How to write Term Plan B

By now you should be at around stage 8 of this map of the writing process. You should have enough ideas and evidence to begin writing the first draft of the essay.

First you need to go back to Term Plan A. What questions were you trying to answer? What was your thesis statement? During your research, your viewpoint may have changed, or you may have decided that you can only cover one aspect of your topic. In that case you will need to modify your thesis statement.

Then you need to think about the organisation of the body. What is the best way of using your ideas and evidence to explain and justify the thesis statement to your readers? In Study Skills, we focussed on giving reasons, and the two model essays in Study Skills for College English followed this structure. However, there are other ways of organizing essays. The writing textbook that we use in Study Skills, Writing Essays: From Paragraph to Essay, mentions other methods of organization on p. 82. Most of these are introduced as paragraph techniques in Units 3 to 7. It is possible to use one way throughout the essay, or a combination of different ways. This will depend on the supporting points that you wish to make.

Tips about methods of organization:

1. If you are not sure what method to choose, write down the supporting points that you wish to use and experiment to see which method/methods of organization can be used to join them. It may be helpful to explain this to yourself in speech.
a) If you notice a gap in the argument, you may need to do some more research. If you do not have time to do more research, or if you have already got a lot of supporting points, it may be necessary to focus on one part of the argument. If you are afraid that this will make your essay seem unbalanced, you can always explain as part of the introduction that you are focussing on one aspect of the topic, for example because it is such a complex issue.
b) If you have so many supporting points that you cannot construct a clear argument, you may need to leave some of them out. It is better to do this than to confuse your reader!

2. If you decide to present your supporting points as reasons, it is a good idea to end with the strongest reason. If there are counter arguments to a reason, you should mention them. For example:

Reason 1. Counter arguments. Answer counter arguments. Reason 2...

3. Comparing/contrasting is a useful method of organization. For example, it is used if you want to show the strong and weak points or arguments for and against A, or the advantages and disadvantages of B as opposed to C. As Unit 6 of Writing Essays: From Paragraph to Essay explains, when you use this method, you can choose either "block by block" or "point by point". If you are comparing three aspects of A and B, "block by block" would be A 1, 2, 3 followed by B 1, 2, 3. On the other hand, "point by point" would be A1 + B1, A2 + B2, A3 + B3.

4. In the case of problem/solution, it is obviously normal to explain the problem first, and then the solution. You might wish to focus on the problem, its causes and/or its effects, and spend very little time on the solution, beyond saying, for example, that the government must pay more attention to finding a solution. On the other hand, if the problem is very well known, you might want to focus on the solution. This might involve you in comparing two or more solutions, probably using the block by block method outlined above.

The above advice is all very abstract! If you submit Term Plan B, I will be able to give you advice that is directly related to your essay!

Finally,
1. Note that most writers do not start with the introduction and write steadily through until the conclusion. It might be easier to start with the body, or even the part of the body that you are most confident about, leaving the introduction until you have finished the conclusion. Even if you write the introduction first, you may have to alter it when you are revising. This is because the essay that you have written will probably not be exactly the same as the one outlined in Plan B.

2. You should aim to complete your first draft in time for peer revision and the subsequent submission deadline. If the essay is not complete, produce what you have, and show where it fits in the overall outline of the essay. You will then be able to receive at least some feedback, which will help you to produce a better final version.