Penn State University Libraries - Create a Concept Map

Once you've done some preliminary research, begin to "map out" significant ideas to create aconcept map.

A concept map is simply a way to visually display the concepts and relationships among ideas.

This will help you to further organize your ideas and define your topic. Let's look at how a concept map on "sustainable development" is developed.

• First, write down the main idea in the center.
  
• Draw a circle around the idea. This will be the starting point for the concept map.
  

Here, "sustainable development" is the central theme.

• Next, think of some issues related to the central theme.
  
• Link these issues around the central theme, and draw lines connecting them.
  
• Here, three possible research issues relate to sustainable development
  • agricultural issue
  • environmental issue
  • ethical/social issues.

Only one of these possible sub-issues will be fully explored.

For each issue, think of sub-concepts that relate to it and connect them to the appropriate issue. 

Here, each of the three issues have sub-ideas for possible research exploration.

Continue to brainstorm possible ideas. Not all will be included later, but this approach lets you see the relationship among possible topics.

Like this sample, your concept map will grow.

At this point, select the issue that has the most potential for further research.

In this example, we'll develop the section on Ethical/Social Issues.

Here, only this sub-set of the brainstorming concept map will be fully developed.

Think of sub-issues that will support each concept.

Here is the fully developed concept map. Each element of the map will help you to:

• generate a list of research questions, and
• develop a topic definition statement.