An academic essay is a very specific form of writing. Its purpose is to answer the question in an organised and comprehensive manner. In order to do this, care should be taken at the planning stage so that you can be confident that you have included the most relevant material and that your reader can follow your line of argument as you make the points that contribute to your conclusion.

After you have analysed your essay title (see the Analysing essay titles page in this guide). We recommend you do the following:

1. Make a rough plan of your middle section

Our Basic Essay Structure page explains the purposes of the introduction, middle section and conclusion of an essay. It is the middle section that needs the most planning. Start by jotting down what you already know about the topic of the essay and identify which part are relevant to the focus.

Think about what you think will be your overall conclusion (though this is only provisional until you complete your reading).

Make a rough plan of the middle section of your essay, in whichever format you prefer - bullet points, mind maps, etc.

2. Gather the information you need for your essay

Using your rough plan to maintain your focus, gather the information you need for your essay - find the journal articles and books etc that will form the evidence for your arguments.

3. Read and take notes from the information you have gathered

Carefully read the books and other sources of information you have gathered, making notes on them as you go along. Check our Managing your Reading page for information about how to make effective notes. Make sure you keep all the information you need for referencing the source. A quick way to do this is to take a photograph on your phone of the copyright page of any books and the top of the first page of any article.

4. Create a detailed plan of the middle section of your essay

Using the reading you have done, revisit your draft conclusion to see if you want to amend it due to your reading. Once this is done, create a plan of the middle section of your essay which is much more detailed than your original rough plan and which takes into account any changes you made to the conclusion.

Include in your plan, your main sections and arguments, in the order in which you will present them. It may be a good idea to write out in full the topic sentence of each paragraph - the sentence that makes the point that the paragraph is about. You can see from this if your essay has a natural flow, with the general narrative making sense.

5. Write a draft of your essay

This is not your final essay - just the first draft and should be considered part of the planning stage. Don't worry about it being written in perfect English or even if the order seems a little wrong once you start writing. Nobody else is going to see it so just get it written.

Most students write the middle section of the essay first. If this is your preferred method, use the detailed plan you have just created to help you do so.

When you are satisfied with your middle section, write the draft introduction to and a more fleshed-out conclusion of your essay.

This forms the basis of your essay. From now on you are editing it, not writing it.