Preparation for writing

Lynne KerfootCentre for Student Skills and

Access

Overview

• Break down essay writing into manageable parts

• Time planning• Essay titles (what do they mean?)• Splatter notes (brainstorming)• Research

Pre-writing: break it down

1. Time planning2. Review the

question/title3. Brainstorm

ideas4. Research

Time planning

• Get a wall planner, calendar or diary.

• Mark down all your commitments.

• How much free time do you have?

Time planning

• Make a note of the submission date

• Plan backwards from the deadline

• Allocate time for the tasks involved (research, drafting, proofreading, printing etc)

Essay titles

• Take your time, read through it several times

• Speak it out• Look for key words. Make sure you

understand what they mean• Pay special attention to instruction

words

Instruction words

• Often have specific meanings in academic assignments

• E.g. ‘Discuss’• “Write about the most important

aspects of something (probably including criticism) give arguments for and against; consider the implications of.” (Cottrell 2003)

Instruction words

• If you’re not absolutely sure about the meaning of the instruction word – check!

• E.g. study skills books

Assess the view that developments in technology over the last hundred years have made life too easy.

(Reproduced from Jeanne Holloway’s The Learning Kit)

• I need to…explain the word technology.

• I need to…decide what the phrase too easy means here.

• I need to…identify a number of key developments in technology over the past hundred years and explain how they have affected our lives.

• I need to…work out the arguments for and against the view I’ve been asked to assess.

• I need to…reach a decision on the comparative merits of these arguments.

Your turn

• Now do the same thing with your own essay

Tips to get started• Turn it into something that’s

yours...re-phrase it

• Make it less intimidating. Put it on a big piece of paper – stick it on the wall.

• Change the texture, the colour, the feel of it.

Splatter notes

• Record what you know about the topic

• Write as many ideas as you can

• Quantity of thoughts, not quality

• ‘Splatter’ all ideas on paper

• Identify what you know – and what you don’t

• Organise and sort these ideas

Splatter notes activity

Research

• Define the search (What are you looking for?)

• Identify key words/synonyms • Read and evaluate material• Record useful information• Reference the source

Review

• Essays can be broken down into a series of manageable tasks

• Plan your time

• Analyse your essay title

• Make splatter notes

• Start your research

Further reading

• COTTRELL, S. The study skills handbook. Second edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2003.