The difficulty of getting started. We all know it – from getting out of bed in the mornings to cleaning up your dishes that have been piling up. But there’s one groan students all over the globe agree on – the dreaded essay.
Whether you receive pre-existing titles or have to make up your own – the jump from a blank screen to 2,000+ words can seem incredibly daunting. To plug the fear before it evolves into procrastination and an all-nighter in the lib – here is a comprehensive guide on how to plan an essay to glide you through the process.
1. Research!
The obvious first port of call is to research before you start writing – but I’m sure there are some of us who are guilty of breaking this. Make sure you have a good idea of the topic at hand. Of course, filling sections in later on with last-minute additions is allowed (and certainly an important stage for editing) but you really want to have the core foundation of your argument before you start putting words on a page.
2. Write your Bibliography
So now that you’ve done all of this fancy research and have established a core argument, it is time to put all of your references into one place. Usually, I do this on a separate page at the bottom of my Essay Plan template. This way I keep everything together and it is a quick and easy way to match the arguments I am making with the required sources. Also – having this all in one place at the beginning, and most importantly before you start to write, saves the last-minute scramble when you have to trawl back through 2,000-odd words to do this process.
3. Start Planning
We’ve done all of the hard graft up until now to start preparing to actually plan the essay. Hurray! Give yourselves a pat on the back. With a fresh document open, find your essay title/question and put it at the top. Make it big, bold and beautiful. You want it there to keep as a reminder of your destination. Next, separate out 3 main sections: 1) Introduction, 2) Main Body, and 3) Conclusion. A tip I have found to be very helpful is putting the word limit somewhere underneath the title (also in bold) and calculating how much each section should be. A general way to do this is to make the Introduction and Conclusion 10% of your word limit each – so if you have to write 2,000 words, your Introduction and Conclusion should each be ~200 words. What you have leftover is for your Main Body.
4. Flesh it Out
There are a few questions that should be answered per section that we have made.
Introduction:
For the Introduction you have 3 sections:
1) Presenting the topic
2) What am I going to do?
3) How am I going to do this? (optional)
Presenting the topic: this is where you introduce the topic (yes, an Introduction is actually about introductions). It should contain things like key-term definitions, and any previous or current positions in the field.
What am I going to do?: here you present your core argument that is going to drive the rest of the essay. You should try to do this in light of the picture you have painted whilst presenting the topic. Use imperatives – the best arguments are statements. For example, an answer to this question for my essay on consumerism looked like this:
“This essay will argue that consumer culture has permeated all aspects of society; with wide reaching costs/benefits for everyone”
How am I going to do this?: creating a roadmap for the reader so they know exactly where you are going to take them can be very helpful. You can highlight some of the fundamental reasons that will shape your argument.
BUT: make sure to update this! It is much easier to tell people what you are going to do once you have already done it and arrived at your goal. Chances are that you will take a few detours along the way, so it is best to have a preliminary idea before you start writing and double-check it with what you actually end up doing.
Main Body:
For the Main Body, you want to be PEE(A)ing all over it. Some UK students may already get the gist of this but for those of you that have no idea, allow me to elaborate.
Point. Evidence. Explain. Analysis.
It is something that was drilled into me at school on how to effectively argue in writing. And this is a great way to clearly isolate each stage of your argument. You want to state your point of view, back it up with some sources, explain your interpretation of these sources, and analyse how well it fits (or doesn’t) with the argument you are trying to make. The amount of points you make will depend on your word limit, but also on the type of argument you are trying to make. Remember: it’s better to have fewer points with more in-depth analysis, then a bunch of vague statements with little reflection.
Conclusion:
For the Conclusion, there are also 3 key parts:
1) Main summary
2) What I have done in this essay/what have I got?
3) Implications and future directions
In your main summary, you want to clearly state each core component of your essay in light of your aim. This is essentially a big list of every relevant point you have made and your interpretations of them.
For the next part of your conclusion, you should sum up exactly what the basis of your argument was. The reader wants to know what the most substantial part of your essay was – place that here.
Finally, like all good budding academics, we want to review our points with regards to the wider field. Research doesn’t happen in a vacuum, so it is important to be aware of any implications that your argument might have on previous findings/theories. Adding in a line or two about future directions for further research also demonstrates your awareness of the surrounding discipline, and lecturers love it.
So there you have it – a thorough essay plan for those moments when you just don’t know where to start.
Love the post, but not sure how to map your own plan out? Sign up below for the LinguaClue Essay Plan template – it’s easily edited to become your own personal roadmap!
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