 Introduction to Concept Mapping At any point in the research process, it can be useful to organize all of your ideas in one place. Concept Mapping is a brainstorming activity that can help. Creating a concept map allows you to sort out what you know about your research topic, identify what you still need to find out, and examine relationships between different concepts of your research topic. How do I make a concept map? Start with the main idea of your research topic. Write, type, or draw this concept in the center of a page. This is the you are here that represents the beginning of your research. Here's an example. My main topic of research is vegetarianism, and I've placed that word at the center of my concept map. Next, add in your subtopics and the keywords that describe them. For my research on vegetarianism, possible subtopics to include are the environment, health, and definitions or types of vegetarianism. You can expand your map by adding important concepts, questions, people, and events. For my subtopic environment, I'll include benefits for reduces deforestation, the lower cost of eating plant-based versus that of feeding animals for meat production, and the decrease in pollution. For health, I could examine potential risks and benefits of vegetarianism. Each of these could be developed further. For example, possible risks might include concerns that vegetarians do not get enough protein in their diet. For my last subtopic, definitions, I'll include terms for different vegetarian diets, vegan, oval-acto-vegetarian, and pescatarian. You might also draw lines between related keywords or phrases and your main topic to indicate the relationship between different ideas. Here I've connected my main topic, vegetarianism, to the three subtopics. Then I connected each subtopic to its smaller concepts. I might also include lines indicating relationships between subtopics and concepts. Here I've indicated a relationship between the potential health risk, lack of protein, and the definition pescatarian. I'll then conduct research to learn more about this possible connection. As you continue to research and develop your concept map, additional questions to consider are, what do I already know about this topic? What don't I know about this topic? What would someone brand new to this topic need to know? Why is this topic important to me, to my readers, and to the world? Remember, your concept map will be unique to you. You can get as creative as you like. Questions? Your BC librarians are here to help. You can reach us on the Ask a Librarian chat or by email, reference at belviewcollege.edu. Reacted using PowToon!