Super Quick Skills: Plan Your Essay
Super Quick Skills provide the essential building blocks you need to succeed at university - fast. We’ll be covering some top tips in this blog series.
Written by experienced SAGE study skills and research methods authors Super Quick Skills deliver tried and tested advice. Here are some of the authors' top tips to help you on your university journey. Super Quick Skills are here to the rescue!
Why is planning your essay an important skill for students to master?
Planning your essay is an important skill for students to master because they often struggle unnecessarily while writing papers. Before students write anything, they should have a clear idea of the structure, argument, and an outline of what they will write in their paper - plan in advance!
What's the most common mistake students make in this area?
The most common mistake students make when planning or writing an essay is merely repeating the claims of others, thereby summarizing the work of others. Students should be able to articulate a point of critique that leads to the warrant behind a claim they are putting forth in their papers.
What top tip would you give to students wanting to improve their essay planning?
I would say that students should learn how to read social science texts and emulate the argumentative structure of the readings they have found most persuasive and compelling. Students should rehearse their writing by reading through sound arguments and plausible claims.
Phillip C. Shon is Professor of Criminology at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He is the author of How to Read Journal Articles in the Social Sciences (2nd ed.). London: Sage, 2015; Language and Demeanor in Police-Citizen Encounters. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2008; Respect, Defense, and Self-Identity: Profiling Parricide in Nineteenth-Century America, 1852-1899. New York: Peter Lang, 2014. He is a co-editor (with Dragan Milovanovic) of Serial Killers: Understanding Lust Murders. (eds). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2006.