Essay writing
- Introduction
Answering the question
Generating ideas, planning your essay, different planning methods.
- Writing your essay
- Developing your essay writing
Useful links for writing essays
- Study Advice Helping students to achieve study success with guides, video tutorials, seminars and appointments.
- Academic writing LibGuide Expert guidance on punctuation, grammar, writing style and proof-reading.
- Guide to citing references Includes guidance on why, when and how to use references correctly in your academic writing.
- Reading and notemaking LibGuide Expert guidance on managing your reading and making effective notes.
- Academic Phrasebank Use this site for examples of linking phrases and ways to refer to sources.
- Ten stages of assignment success (Prezi) Based upon Burns and Sinfield, Essential Study Skills.
- Critical Thinking A short video on Critical Thinking that the BBC have prepared in partnership with The Open University
The first thing to do when preparing to write an essay is to make a plan. You could just rush in and write everything that comes into your head, but that would make it difficult for your marker to read and would reduce the effectiveness of your ideas. These will make much stronger arguments if you group them together than they would do on their own.
The guidance on this page will show you how to plan and structure your essay to produce a strong and focused response to the question.
A very common complaint from lecturers and examiners is that students write a lot of information but they just don't answer the question. Don't rush straight into researching – give yourself time to think carefully about the question and understand what it is asking.
Underlining key words – This is a good start point for making sure you understand all the terms (some might need defining); identifying the crucial information in the question; and clarifying what the question is asking you to do (compare & contrast, analyse, discuss). But make sure you then consider the question as a whole again, not just as a series of unconnected words.
Re-read the question – Read the question through a few times. Explain it to yourself, so you are sure you know what it is asking you to do.
Try breaking the question down into sub-questions – What is the question asking? Why is this important? How am I going to answer it? What do I need to find out first, second, third in order to answer the question? This is a good way of working out what important points or issues make up the overall question – it can help focus your reading and start giving your essay a structure. However, try not to have too many sub-questions as this can lead to following up minor issues, as opposed to the most important points.
- Answering the question and planning (video) Watch this brief video tutorial for more on the topic.
- Answering the question and planning (transcript) Read the transcript.
The kinds of things to note briefly are:
- What you already know about the topic – from lectures, seminars, general knowledge.
- Things you don't know about the topic, but need to find out in order to answer the question.
- Initial responses or answers to the question – what you think your conclusion might possibly be.
This helps you start formulating your argument and direction for answering the question. It also helps you focus your reading, as you can pinpoint what you need to find out and go straight to the parts of books, chapters, articles that will be most relevant.
After reading - After your reading, it is often good to summarise all your findings on a page. Again, a spider diagram can help with this.
Bringing together the key points from your reading helps clarify what you have found out, and helps you find a pathway through all the ideas and issues you have encountered. If you include brief details of authors and page nos. for key information, it can act as a quick at-a-glance guide for finding the evidence you need to support your points later.
It also helps you see how your initial response to the question might have changed or become more sophisticated in light of the reading you've done. It leads into planning your essay structure.
- It enables you to work out a logical structure and an end point for your argument before you start writing.
- It means you don't have to do this type of complex thinking at the same time as trying to find the right words to express your ideas.
- It helps you to commit yourself to sticking to the point!
You need to work out what to include, and what can be left out. It is impossible to cover everything in an essay, and your markers will be looking for evidence of your ability to choose material and put it in order. Brainstorm all your ideas, then arrange them in three or four groups. Not everything will fit so be prepared to discard some points (you can mention them briefly in your introduction).
Outline what you are going to include in each section:
- Introduction : Address the question, show why it's interesting and how you will answer it.
- Main body : Build your argument. Put your groups of ideas in a sequence to make a persuasive argument. One main point in each paragraph.
- Conclusion : Summarise your arguments and evidence, and show how they answer the original question.
Writing a summary - Some people plan best once they have written something, as this helps clarify their thinking. If you prefer to write first, try summarising the central idea of your essay in a few sentences. This gives you a clear direction for working out how you are going to break it down into points supported by evidence. You can then use one of the methods below to write a more detailed plan.
- Structuring your essay (video) Watch this brief video tutorial for more on the topic.
- Structuring your essay (transcript) Read the transcript
Bullet points / linear plans - This type of plan lists the main points using bullet points or numbers. It can be a brief outline of the main point per paragraph, or a more detailed plan with sub-points and a note of the evidence to support each point (e.g. source and page no.).
No plan is perfect, so be prepared for your ideas to change as you write your essay. However, once you have an initial plan it is much easier to adapt it and see where new things fit if your thinking does change.
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- StudySkills@Sheffield
- Academic writing skills
- Academic writing
How to structure and plan an essay
This page will help you to organise and plan an academic essay by outlining clear initial stages to follow, and will introduce you to a model for organising a typical academic essay.
What is an essay?
An essay is a focused, academic discussion of a particular question, problem or issue.
Many of you have been writing essays for years, and are probably good at it. That's great, and everything you look at here will build on and develop those skills.
But it's worth asking: are there different things expected of a university essay from those for school, college, or other contexts?
The obvious answer is yes, and it takes time and effort to learn the range of writing skills needed to produce university essays effectively.
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.
They're also a good warm-up for traditional forms of academic publication, such as a journal article.
Academic essays usually follow an established organisational structure that helps the writer to express their ideas clearly and the reader to follow the thread of their argument.
An essay's structure is guided by its content and argument so every essay question will pose unique structural challenges.
Planning stages
Essay writing is a process with many stages, from topic selection, planning and reading around, through to drafting, revising and proofreading.
Breaking the task down and creating a clear plan with milestones and intermediate deadlines will allow you to focus attention more fully on the writing process itself when you put your plan into action either as part of an assignment or an exam.
1. Understand the question
- Is the question open-ended or closed? If it is open-ended you will need to narrow it down. Explain how and why you have decided to limit it in the introduction to your essay, so the reader knows you appreciate the wider issues, but that you can also be selective.
- If it is a closed question, your answer must refer to and stay within the limits of the question (ie specific dates, texts, or countries).
- What can you infer from the title about the structure of the essay?
2. Brainstorm for ideas
- What you know about the topic – from lectures, reading etc
- What you don't know about the topic, but need to find out to answer the question
- Possible responses or answers to the question – any ideas about your conclusion.
- Consider using a mind map to organise your thoughts…
3. Make a plan
- Planning your essay makes it more likely that you have a coherent argument
- It enables you to work out a logical structure and an endpoint for your argument before you start writing
- It means you don't have to do this type of complex thinking at the same time as trying to find the right words to express your ideas
- It helps you to commit yourself to sticking to the point!
Have a look at this Glossary of Essay Instruction Words (PDF, 100KB) , or watch this short Study Skills Hacks video on identifying the tasks in a question to help you identify what is required.
The Hourglass essay
If you're stuck on an overall structure for your essay, try this simple model for organising a typical academic essay. An hourglass essay introduces a broad area, before narrowing the focus towards the specific question that you are answering. It finishes by placing that narrow area back into a wider context.
Introduction: the funnel of the hourglass
Set the scene and lead your reader into your essay by introducing the broad area of interest and then narrowing towards your specific focus:
- Start broad with a hook to catch the reader's attention
- Provide some context for the hook. What does your project add to it?
- Focus on the narrow area of your essay: can you summarise it in a single sentence mission statement?
Body: the stem of the hourglass
The body of your essay should be as narrow and focused as possible. Body paragraphs will take one sub-topic at a time and provide a logical flow of ideas for your reader:
- Start each paragraph with a topic sentence to tell your reader what it will cover
- Fill your paragraph with a range of supporting evidence and examples
- Finish your paragraph with a final wrapping-up sentence to summarise and/or link ahead
Conclusion: the base of the hourglass
Your chance to reinforce your key messages and go out with a bang:
- Revisit your mission statement: how have you addressed it?
- Summarise the main points of your argument or findings
- Finish with a broader scope, explaining how your topic might inform future research or practice, or where gaps remain
Have a go at using this template (google doc) to plan a structure for your essay, paying particular attention to the ways in which you have broken down the topic into sub-themes for your body paragraphs.
Come along to an Essay Structure and Planning workshop, which will outline how to analyse your essay question, discuss approaches logically structure all your ideas, help you make your introductions and conclusions more effective, and teach how to link your ideas and ensure all essay content flows logically from the introduction.
Book an Essay Structure and Planning Workshop place here
Book workshop on writing Writing Persuasive Introductions, Conclusions and Discussions and Writing Effective Thesis Statements and Topic Sentences which explore both features and linguistic structures.
More information
- Start planning early, leave your plan for a couple of days, and then come back to it. This may give you a fresh perspective.
- It is often easiest to write the introduction last, but when you are planning your essay structure make sure you have your mission statement.
- A good plan will make it much easier to write a good essay. Invest the time in making a plan that works.
- Check what your tutor wants, but it is often best to focus on one element in great detail, rather than discuss several aspects superficially.
- Make sure you allow time to proofread your work before submission!
- How to structure a paragraph
- How to paraphrase and quote
- How to write in an academic style
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