How to plan an essay before you start writing

Copy the exact question above your notes. Mark the task word, such as explain, compare or evaluate, and the limits of the question: which event, text, period or proposal it asks about. Read any teacher guidance on structure, evidence and length. Use those instructions to set the scope of your plan.

Write a provisional answer in one sentence. For an explanation, name the relationship you will explain. For a judgement, state the judgement and its main reason. Keep it provisional because your evidence may change it. If your sentence simply repeats the question, identify what a reader should understand or accept after reading the essay.

Choose the claims needed to establish your answer. For each one, record a specific passage, observation or figure with its source location. Add a note explaining how it supports the claim. A heading such as “transport” names a topic; “an after-school session would be difficult for students with early buses to attend” gives the paragraph something to establish.

Mark gaps while they are easy to see. A point with no evidence needs further reading or a narrower claim. Two points using the same evidence to reach the same conclusion may belong in one paragraph. Keep a separate note for interesting material that does not answer this question, so it does not take over the draft.

Imagine a fictional assignment asking whether a school should replace a lunchtime library session with an after-school session. Its made-up evidence pack includes a timetable showing some buses leave ten minutes after the final lesson and a survey in which 9 of 15 respondents request a quiet space at lunchtime. These are invented classroom materials, not facts about a real school.

A provisional answer could be: “Keep the lunchtime session because replacing it could reduce access for students who depend on early buses and would remove a space some surveyed students want.” The first paragraph would establish the transport constraint using the timetable, then explain why a longer session after lessons may still be inaccessible to those students.

The second paragraph would use the survey to discuss demand for a lunchtime space. Its planning note should also say that 15 respondents cannot establish what the whole school wants. A further paragraph could examine the possible benefit of longer access after school, then explain that the evidence pack gives no attendance or staffing information to judge how feasible that benefit is. The conclusion would retain the lunchtime session on the available evidence and identify the information needed before reconsidering.

This outline has a route: access, demand, then the competing benefit and its evidence gap. It answers the proposal directly. For a real task, use your own assigned materials and cite them as instructed; do not borrow the invented timetable or survey as evidence.

Read just the paragraph claims in order. Does each one advance the answer? Put a definition or necessary context before a point that depends on it. Place related claims together, and identify where you need to explain a connection. There is no fixed number of paragraphs that suits every essay; the task and the argument determine the space each point needs.

For a judgement, look for the strongest objection or evidence that qualifies your answer. Decide whether it changes your conclusion, narrows it or can be answered with other evidence. Include it where it helps the reader assess your reasoning. Do not invent a weak opposing view just to fill a paragraph.

Finish the plan with a brief note for the opening and conclusion. The opening should identify the question and your answer; the conclusion should state what the planned evidence establishes. Then draft a paragraph whose evidence is ready. If your reasoning changes as you write, update the plan and check the other paragraphs rather than forcing the draft to follow an answer you no longer support.