Think about what you want to write an essay about.

Make a big mind map of your initial ideas – write the general area of your essay (don’t worry about the title yet, unless you’ve been given one already) in a circle in the centre then draw lines coming off from it with other key points.

Make a list of sources of information: what books, articles, websites and people can you consult?

Do your research: don’t just use the first website Google refers you to – look at a range of sources of information. Keep a track of where you get your material from so you’re not left trying to find it again to reference it when your essay is due in 5 minutes.

Using information that you’ve found from different sources, go back to your mindmap and add to it.

If your essay has to be a set number of words, decide roughly how many sections it can be divided up into, and start to create a more detailed plan. For example if your essay is 2,000 words long it’s more manageable to think of it in smaller chunks of, say, 400 words each.

Remember, to keep your essay balanced; you’ll need to show you’ve found out what the different opinions are on your topic, and refer to them even if you disagree.

Most schools/colleges etc. don’t like you to use ‘I’ in essays, even when you’re expressing your opinion. This may take a bit of thinking about – here are some examples of ways round the problem:

I think …..becomes....It seems/It is evident/Evidence shows

In my opinion....becomes....It can be argued

I understand....becomes....It is clear that

If you’re stuck with how to start the introduction, get stuck in with the main body of your essay and come back to the first paragraph later.

Decide which referencing system you want to use if you’re quoting material from books/articles/newspapers. You will need to use either the Harvard system (which credits sources in the main body of the essay) or the footnotes/endnotes system (which credits sources either at the bottom of each page or at the end of the whole essay). There are loads of websites detailing exactly how these systems work. Make sure you’re consistent – don’t flip between them both! Your school/college may have guidelines that you need to follow, so find out.

If you wrote the introduction first (and you don’t need to) make sure that you did all the stuff you said you were going to in your essay. Otherwise, rewrite the introduction!

If your essay doesn’t have a title yet it’s time to think of one. It could be a straightforward one (E.g. “A Study of The Collected Poems of Mr Bloggs”, or it could be a question (E.g. “How do the Collected Poems of Mr Bloggs Reflect His Lifelong Battle with Itchy Ears?”).

Make sure your conclusion has plenty of oomph. It’s important that your essay doesn’t just fizzle out. A conclusion should be just that – concluding and rounding-up everything you’ve written in the main body of the essay.

Proofread your work, and ask someone else to read it through too.

List the sources you’ve used in a bibliography. Your school/college may have guidelines for this.

Don’t plagiarise. It’s wrong and if you get found out you’ll be for the chop.

This content was provided by one of our users, bcjones