Word Clouds!

Word Clouds allow you use words and create a visual display. Words used more often are displayed larger in a word cloud and words used less often are displayed smaller in a word cloud. Word clouds can be used to display your own list of words, or to display the information you gather from other sources such as through a survey or other types of comments.

There are many websites to help you create word clouds. Some word cloud websites require you to install free plug-ins (like java, silverlight). Once you find a word cloud generator, they generally work the same: type or upload your text or word list, and generate your word cloud. You can regenerate your word cloud until you find one you like, and can often change the color, font, shape and more for your word cloud. Once you have your word cloud you can sometimes save or download it, but you can always capture it with a screen capture tool such as the Microsoft Snipping Tool (windows_key+shift+S)

Here are a few free word cloud generators for you to try out! (just ignore any options to put your word cloud on merchandise or sign up for a paid subscription.)

WordItOut.com Click the green "create your own" button to get started. 
WordClouds.com  I like this one because it lets you pick a shape to force your word cloud into such as a heart, arrow, checkmark, lightning bolt, etc.
WordArt.com also gives you a lot of control over the shape of your word cloud (it is "art" not a cloud!)
Jason Davis' word cloud generator
WordSift.org uses a list of words or you can paste in text and it will take the common words from text, an article, or a speech and creates a word cloud.

And you can search to find even more word cloud generators!

How might you be able to use word clouds?