A student noticed that the best notes often looked messy. Years later his branching diagrams were on BBC television — and the name “Mind Map” was a registered trademark.
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Ten items. Say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Read the sentence, guess the meaning of the word in bold, then reveal.
The three words are: hierarchy · keyword · branch. Read each meaning, say the word, then reveal.
One missing word fits every phrase in the group. Say it, then reveal.
Read each part. After it, answer the quick check from memory, then discuss one question.
Drawing ideas as branches is very old. In the third century, the philosopher Porphyry of Tyre showed Aristotle's categories as a branching diagram, and in the Middle Ages the thinker Ramon Llull used similar techniques.
Tony Buzan was born in 1942 in Palmers Green, north London, and moved with his family to Vancouver, Canada, when he was 12. Studying subjects including psychology, English and mathematics at the University of British Columbia, he noticed something odd. The students who did well did not necessarily have the neatest notes. Theirs were often messy — full of doodles, arrows and key words.
He began taking notes the same way. “It was as if I'd been driving all my life with my windscreen caked in mud,” he said later, “and suddenly I could see clearly.”
1. Who drew Aristotle's categories as a branching diagram?
2. What did Buzan notice about the notes of successful students?
3. How did he describe the change in his own note-taking?
1. Porphyry of Tyre, in the third century.
2. They were often messy, with doodles, arrows and key words — not neat.
3. Like driving with a windscreen covered in mud, and suddenly being able to see clearly.
In the 1970s Buzan presented a BBC television series called Use Your Head, and in 1974 the BBC published a book of the same name. (Sources differ on whether the series began in 1973 or 1974.) It introduced viewers to his mind maps: one central idea in the middle of the page, main themes branching out from it, and details branching off those.
The rules were simple: start in the centre, use one keyword per line, use colour and pictures, and let the branches show how the ideas connect. His BBC books sold more than three million copies. He wrote around 80 books, and in 1991 he founded the World Memory Championships.
Buzan's organisation registered “Mind Maps” as a trademark, and in 2006 Buzan launched his own mind-mapping software, iMindMap. The doodles had become a brand.
1. What was the name of Buzan's BBC series?
2. What are the basic rules of a mind map?
3. What did Buzan's organisation do with the name?
1. Use Your Head.
2. Start in the centre, one keyword per line, use colour and pictures, show the connections with branches.
3. It registered “Mind Maps” as a trademark.
Buzan was a showman, and not everyone was convinced. His obituary in The Times noted that some people thought him “little more than a good salesman”. Critics also pointed out that branching diagrams were centuries older than Buzan.
So what does the research say? In a 2002 study of 50 medical students in London, the group taught to use mind maps remembered about 10% more of a text a week later than a group using their own study methods — a modest gain, and not a certain one. The mind-map group was also less motivated to use the technique.
Buzan died in April 2019. Mind maps did not turn ordinary people into geniuses, as some of the advertising suggested. But for planning a project, an essay or a wedding, a single page that shows the whole picture can still be surprisingly useful.
1. What did some people think of Buzan, according to The Times?
2. What did the 2002 study find?
3. What was the problem with motivation?
1. That he was “little more than a good salesman”.
2. The mind-map group remembered about 10% more after a week — a modest, uncertain gain.
3. The students using mind maps were less motivated to use the technique.
The topic goes in the middle. Main ideas branch out from it; details branch off the main ideas. The further from the centre, the more specific the idea.
A couple are mind-mapping their wedding. Where does each item go: the centre, a main branch, or a sub-branch?
1. Main branch — one of the big themes of the plan.
2. Sub-branch — a detail of the Venue branch.
3. Centre — the topic of the whole map.
4. Sub-branch — a detail of the Food branch.
5. Main branch — another big theme.
6. Sub-branch — a detail of a Guests branch.
Pretty isn't the same as clear. It's easy to spend more time on colours than on thinking.
One centre only. Problems with several equally important parts don't fit a single middle point.
Hard to share. A map that makes perfect sense to you can be a mystery to everyone else.
When people talk about ideas and notes, they use a lot of phrasal verbs: come up with an idea, jot down a word, sum up a meeting. The tricky part is where the object goes.
Complete each sentence with the correct form of: come up with, jot down, sum up, run out of, go over.
1. Can you the main points in one sentence?
2. We need to a name for the new product by Friday.
3. I always my notes the night before an exam.
4. She the phone number on the back of an envelope.
5. Halfway through the meeting, my pen ink.
1. sum up
2. come up with
3. go over
4. jotted down
5. ran out of
Rewrite each sentence, replacing the words in bold with it or them.
1. Write down the keywords. →
2. She came across the old notebook in a drawer. →
3. Don't leave out the details. →
4. Let's think through the plan again. →
1. Write them down.
2. She came across it in a drawer. (inseparable)
3. Don't leave them out.
4. Let's think it through again.
Now tell your teacher how you prepare for something important — a trip, an exam, a presentation — using at least four phrasal verbs from today.
Think in branches, out loud. Choose a task, start the timer, and talk.
Choose a topic — your job, your town, a hobby. Describe the mind map you would draw: the centre, four main branches and some details.
Describe how you take notes at work, in class or on your phone. Has your method changed over the years? Why?
Buzan was admired and criticised. Talk about another person who sold a simple idea very successfully. Did they deserve their success?