form branches coming off each main point.
- Summarise - don't write too much.
- Make sure you know where you got all your points and examples from, you don't want to have to search through all your notes to find lost information.
- Leave space to add notes later, you might forget to add a piece of information when you make the spidergram and you don't want to end up having to redraw the whole thing just to add a new idea or example.