good essay plan example

Essay Plan Generator

When you are able to develop a skill in essay writing , you will realize how it is able to take your time and a lot of patience to improve more. Writing an essay would help you talk about a particular worldly issue without showing any biases. Essays are more on facts and a little of your opinion. Essays give writers the chance to incorporate their own experiences, the way how they think and their ability provide research data. It is an essential part in the learning process that enables you to mark your point of view. In this article, you will be able to encounter more about the idea of creating a simple yet presentable essay plan .

10+ Essay Plan Examples

1. essay plan template.

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2. Essay Plan Mind Map Template

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3. New Essay Plan Template

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4. Good Essay Plan

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5. Assignment Essay Plan

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6. Accessible Essay Plan

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7. Outlining of Essay Plan

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8. Argumentative Essay Plan

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9. Semantic Structure Essay Plan

10. Basic Essay Plan

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11. Essay Plan Checklist

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What is an Essay Plan?

An essay plan is an act of making you practice how to organize ideas and make further modifications. It serves as an outline that is essential to use for discussing or writing about a certain issue. The purpose of an essay is to practice your mind on how to focus on an area where it can bring you to make a quality conclusion .

Planning is the way how you are able to visualize regarding the content of your essay. You should make sure that your essay is well-planned. Otherwise, you will end up having a sequence of phrases that are not even organized. Your main points should be clear and logically stated.

10 Steps for Essay Planning

Read and analyze the essay questions.
Write down the essay questions.
Brainstorm or think of more ideas regarding the matter.
List down all of your thoughts and the scope that covers the essay questions.
Take note of the words or phrases that you think are essential in your work.
Write down the main points that can be used to answer the questions.
Look through any type of handouts that can be used to have a more detailed outline of your essay.
Do not forget to take note of the sources of all the information you got. This will be indicated in the reference list.
Do not make your outline too complicated.
Think about how many words you need to write, the elements that you cover in your essay and how much space you should be able to allot to each of your outline section.

Here is an outline of your essay that you need to follow:

Essay question or topic
Introduction – this includes your thesis statement
1 st Paragraph – this includes your topic sentence and evidence
2 nd Paragraph – this also contains a topic sentence and evidence
3 rd Paragraph – just like the first and second paragraph, it contains a topic sentence or an idea that is supported by an evidence or claim
Conclusion – provides the possible motivations and restatement of central idea
Reference – the list of the sources of your texts, data or images that you do not own

What is a good essay?

A good essay must have one clear main idea. Each of the paragraphs must have a topic sentence to be supported with a supporting detail. They should be organized logically and must be able to stick together. Always make sure that an essay would give a best impression to the readers.

What is the standard number of paragraphs per essay?

Essays must have at least five paragraphs.

What is the best way to start an essay plan?

The best way to start an essay plan is to prepare a box plan that consists of the essay elements. These elements will serve as your guide to be able to write continuously without getting lost of the usual standard arrangement.

Effective essay planning helps in making your work be done immediately. It speeds up your writing process and gives you precise direction while working on it. You just have to follow the correct structure and format of your essay. Always consider your audience when making an essay because they are the ones who will give you feedback about it. The attention that they should give also matters.

Text prompt

Instructive
Professional

Create an Essay Plan on how you organize your study schedule and its benefits

Develop an Essay Plan on the role of exercise in student life

StudySkills@Sheffield
Academic writing skills
Academic writing

How to structure and plan an essay

This page will help you to organise and plan an academic essay by outlining clear initial stages to follow, and will introduce you to a model for organising a typical academic essay.

What is an essay?

An essay is a focused, academic discussion of a particular question, problem or issue.

Many of you have been writing essays for years, and are probably good at it. That's great, and everything you look at here will build on and develop those skills.

But it's worth asking: are there different things expected of a university essay from those for school, college, or other contexts?

The obvious answer is yes, and it takes time and effort to learn the range of writing skills needed to produce university essays effectively.

There are all sorts of reasons why essays are common forms of assessment. They allow you to explore a problem in-depth, express yourself concisely and precisely, and debate other people's published opinions on a topic.

They're also a good warm-up for traditional forms of academic publication, such as a journal article.

Academic essays usually follow an established organisational structure that helps the writer to express their ideas clearly and the reader to follow the thread of their argument.

An essay's structure is guided by its content and argument so every essay question will pose unique structural challenges.

Planning stages

Essay writing is a process with many stages, from topic selection, planning and reading around, through to drafting, revising and proofreading.

Breaking the task down and creating a clear plan with milestones and intermediate deadlines will allow you to focus attention more fully on the writing process itself when you put your plan into action either as part of an assignment or an exam.

1. Understand the question

Is the question open-ended or closed? If it is open-ended you will need to narrow it down. Explain how and why you have decided to limit it in the introduction to your essay, so the reader knows you appreciate the wider issues, but that you can also be selective.
If it is a closed question, your answer must refer to and stay within the limits of the question (ie specific dates, texts, or countries).
What can you infer from the title about the structure of the essay?

2. Brainstorm for ideas

What you know about the topic – from lectures, reading etc
What you don't know about the topic, but need to find out to answer the question
Possible responses or answers to the question – any ideas about your conclusion.
Consider using a mind map to organise your thoughts…

3. Make a plan

Planning your essay makes it more likely that you have a coherent argument
It enables you to work out a logical structure and an endpoint for your argument before you start writing
It means you don't have to do this type of complex thinking at the same time as trying to find the right words to express your ideas
It helps you to commit yourself to sticking to the point!

Have a look at this Glossary of Essay Instruction Words (PDF, 100KB) , or watch this short Study Skills Hacks video on identifying the tasks in a question to help you identify what is required.

The Hourglass essay

If you're stuck on an overall structure for your essay, try this simple model for organising a typical academic essay. An hourglass essay introduces a broad area, before narrowing the focus towards the specific question that you are answering. It finishes by placing that narrow area back into a wider context.

Introduction: the funnel of the hourglass

Set the scene and lead your reader into your essay by introducing the broad area of interest and then narrowing towards your specific focus:

Start broad with a hook to catch the reader's attention
Provide some context for the hook. What does your project add to it?
Focus on the narrow area of your essay: can you summarise it in a single sentence mission statement?

Body: the stem of the hourglass

The body of your essay should be as narrow and focused as possible. Body paragraphs will take one sub-topic at a time and provide a logical flow of ideas for your reader:

Start each paragraph with a topic sentence to tell your reader what it will cover
Fill your paragraph with a range of supporting evidence and examples
Finish your paragraph with a final wrapping-up sentence to summarise and/or link ahead

Conclusion: the base of the hourglass

Your chance to reinforce your key messages and go out with a bang:

Revisit your mission statement: how have you addressed it?
Summarise the main points of your argument or findings
Finish with a broader scope, explaining how your topic might inform future research or practice, or where gaps remain

Have a go at using this template (google doc) to plan a structure for your essay, paying particular attention to the ways in which you have broken down the topic into sub-themes for your body paragraphs.

Come along to an Essay Structure and Planning workshop, which will outline how to analyse your essay question, discuss approaches logically structure all your ideas, help you make your introductions and conclusions more effective, and teach how to link your ideas and ensure all essay content flows logically from the introduction.

Book an Essay Structure and Planning Workshop place here

Book workshop on writing Writing Persuasive Introductions, Conclusions and Discussions and Writing Effective Thesis Statements and Topic Sentences which explore both features and linguistic structures.

More information

Start planning early, leave your plan for a couple of days, and then come back to it. This may give you a fresh perspective.
It is often easiest to write the introduction last, but when you are planning your essay structure make sure you have your mission statement.
A good plan will make it much easier to write a good essay. Invest the time in making a plan that works.
Check what your tutor wants, but it is often best to focus on one element in great detail, rather than discuss several aspects superficially.
Make sure you allow time to proofread your work before submission!
How to structure a paragraph
How to paraphrase and quote
How to write in an academic style