The Lighthouse

Spending a little time writing a clear essay plan before your start writing is a great investment: it’ll save you time and help keep you focused on the question. Here is one way of planning an essay:

1. Take some time to read and analyse the assignment instructions/question and make sure you’ve fully understood the question (what part of the topic).
2. Come up with a provisional answer to the question (you can revise this as you do more research, but it is good to have a starting point). Try writing a provisional thesis statement, i.e. a brief summary of your answer to the question, which includes your reason/s for giving the answer that you give. You can then use these reasons as the basis for the essay plan (i.e. make sure each paragraph clearly relates to one of your reasons for giving the answer you give).
3. Write a plan – write a sentence or two indicating the topic of each paragraph (e.g. 1) Introduction, 2) Outline of Theory X etc. etc.).

For further help see:

• http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/assignment-planning-calculator.php
• http://owll.massey.ac.nz/assignment-types/essay-planning-and-structure.php
• http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/assignment-planning.php
• http://owll.massey.ac.nz/assignment-types/essay-thesis-statement.php
• http://owll.massey.ac.nz/assignment-types/essay-body-paragraphs.php
• http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/interpreting-the-assignment-question.php