One of the steps for successful essay planning is to wisely organize your writing assignments. As soon as you are done with your essay theme, you should start thinking of the research and ideas.
Analyze the Task
- Understand the points by analyzing information. Look through your course content for essay guidelines and be sure about the format of your assignment. It may take the form of an essay, report, critical review, an annotated bibliography, etc. Each type has its own objective, distinctive features and patterns that must be followed.
- Determine the length of your assignment – it will influence on the depth of the research you should conduct. Examine the assignment topic to understand keywords, timeframe, ideas and all steps you should do to write a paper.
Figure out Initial Ideas
- Find possible initial answers to the main questions. Write down your opinion on the topic.
- Don’t worry about writing non-academically or wrong ideas; you just need to collect all answers that appear in your head. Ask yourself what you know about the topic.
- Maybe you have already written an essay on the related topic or took classes that were connected to the same sources. Write down all information; you will wonder how you know more.
- Ask many questions. This will help you draw out the sub-questions about the topic.
- Brainstorm the ideas as quickly as you can. Don’t try to change or strike them out from the list.
Write an Initial Plan
Start sorting your ideas and making a plan. You may be confused about doing this without previous research, but without a plan, you may get lost in tons of information during your research. An initial plan is a key to the right research direction.
The primary plan may include such sections as:
- a thesis statement or a primary answer to the question;
- an outline of supposed points.
Try to develop your essay plan according to the topic. Even if you know little about your topic; an initial plan is not a stage for in-depth research and intensive reading.
Read and Research
Now that you know what information is needed, it’s time to use your initial plan.
- Check out your program if there were courses related to your topic.
- Look through past lectures connected with the essay topic; the lecturer could have recommended certain authors.
- Use the list of recommended literature for the course.
- Always make notes during reading; it will help you avoid plagiarism.
Write the Second Plan.
After the research, you should develop your previous plan. Make a detailed outline with paragraphs according to the ideas and acquired knowledge.
- Read through the thesis statement and change it if needed.
- Check the main points for relevance to the thesis.
- Find out points related to the question.
- Don’t forget to mark the text with references (author, title, pages).
- Make a connection between main points in a logical order.
- Write the introduction and conclusion.