How to Write Better Essays

important section or argument that is central to the issues raised by

the essay.

What’s more, by rehearsing your arguments in detail you will avoid

the problem of trying to do the two most difficult things in writing, at

the same time: pinning down your ideas clearly, and then summoning

up the words and phrases that will convey them accurately.

To do this effectively we have to work through two stages: editing,

and ordering the ideas. We will see that if the essay is to succeed we

have to learn to be ruthless in cutting out irrelevant material that we

may have worked hard to collect. Otherwise we will pass on problems

to later stages and, if they’re not dealt with there, they will seriously

weaken the clarity and logical structure of our essay. They will cloud

the structure with unnecessary distractions that weaken our argu-

ments, and break up the logical sequence we’ve worked hard to create.

The same applies to ordering our ideas, if we are to create logical

coherence and give our essay more persuasive force.

Planning for the examination

However, the value of planning stretches beyond this. The plans we

produce for our essays provide the core of our revision material,

making it much easier for us to recall the arguments and evidence we

need to use in the exam. We will look at the ways in which we can

improve our exam technique and our revision by planning the typical

questions that are set on the topics on the syllabus; and we will look

at how the memory works and what we can do to improve it.

142 Planning

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