Planning and Structuring an Essay - University of Sheffield.
Planning an essay Planning starts with understanding your task, how much time you have, the number of words you have to write and what direction you're going to take. Before you embark on research, give yourself realistic goals for the amount of material you need by sketching out a plan for length. Download an essay plan template.
Planning and Structuring an Essay Academic essays usually follow an established organisational structure that helps the writer to express their ideas in a clear way and the reader to follow the thread of their argument. Essay structure is guided by its content and argument so every essay will pose unique structural challenges.
Index cards can be useful in essay planning. Write the keyword or phrase for each point on a separate index card. Use the cards to group and order the points. Number the cards sequentially when you are happy with the order of your points.
Using essay plans Being organised before you begin writing your essay will make the writing process quicker and easier. Good preparation and planning gives you a clear overview of your material so you can see the best way to organise your points. This guide presents four main steps to planning your essay.
Mastering how to write an essay early on will help you prepare for writing your dissertation in your final year. We've asked two academic experts for their recommendations on how to plan and write a first-class essay. Adopt a strategy. Planning your essay makes the writing process quicker and easier.
Producing an Essay Plan Skim through any course material or lecture handouts and start to build up a more detailed outline. Write down where you will find the necessary information on each of the points in your detailed. Note down sources of further information, books, journals, webpages and.
The first thing to do when planning an essay is to look carefully at the question. This may sound obvious but more students fail because they misread the question than for most other reasons, so it is essential that you read through and identify precisely what the question is asking.
Essay planning An academic essay is a very specific form of writing. Its purpose is to answer the question in an organised and comprehensive manner.
An example of an essay plan Why plan? An essay plan helps you organise your ideas and you can be modified as you read, think or discuss more. It is a basic outline of your essay and is useful if you want to discuss your writing with your lecturer, tutor or with an Academic Support person. Here is an example of an essay topic and a possible plan.
Essays are usually written in a discursive style, bringing together ideas, evidence and arguments to address a specific problem or question. They follow a particular structure: you will set out your argument in the introduction, build and present your argument in the main body, and should end with your overall key message or argument in the conclusion.
Proper Essay Structure Introduction: Every essay needs an introduction (3-5 sentences), so at the top of your essay plan just jot down introduction or intro, so you remember to write one.
Essay planning and structure. It is really important to plan your essay before you begin writing. Planning will save you time later. It is also essential that you have a starting point to plan from, even if it is in a very rough form. The obvious place to start is at the assignment question itself.
Structure and Planning. The essay is a focused, academic discussion of a particular question, problem or issue. There are all sorts of reasons why essays are common forms of assessment: they allow you to explore a problem in depth, express yourself concisely and precisely, and debate other people’s published opinions on a topic.
