March 18, 2021
How to structure an essay using Ayoa: A guide for students
Forming an effective structure is arguably one of the biggest components when it comes to essay writing. There is an expectation for students to learn and understand the formal and academic structure required for their work – and a lack of this structure can be the downfall of any essay, no matter how great the content is.
However, when faced with a blank page, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed with the amount of information you need to include and the arguments you want to put forward in your work. This can especially be a struggle for those with neurological differences, such as dyslexia or autism.
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The key to presenting your essay in a successful structure is to plan ahead. Once you have worked out how to structure every section of your essay, it’s much easier to then simply focus on writing the content itself.
Read on to discover how Ayoa can help take away the stress and allow you to put immediate structure behind your work.
Mind mapping
Mind maps have been a common learning tool for students for many years. Renowned for their ability to help improve our organization, memory recall and creativity, mind maps are a powerful tool for students to use to help aid and support their learning.
When planning an essay, it’s important to be able to research your topic and explore the arguments you wish to put forward before you begin writing. Mind mapping is a great way to capture your initial ideas and expand on them, thanks to the way they reflect our brain’s natural thinking processes.
Have you ever noticed that your mind will often spark one idea after another until you have a web of interconnected thoughts in your head? Mind maps simply take this thinking process and capture it for you. This makes them an invaluable tool for students as their inherent structure encourages your mind to make associations between different ideas and expand your train of thought on a particular topic.
Every mind map begins with a central idea; this should be the topic you’re exploring or even the title of your essay. You can then easily add branches to your mind map to help you immediately add structure. Use the initial branches that stem from your central idea to represent the different sections of your essay (for example, the introduction, the different arguments you’ll discuss in the essay, and your conclusion). You can then add relevant keywords or phrases to each of these branches to outline what you want to discuss in more detail.
Ayoa offers three unique mind mapping styles that you can create directly in the app, giving you the flexibility to create a mind map in the way that works best for you. Ayoa’s visual nature also means that you can color-code your branches to easily distinguish between different sections of your essay, add images for visual recall and inspiration, and even add file attachments for any additional reading or source material.
Once you have the outline of your essay mapped out, Ayoa enables you to export your mind map as a Word document. This means the structure you’ve built in your mind map is already outlined for you on the page – so you can then focus on filling in the gaps and writing your assignment. You also have the ability to export your mind maps as a PDF or image should you wish to use them as a reference when working separately on your assignment.
Whiteboards
Whiteboards in Ayoa are another useful and engaging way to not only capture new ideas for your work but also organize your notes from class. All too often, it can be easy for students to simply jot everything down in a notebook. However, how often do you find you return to these notes later down the line only for them to not always make sense out of context, or for some notes to simply have been missed out or lost in the jumble of information?
Whiteboards in Ayoa allow you to group together related information using sections. These sections can be color-coded to help you easily distinguish between different topics, and it can also be a great way to plan out the different sections of an essay. You can then add any notes relating to those particular sections using sticky notes, images, file attachments and much more.
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As with mind maps, whiteboards in Ayoa are extremely visual in nature, making them a really engaging way to organize your work. With a range of color options for your sticky notes, text and sections, you’ll find it much easier to break down the subject content needed for an essay – so you can avoid feeling overwhelmed and see the bigger picture of how each section will fit together in your final written work.
Whiteboards also have a number of exporting options once you have your ideas down. In fact, you can export it to a mind map, should you wish to add even further structure to your notes.
Are you ready to find a new and easy way to structure your essays? Say goodbye to the headache and stress that comes with the start of a new assignment and use Ayoa’s mind mapping and whiteboard features to make the process of structuring your essays fun, engaging and ultimately more successful. Try it for FREE today!