Planning Your Academic Essay

Academic writing isn't easy. You need to put in a lot of time and effort, and slipshod work will lead to a low grade or bad marks. That's why it is very important that you plan your academic writing properly.

The first thing is to set a deadline for yourself. So many of us leave the paper or thesis writing till the very end - we finish the whole thing in about two nights, and it's a hastily and badly written piece of work. That simply won't do. Find out when your paper is due, and calculate backwards to know when you should start, taking into account your researching time, writing time and editing time. This is a very important part of planning your academic writing.

You need to plan your thesis or paper very carefully. Think about the idea that you will be talking about - what theme or subject are you discussing? How much do you know about him? What do you plan to say, on the subject? What conclusion will you come to, at the end of the paper, or what viewpoint will you draw? Think about all these points, jot down whatever comes to your head, and then start with researching. Be sure to read the right books, go through the right magazines or encyclopedias, depending on what you need.

The writing is, of course, important. Your introduction should be well-drafted; it should introduce your reader to your idea or thesis statement. It should, in brief, discuss what you would be talking about, what conclusion you will draw, and what issues you would be brining up. Keep the language as formal as possible. The main body of the article or essay should ideally be divided into sub-topics; this makes it more organized and much easier to read. Plus, that way you would be able to bring up different topics and different points of view as well.

Keep ample time for editing as this is a very essential part of your essay. You need to allow yourself sufficient time to edit and correct your essay properly. Sometimes you might have made grammatical errors, or used quotation marks wrong, or even cited wrong sources - these are all things you need to check and edit accordingly. Go word by word and line by line, that way, you cannot possibly miss anything. Do also check for spelling errors.