Identify the Question
If you have several topics to pick from then ensure that you choice the question that you have the most understanding and interest. As this will give you the best chance at achieving a good grade and will allow you to showcase your knowledge and interest. Once the question has been established then it is essential to focus solely on this topic, therefore ensure that you do not incorporate any of the other options. To do this create an essay plan (support for this is available within study support)
Gather Required Text and Information
Then it is essential to identify the texts and source material to be used. In doing this try to select texts that are up to date (unless otherwise stated). Also ensure that you do not bury yourself in the information that you want to put in. To keep organised you can use paper book marks that will tab the sections within the books that you want to highlight, also if you are wanting to use internet sources you can use "bookmark" or "favourites" in order to safe these sources until you need to use the information. Also journals can be downloaded and saved until a later date. Whilst organising record the title, author, date and publisher of all texts used in order to assist with referencing.
Planning the Essay Content
In order to do this your essay plan is essential, however you can also utilise such tools as;
- a spider plan
- a linear plan
- a numbered plan
- a flow chart
- a points for/against chart
- a series of topic sentences
Each style is different for each individual therefore it is essential to utilise the tool or style that suits you. Therefore it is important to identify your own way of planning, to assist you in becoming more efficient and concise.
The Introduction
Within the introduction you can include such information as:
- A statement of the case to be argued
- An outline of the general area of focus
- A quotation which covers the key ideas to be discussed
- An outline of the pionts to be discussed later in the essay
- A definition of the main terms going to be used. If they are going to be used often then they can be abbreviated in order to lower your word count such as, blood pressure can be written as B.P.
Comments
 |
|
