Mapping is a technique for organizing and visualizing your ideas. It is a great way to communicate relationships within different ideas, and shows how all these ideas or thoughts are connected. Mapping is used in many areas from writing to creating flow charts to designing an application. Technical writers can use this mapping technique to help them set up their technical communication material. It can also help the writers to organize their projects quicker and easier than through other methods such as outlining.
When a mapping of a document is created, it allows the writer to see and analyze what is relevant and to pinpoint significant thoughts and information that need to be communicated. The mapping technique is similar to bullets within an outline, but more abbreviated. It helps writers filter thoughts and ideas and helps to break them down into the important information that needs to be shared. It is definitely more fun to look at as it is like a playbook for a football game – it’s a diagram, a framework of events, occurrences, etc.
To begin, draw a circle or bubble, and insert a title inside the bubble. The title should represent your main thought. Any ideas or thoughts that follow or relate to that bubble are then noted within another drawn bubble and linked via a connecting line (this is called branching). In other words, mapping will show how one bubble leads to other bubbles or how one thought leads to another thought. These bubbles will represent key factors that need to be written about. What you have just done is similar to mind-mapping which also helps to keep track of ideas.
Any mapping technique will help you to stay organized and to create better documents.
Use mappings:
- To organize documents by mapping documents to other associated documents.
- To help set up a strategy, e.g., to create categories for maintaining order and making sure that the content fits into appropriate categories.
- To see what is missing, needed, and what is good. After gathering all your information, create the mapping which will allow you to see not only a clearer picture but the whole picture (or business process) as well, e.g., of a department or application.
- To show the flow of a document. For example, it will show how one function of an application or activity can lead to another section of the application.
- To help animate or show pictorially processes that would otherwise be too difficult to describe verbally.
- To help show how activities lead to certain processes; it illustrates or describes the logical flow during a process or procedure.
When applying the mapping technique, use lines, colors, and various shapes to indicate the importance of items. Have fun with it. The benefits of mapping will be noted in the next post.
Have you ever used mapping or some organizing technique to help you in creating documents? If so please leave a comment.
Gail Zack Anderson, President of Applause, Inc., has nearly 20 years experience in training and coaching. She
provides individual presentation coaching, and leads effective presentation workshops and effective trainer workshops.
Theresa Pojuner is a Documentation Specialist with over 20 years of writing experience and is skilled in many areas of documentation, for example, Style Guides, Training Manuals and Test Cases, wth a specialty n Technical Writing and Procedures.