We perceive nearly 85% of all sensory input via our eyes, and most people have well developed visual memory, so why not use these tricks when it comes to studying? And we are talking not only about writing notes to remember information when you are preparing for a test, but also about essay writing. How can visual organization help you to write essays and reports more easily? The answer is an argumentative essay graphic organizer. High school can be quite overwhelming because of the amount of information you have to remember, but we know how to make it easier.
If you haven’t heard about it before, than it’s time to try, and if you have, we are going to introduce some fresh ideas.
Maybe you have seen those diagrams with squares, arrows and bubbles that act like an argumentative essay graphic organizer common core. All you need to do is print them out and fill in the blank spaces, but isn’t that a little bit boring? It is reminiscent of kid’s textbooks that you used to have ten years ago — not very cool. Here’s a better idea for you—try mindmapping!
Why is it better than simply downloading and printing a ready argumentative essay graphic organizer pdf, or copying the one given by your teacher five years ago? Apart from being trivial, this old method is also useless. Why does taking notes help so much when you are studying for the exam? Because your mind is better at remembering in the process, not while you are looking at the completed work. That’s why it is said that practice makes perfect.
What Do I Need?
So, you are going to create your own argumentative essay graphic organizer, and here’s what you will need:
1) Cool stationery, like a fancy notepad, pens or highlighters of different colors and some stickers.
2) Or you can use online services for mindmapping — there are plenty of them on the Internet. Choose one you like the most and let’s get started.
What Do I Do?
Once you are done with these easy preparations (here at CheapEssay we like making everything easy!), it’s time to get started. If you just want to have fun, all you need to do is find a standard argumentative essay graphic organizer middle for school, which is abundant on Google, and put that into a form of a colorful mind map. But why would you do that, if you can do something more effective?
Step one: Read a text that explains how to write argumentative essays, and you can find a lot of good ones about the whole paper or separate parts of it at our blog. Don’t take any notes, that’s important!
Step two: Close the tab with explanations, or just don’t look at it if you trust your will power, and start working on your mindmap. At this stage you don’t need to be exact. Just write what you remember, maybe add what you think is important and don’t care about the rest.
Step three: Once you are done (not earlier!) return to the web page with instructions and check what you have missed. If these are some important and big parts, like including counterarguments in the text, it’s better to add them to your map and highlight in a different color, so they are easier to remember. If the alterations are insignificant, you may as well just leave your map as it is.
Step four: Now it’s time to put your map in front of you and start writing the essay! Once you are done, have a little rest or switch activities, and then check to see if the text follows everything on your map. Don’t forget to proofread and format the essay properly.
Step five: Compliment yourself and eat a cookie, because you did a really good job. Positive reinforcement is important!
Benefits of Creating Your Mindmap
- It’s relaxing.
Our minds like beautiful things, bright colors and all the nice patterns and connections, that’s why the world is going crazy about coloring books for adults. Routine work which involves a fair bit of creativity makes our minds relax, roam freely and concentrate better (yes, this sounds weird, but it’s true). Try it and you won’t be able to stop! Moreover, complete mindmaps just look pretty cool.
- It boosts memory capacity.
The reason teachers shower students with obnoxious assignments is that our mind is waaaaay better at remembering things that we actually do rather than when we simply read or listen. They forget that assignments need to be interesting in order to get stuck in our memory, but that’s another story. Practice makes perfect, that is true, and mindmapping is the practice of organizing your thoughts. If you try this as a general practice, soon you will find yourself more put-together, concentrated and organized. And you will own the coolest notes in the class to prepare for exams as a nice addition.
- It’s really fun to do.
Many students face the problem of low motivation, especially somewhere midway through the term. The assignments pile up, the energy levels drop, and then you cannot force yourself to do anything. In milder cases, mindmapping will help you to lite the spark of motivation, and in the harder ones where you really just need to do everything, submit it and sleep for like a year, it’s a nice, yet productive way to have a rest. At least it is more productive than scrolling your Facebook timeline for several hours. And don’t try to deny it, we all know you do it.
Do you still think you need that boring argumentative essay graphic organizer doc downloaded from the Internet? Make your custom mindmap, remember the rules of argumentative essay writing, and nail every paper forever! And here’s a map done by one of our writers to inspire you:
We hope this was useful! Comment on what you would like to read about, see other articles (like one about argumentative essay rubrics) in our blog and don’t forget to visit our website, where you can get professional academic help with assignments of any difficulty.