How to Create a Spider Diagram

Create a spider diagram to organize thoughts and ideas for any writing assignment.

Creating a spider diagram is a simple way to organize thoughts or ideas for work or school writing assignments. It's called a spider diagram because of the way thoughts are organized and spread out over a piece of paper, making a diagram in the shape of a spider or spider web, depending on the number of ideas or topics to be discussed in each writing assignment.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Ruler

Instructions

1. Write down the main idea for your writing assignment in the middle of the paper.

2. Draw a circle around the main idea.

3. Use a ruler to draw four lines from the middle circle, two on each side or two on the top and bottom, it doesn't matter.

4. Write down four topics that will be discussed in your writing assignment. Write down one topic next to each straight line and draw a circle around these as well. These topics can be a couple of words long or a couple of sentences long, depending on the complexity of the writing assignment. Add more lines if the writing assignment is more complex and more topics need to be discussed.

5. Draw a line from each topic.

6. Write down sub-ideas or sub-topics next to each line drawn in the previous step. You can add as many sub-topics needed for your paper. Draw a circle around the sub-topics. Now look at the spider or spider web you have created.

Tips & Warnings

• The diagram doesn't have to look like a perfect spider or spider web; what matters is organizing your thoughts into a way you can understand them and include them in your writing assignment.

References

• Spider Diagrams
• Spider Graphic Organizer Printouts