"Mapping" a text is a technique of analyzing key concepts in passages (usually paragraphs) and discriminating their relationships to the main idea of the topic sentence. Mapping creates a visual, linear analysis which helps you to trace--quite literally--the flow of ideas around the main idea. Here are the steps for mapping a short passage:

1) Read a paragraph, analyzing it first for the placement of the topic sentence (most often the first sentence, though occasionally, the last sentence, or perhaps only implied).

2) After identifying the topic sentence, look for the key word or phrase that completes this sentence: "This passage/paragraph is about ____________."

3) Write the key phrase in the middle and near the top of a blank sheet of paper.

4) Identify the mode of development of the paragraph: description, analysis, cause/effect, definition, illustration, comparison/contrast, process explanation, etc. Note that some of these modes set up divisions of discussion like "comparison/contrast," "cause/effect," "process explanation." In such a case, the paragraph development (and therefore your map) will be divided into specific sections.

5) Ask yourself the critical questions--who? what? where? when? why? and how?--about the main idea in the topic sentence (the phrase you identified in step 2 above). Words and phrases which answer these questions represent primary details--information that develops or explains the main idea.

6) Draw a line for each primary detail, radiating away from the main idea. Write the key phrase below the end of that line. Note that these ideas may seem to encircle the main idea or they may be written next to each other, spaced evenly along a line below or above the main idea.

7) After you have identified and placed each primary detail as described in Step 6, ask yourself the same critical questions again, this time for each of the primary details. Repeat Step 5 and 6 for each of these secondary supporting ideas. Now you may have two rings of details looping around the main idea in the center of the page, or you may have three levels of ideas with the main idea at the top (or bottom) with a row of primary details closest to the main idea and, extending beyond the row of primary details, an additional row of secondary details.

8) For the purpose of writing summaries, you will include only the main idea(s) of the passage and the supporting primary details. Rarely will you include supporting secondary details or information in the draft of a summary.

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A Sample Map of a Short Paragraph

The Text

With the current changes to immigration law in the United States, it will be virtually impossible for refugees of war-torn countries to seek asylum here. The new laws require all people seeking political asylum in the United States to declare themselves as applicants at the border and testify at the moment of entrance before immigration adjudicants. The adjudicants will hear the people's petitions for asylum and judge on the spot whether the people have credible claims for asylum and reasonable fear of persecution if returned. In each case, the immigration adjudicant will have full responsibility to recommend or deny asylum. In the case of denial of asylum, the applicant will never be eligible for asylum in this country for the rest of his or her life.

Click here to see a sample map of the paragraph above.

Go to Exercise 6

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