Research & Writing: Studio Practice Research

Concept mapping is a visual, non-linear way of organizing notes and ideas. It works by triggering word associations and helps you explore facets of a topic that might not be immediately apparent. It starts with a central idea or concept that grows to include all relevant and related questions.

For more information on how to make a concept map, see RISD's "Concept Mapping" Handout. To make a concept map, use Cmap, a free software from the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.

When conducting research, having a list of alternate vocabulary words can be extremely helpful. To get you thinking about your topic, try the following exercise:

• Articulate your topic
• Write 1-2 sentences about what you want to learn
• Circle the key words in your sentence(s)
• For each of the circled words, come up with a list of about 4 synonyms or similar words
• Use different combinations of the words to try new ways of searching

See this handout for more information.