The Essay Plan

An essay plan is an essential aid to writing a good, well-structured essay. Your plan should make explicit the skeleton of your answer to the question that has been set. One side of paper should be ample for planning a 1,000-1,500 word essay and has the advantage that it can help you to see how the whole essay fits together. Even in exams it is worth spending a few minutes thinking about how you will answer the question, and jotting down a brief essay plan.

You may start planning your essay by brainstorming all the key arguments, theories and empirical research that you think is relevant for answering the question. Many people find that it helps to do this on a large blank sheet of paper so that they can add arrows and linking lines to help them to think about how the material might fit together and therefore how to structure their argument. This initial brainstorming phase will almost certainly lead you back to the literature to gather more evidence or to clarify your understanding of a particular issue addressed in the essay.

Once you have completed this 'brainstorming' phase, you will need to write down the main points of your argument in the order that you will present them. Express the essential idea behind each stage of your essay in a single sentence. Under each of these points, include a brief reference to the evidence, examples and material that will be included to support it. This will mainly involve outlining someone's argument(s) and/or details of empirical studies. Arrows may be added to indicate any cross reference between stages of the essay that you intend to include.