Top Ten Tips: Structuring Essays
By Shalini from the Student Team
Knowing how to structure your essay is crucial for making your argument stand out. It is really important that each idea that you present in your essay has its place, so that your overall argument can be logical and coherent. With the help of our top tips, you can learn how to make sure that you get the most out of your essay, so that not a single idea goes to waste.
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Top Tip 1
Make sure you fully understand what you’re being asked to do. Identify key words such as ‘compare’, ‘discuss’ or ‘evaluate’ and break the essay question down into sub questions.
There is no way of answering the question if you’re struggling with understanding what it actually means. Identifying key words and breaking the question down will give you an idea of what’s being asked of you.
Top Tip 2
Before you produce an essay plan, begin with some exploratory research. This can help you familiarise yourself with the topic and come up with new ideas.
Research is a good way of finding out what people have already written about your topic. It also helps to identify gaps in research, which would give you the opportunity to be really original!
Top Tip 3
Only once you fully understand the topic should you start your essay plan. This will incorporate your main points and form the body of your argument
Planning your essay is really important, because it will help you make your argument flow really well. Make sure you have a detailed plan, so that you can incorporate all of your ideas into your text in a logical and structured way.
Top Tip 4
Using a variety of sources can help strengthen the main body of your argument. However, it’s important to be selective. A good place to start is the Library Search on My Manchester.
When searching for sources, make sure to refine your search to find only the ones that are relevant to what you’re writing about. Besides Library Search, you can try searching on individual databases. A comprehensive list of databases for your subject can be found on the Library website.
Top Tip 5
Remember to take notes as you read, and record where this information has come from. Keeping track of your sources will save you time when you come to referencing.
Staying on top of the references for your sources of information will be very useful once you start writing. Many students use a referencing software such as EndNote or Mendeley to help organise their sources.
Top Tip 6
Write your conclusion first so that you have a clear understanding or the direction your essay will take. If some of your ideas change later on, you can always rewrite it.
Writing your conclusion first is useful because you will know exactly where your essay is heading and what you want to say. If you come up with new ideas during the process of writing, you can always incorporate them into your conclusion later on.
Top Tip 7
Only explore one point per paragraph, this will help to maintain a clear structure. If you try to include too much in each paragraph, your essay will suffer.
Physically separating your ideas using paragraphs will give your essay some clarity. This will make sure that you address each of your points properly and that you are not mixing ideas together randomly.
Top Tip 8
It’s important to write in a clear, coherent fashion. Try to avoid impossibly long sentences that are difficult for the marker to read. Punctuation exists for a reason!
It is okay to use complex sentences in your essay, just try not to make them too long, or you risk sounding incoherent. If you are unsure of how to separate them into multiple, short sentences, try using the Academic Phrasebank or Thesaurus to find some useful transition words and phrases.
Top Tip 9
You may find it useful to include subheadings to help you organise information and identify points more easily during the writing process.
If subheadings are something that could help you stay organised during the writing process, don’t be afraid to use them. Identifying different sections of the text can help you ensure that you’ve included all the ideas you wanted to include.
Top Tip 10
Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that summarises the main point of the paragraph. Try to use topic sentences that also link back to the question.
Using topic sentences can give the reader a good idea on what he’s about the read, and you can use them to link the main point of the paragraph back to your main argument.
You can find so many useful resources on all aspects not just writing, but a wide range of academic skills on the MLE website. We also run workshops and drop-ins, so feel free to come along and make sure that none of your questions stay unanswered!
