It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.
A concept cloud is a brainstormed list of concepts that editors discuss as relevant to a topic, which are sorted in accord with their relevance, importance, and conceptualization —i.e. higher-order concepts take precedence. An outline, for example, is a kind of concept cloud, albeit with sequence and order of precedence in mind. Concept clouds instead are like outlines for a particular section (particularly the lead section), such that the entire body of concepts is arranged in a way removed from the usage of particular statements or expressions.
The concept cloud can help editors to overcome editorial struggles, and conceptualize, in a material way, the way an article is formed. From this mode of explicit and discrete concept listing, the various particular elements can be scrutinized and moved around intelligently without singling out the editing or writing skills of particular editors.
A typical cloud is both a proactive object and a reverse-constructed form of an existing statement (reverse cloud). For example, the lead paragraph of the mathematics article currently states:
Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, relation, change, and various topics of pattern, form and entity. Mathematicians seek out patterns and other quantitative dimensions, whether dealing with numbers, spaces, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or other entities. Mathematicians formulate new conjectures and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions.
The reverse cloud is simply a disassembly of the above:
the study of:
quantity,
structure,
space,
relation,
change,
various topics of:
pattern,
form,
entity.
patterns,
other quantitative dimensions.
numbers,
spaces,
natural science,
computers,
imaginary abstractions,
other entities.
new conjectures,
establish truth,
rigorous deduction,
axioms,
definitions.
This reverse cloud can then be shown as an ordered list, with either room for comments (*), or a means to indicate particular terms (A 1, etc.):
