Sunday, March 22, 2009

Why Should You Have A Plan Writing Essays?

By Nick Sanders

Writing a plan before starting an essay or project is always a good idea. It can help you formulate ideas and ensure that the structure of your final essay is appropriate and logical.

When you set out your essay plan it can be used for a traditional essay to be submitted or for you to plan your essay in an exam. And this will help you greatly in an exam as you will be able to plan your writing and know which direction you should go in.

Plans do not need to take up much time, as you can use keywords and phrases, make notes of important references and logically order it within 5 - 10 minutes. Planning also makes sure you have read the essay question carefully. Just rushing in can make you forget the question, or answer the wrong one. Planning gives you a minute or two to consider what you are being asked to do and make sure you fully understand.

An essay without a logical order, and a beginning, middle and end will automatically score lower. An essay argument is supposed to be coherent and easy to keep up with. If you run out of time, an examiner should be able to look at your plan and see clearly the approach you were taking, and the order that you were putting it in, as well as your key points and references.

If you are simply working on an essay to submit in the next week or so, then you will be able to refine your plan to suit you and make sure that you have taken all of the necessary research to discover all of the information that you will need to finalize your work. This plan will also help you eliminate any inconsistencies that you may have and also help you gather your ideas under one heading.

By having an essay plan you will be able to show yourself how you will primarily answer the question posed to you and therefore convey your understanding to the reader. You will, therefore, be able to formulate arguments both for and against current academic thinking and also be able to voice your opinions more clearly.

It is often recommended that you write your titles, your headings and your outline before you begin writing. This is so that your writing is definitely being directed the way that you want it to go, and stops you risking going off course. Producing these titles and then jotting information underneath will count as a plan, and make writing your first draft so much easier. It is a lot easier to focus if you have something to keep you on track.

To sum up, it is very important to plan, no matter where you are. In exams, a well written plan will only take ten minutes but will help you to gain points if you run out of time. It will also make sure you understood the question, help you to form a structure and remind you about key points you want to use.

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