Effective planning

Structure can be affected when time pressures mean that not enough time is spent on the initial planning stages, or when the planning techniques used are not developed enough or simply do not suit a person's working style. This section of the resource will offer some planning strategies for you to explore.

Common to all these techniques is the way that they help you to establish the logical order and relationship between your points; this constitutes your argument. Poor plans are often simply a loosely ordered list of topics to talk about, and result in descriptive essays. An effective planning technique will not simply be topic-based, providing a list of things to write about, but will help you to think analytically about why you are making those points, why they are in a particular order, and how they contribute to creating and supporting the argument you want to make.

Planning involves a number of related activities: grouping related points, considering how the points relate to each other, and ordering them into a logical argument. The techniques described here each have their own strengths and weaknesses in that they help with one or more of these activities. Some planning techniques focus on the types of point you anticipate that you will make, and others are ways of organising existing material and thus come into play at different stages in the essay writing process:

Interpreting the question/brainstorming → reading → thinking/brainstorming → drafting → editing*

They therefore suit different types of writer. You may prefer a linear or non-linear planning technique, or work best with verbal or visual techniques. At whatever point you include planning techniques, it is a good idea to refer to and develop your plan throughout the process of writing up an essay. Working with the draft and the plan in parallel will help you to stick to the plan, or to keep control over the material if you find you need to alter the planned structure for any reason. It may also be helpful to use some of the techniques in conjunction with each other, as you explore the structure of your argument.

*(The process can in practice vary enormously and is rarely a straightforward linear process- please see the resource on How might I manage the process of producing an essay? for more guidance).