How to Write Better Essays

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19 Planning that makes a difference

In this chapter you will learn:

• how you can avoid losing the reader by planning carefully;


• how to strengthen your weakest arguments through planning;


• how to rehearse your arguments in detail before you write.

After completing the first two stages (interpretation and research), the

plan of the essay should now be taking shape within your mind. In

many cases it may not be very different from the original pattern notes

you generated in the brainstorming session prior to the research.

The importance of planning

Nevertheless, careful thoughtful planning, in which you rehearse your

arguments in as much detail as you can muster, is vital. It will not only

improve the structure of your essay, making it more coherent and

logical, but it will make the business of writing a lot easier. Indeed, it

is always possible to tell the difference between an essay that has been

planned and one that hasn’t.

Avoid losing your reader

Reading somebody else’s work is like entering an unfamiliar city: you

can get lost easily, you’re dependent upon others to give you direc-

tions, and even worse, you really don’t know why you’re there in the

first place, unless somebody else tells you. The plan of the essay,

therefore, represents the city map, and the introduction and the ‘topic

sentence’ at the beginning of each paragraph (Stage 4) are the writer ’s

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