You could use different colour highlighters if you have been mindmapping with pen and paper or, if you have used post-it notes or mindmapping software, you could physically group the points together. Group together the points which seem particularly connected or relevant to each other in some way. The second stage involves establishing the relationships between the points. You can do this using paper and pen, although pencil might be better in terms of flexibility and reorganising the points at a later stage, or you could use a small whiteboard, or post-it notes which can be easily moved around, or one of the mind-mapping software packages which allow you to create ideas in free-floating, movable ‘bubbles’ anywhere on the computer screen (see later in this section for information about mind-mapping software). At this point, it doesn’t matter in what order you generate these points, but it is helpful to do so in a flexible way. It might be helpful to write the title or question of your essay in the middle of the page as a focus and reminder. This is useful to get an overview of the planned contents of your essay and see how wide-ranging it is, if it fits the question and if some of your ideas have been worked out in greater detail than others. The first stage of mind-mapping is unstructured, and consists of brainstorming the points you want to make, which you have established from your reading and your own ideas. Like other planning techniques, mindmapping requires careful thought about the relationship between the points to be made, to avoid becoming a loosely ordered collection of observations. Mind-mapping enables you to create a more visual overview of the structure of your writing, and to experiment with it more fluidly before you begin to set it down in writing as a draft. There are a number of ways in which you can use this technique: using pen and paper, post-it notes, or one of the various software tools available. Mind-mapping is a non-linear planning technique that suits students who prefer to work out their ideas more holistically and visually.