A basic guide to essay planning

Warning: Don’t just plunge straight into this at number 1 and keep going. Read through it ALL first!

 Prepare!

1) Read all the questions and the guidance for the assignment, look at the marking grid, then provisionally choose your topic.

2) Pick out the key words in the chosen essay title, eg by underlining or highlighting.

3) Re read the questions. Make notes on anything relevant to the essay, perhaps listing them under appropriate headings for each section of the question. Don’t just highlight, rewrite in your own words to reduce the risk of plagiarism and make it easier when you actually write the essay. By each note write the page number so you can find it again easily.

4) Stop and think. How many parts are there to the question? There may be one or there may be more: this will affect the structure of your essay.

5) Does the essay ask for your opinion? Do you need to reach a conclusion? If so, you must give evidence to back up your conclusions. Include any evidence/examples in your plan.

6) Even if an essay does not ask for your opinion, you often need to give ‘evidence’, ‘examples’ or ‘case studies’. Pick out ones you think are relevant and highlight or make a note of them. It’s safer to have too many than too few, as you can select the best ones to include.

7) Now that you’ve assembled the relevant facts, you can start to plan! Write headings of introduction, middle, conclusion, references on separate sheets of paper.

Plan!

8) Introduction: This is usually about one-tenth the length of the essay.

Assume the reader doesn’t know what your essay is about, so tell him/her. Try just rephrasing the question in your own words.

Briefly outline the issues, how you will deal with each one and in what order ie signpost the reader what to expect and when.

Define any key terms.

9) Main body: Use paragraphs to deal with individual issues or opposing sides of the same issue. To begin with, for a short essay, it’s helpful to plan each paragraph separately. In your initial plan:

Name the topic the paragraph will discuss (only one major point per paragraph).

Brief description of topic under discussion.

List examples/case studies, with page numbers/papers so you can find them again easily.

Make sure the next paragraph follows on logically

10) Conclusion: about the same length as the introduction, ie one-tenth of the essay.

It should not contain any new material.

Summarise your main arguments and themes, already discussed in the main body.

State your general conclusions, and, if appropriate, make it clear these are important/significant. Link conclusions to evidence you have given in the main body.

Link your last sentence back to the introduction, perhaps by restating the essay question – use the same key words.

11) References: this should include at least reference to the resources in the module. Full guidance on referencing is included elsewhere.

Produce!

12) And finally – writing the essay!

There’s no rule saying you have to start writing at the beginning. If it’s easier to start in the middle and go back to write the introduction subsequently, then do it (but you should have planned the introduction before starting to write).

Put the main point of each paragraph in the first sentence and then use the rest of the paragraph to expand the point or give examples/evidence from the course book.

Don’t forget that every case study, evidence, or quote needs an in text reference

Make clear links between your examples/evidence and the point they are illustrating, even if it seems you are stating the obvious.

At the end of each paragraph (or even sentence) stop, reread what you’ve written, and ask yourself ‘What part of the essay question does this answer?’.

And remember - make sure you answer the question which has actually been set, not the one you wish had been set!! This is a particular danger if you choose a topic about which you are very knowledgeable or have strong opinions.

When you’ve finished, make sure you’ve added the References section at the end, and don’t forget to put in a word count (in text references are included in the word count, References section after the essay is not).