The reader
This page is for students building a map and for teachers who have been handed a mind-map poster full of generated labels. A map is not decoration. It is a claim about what depends on what, and where the student still has nothing.
How to draw one that can be marked
Write the target idea in the center as a sentence, not a noun. Add nodes that must be true for that sentence to stand. Draw arrows that mean “depends on,” not “is related to.” Leave empty nodes empty. An empty node is the most honest part of the drawing.
Then, on a second pass, mark each node: known with a source, guessed, or empty. Only after that pass may a model be asked for candidate examples or rival definitions. The model does not get to fill empty nodes in ink. Those stay empty until a human source or a measurement arrives.
Failure modes
A cloud of buzzwords. A map copied from a generated outline. A map with no empty nodes (that map is a fiction of completeness). A map the student cannot walk with a finger while speaking.
Review question
Can a classmate, using only the map, reconstruct which sentence would fall if one node were false? If not, the map is still a poster. Keep it in the folder anyway, then revise. The revision log is part of the evidence.
This page is method writing from HNK Institute. It describes a teaching practice. It does not report measured learning gains, partner logos, enrollment dates, or awards. Owner confirmation on 2026-10-04 covers that the practice operates and that info@hnk.org exists; it does not cover any number on this page because this page publishes none.