Study Skills Essay Planning & Essay Writing Guide
Essay Planning In order to make writing an essay less challenging it is advisable to create an essay plan. This will give you structure and guidelines which you can follow as you write.
Analysing the Question This allows you to look at the question, make sure you understand what is being asked. You can achieve this by highlighting keywords to help you break the question down. Before you can begin to select material for your essay, you need to make sure that you understand the exact requirements of the question. The following method of title analysis encourages you to break the question down into clearly identifiable elements so that you can accurately see what the question requires.
http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/dept/occ-psyc/planning-essays
Once you know what you are being asked to do, jot down what you already know about the subject and what you need to find out.
PLANNING Find the planning method that best suits you Mind maps are a great way to put down all your ideas Or you might prefer using bullet points which allow you to structure and list your points Briefly outline what you are going to include in your Introduction, Main Body and Conclusion of your essay If you find you don’t write enough try to expand the points within your plan Remember your plan is an outline; your ideas may change as you begin to write or carry out more research. Once you have a plan you can adapt it and see where new ideas fit in as you write.
Essay Writing This hand-out is aimed at giving you advice on writing your essay.
Before you start ensure that you start your essay early, especially if you need to do reading and research before you begin to write. Do you fully understand the question? Highlight keywords within the title, to develop your understanding of what the question is asking. As you are reading highlight and make notes of any key points whilst beginning to consider how you could join the information together.
Drafting your Essay Write a quick draft all the way through. This will allow you to get your ideas down quickly and leave you enough time to review and rewrite. Once your first draft is complete consider whether you need to rearrange the structure. If you are unsure that your ideas are flowing, try reading your essay out loud, in this way mistakes can be easier to pick up. When finished print out your work and cross out any words which are not needed. This should increase the clarity of your writing.
Ask a friend or relative to read over your work for common simple mistakes which you may have missed. Finish your essay with a summative and confident sentence or question for future research. Essay writing requires – Creative Thinking – broadening your ideas. Critical Thinking – provide explanations to why your examples are so important to your argument.
Structure of the essay: Introduction: Introduce the topic areas of the essay with a general broad opening sentence, then provide a summary of your essay, telling the reader what you expect to find, what your argument is. Body: Consists of paragraphs, which each form a building block in the construction of your argument. 1. Answer the question by developing a discussion 2. Illustrate your knowledge and understanding of your reading 3. Offer evidence to develop your arguments through the use of authoritative quotes. Ensure that you are not just describing something rather than discussing, explaining or analysing it. Conclusion: re-state the answer to the question, summarising the main points. Include a final statement, with possible suggestions for further research. Do not introduce new information or ideas it is simply a summing up of the essay. Recommended Reading these can be found in the LRCs Critical Thinking for Students 371.3028 VAN
Doing Essay & Assignments 371.3028 GRE
Good Essay Writing 371.3028 RED
How to Write Better Essays 371.3028 GRE
The Study Skills Hanbook 371.30281 COT
Writing an Assignment 371.3028 SMI
City College Coventry
Compiled by Candis Ibberson LRC Advisor