How to Make Visual Summaries of Text (Wordles)

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By admiller
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Wordle for the Gettysburg Address

In this fast-paced world, getting to the point is a necessity. Condensing information visually is one way to get a quick summary. There are many online tools that will help you highlight the main points of a text visually. Follow the steps below to create a visual summary for any text.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Science lesson wordle

Select a text to summarize. Do you have an essay that you want to evaluate? How about a speech by your favorite politician? Being able to quickly gather key points with a visual representation is an application with wide appeal. Teachers can analyze their lesson plans, freelance writers can examine their articles, and bloggers can optimize their websites. Once you have found the target text, copy it into a word processing document.
Step 2

wordle.net

Select an online tool. There are a few free internet tools that will allow you to create a visual summary. Conduct a Google search for "free" and "wordle" or "tag cloud" or "word tree" or "phrase net." There are links for two free online infographic tools in the resource section below. The images in this article are from wordle.net.
Step 3

Yahoo Buzz wordle

Paste your text. If necessary, re-copy your target text using CTRL-C. Paste the text using CTRL-V into your chosen visual summary tool. Submit the text and wait for a visual summary to generate. You can alter the font, layout, and color scheme of the wordle. Some sites, like wordle.net, allow you to enter a URL to create a visual summary of an entire web page (click the image to the left to see a visual summary for Yahoo's Buzz Page).
Step 4

Wordle for this article

Analyze your wordle. Words that appear more frequently in the text will be bigger. What are the main ideas of the text? Do you notice any themes? How's your SEO? This visual summary can quickly convey information whether intended or not.