Principles about Linking

 

Interlink Existing Concepts as Much as Possible

It is important that your link labels fully describe the relationship between the two concepts. This means making the labels more than simply "relates to" or "is connected to." Labels should indicate the exact nature of the relationship. Links may connect to, or be related to, more than one concept – be sure to link all related concepts together.

 

Why is Linking Important?

By establishing links between concepts you are able to see the "big picture" and gain a deeper understanding of a topic. In fact, your goal is to attempt to link every concept in your concept map to every other one. Trying to establish links helps you focus on which concepts are most important in order to understand a topic and identify areas within a map that you might need to work on a little more. For example, you may need to expand a map by establishing sub-concepts, or you may even need to eliminate concepts that turn out to be unimportant for a particular topic.

 

Most Common Words Used in Link Labels

Link Type	Example
Inclusion Links	Subset of: is included in, is contained in, is example of, is part of Superset of: include, contain, consist of, has example, has part of
Characteristics Links	has characteristic/is characteristic of has attribute/is attribute of has type/is type of
Actions Links	Function: cause/is caused by function as/is used for Operation: act on/is acted on by generate/is generated by regulate/is regulated by determine/is determined by increase/is increased by
Process Links	has process/is process in has input/is input to has output/is output of
Temporal Links	precede follow has step/is step in
Similarity Links	is similar to is like is opposite to

 

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