American Studies Centre

A/P Ian Gordon

Planning your Essay
Checklist

Stages Process

1.   Draw up a short list of topics Consult library catalogues, colleagues and fellow students.

2.   Select a topic for investigation. Discuss possible outcomes with your lecturer and decide what the emphasis of your study is to be.

3.   Establish the precise focus of the study. Draw up a ‘first thoughts’ list of questions and subject each to rigorous examination.

4.   Decide on the aims and objectives of the study or formulate a hypothesis. Think carefully about what is and what is not worth investigating.

5.   Draw up an initial essay outline. List aims and/or objectives, questions to be investigated, possible methods of investigating and literature to be consulted. Consult your lecturer.

6.   Read enough to enable you to decide whether you are on the right lines. The initial reading may give you ideas about approach and methods and how information might be classified.

7.   Devise a timetable to enable you to check that all stages will be covered and time allowed for writing. It is easy to take too long over one stage and so to have insufficient time to carry out essential tasks in the next.

8.   Consult your lecturer. At the stage of deciding on a topic, and after drawing up an initial project outline.

9.   Keep a brief record of what has been discussed with the lecturer. It will serve to remind you about what tasks and targets have been agreed.

10. Proceed with writing the first draft of the essay. Give yourself at least day or two to write the essay.

11. Ensure that you have provided footnotes where appropriate and a bibliography. Have you used a whole passage from something you read? Have you paraphrased someone else's written work? Footnote it. Include all sources you consulted in the bibliography.

12. Final draft. Remember to number pages. Set the essay aside for at least a day or two and then read over, correct and rewrite where necessary.

Adapted from:
Bell, Judith. Doing Your Research Project – A Guide For First-Time Researchers In Education And Social Science, 3rd edition, (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999): 35-36.

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Stages	Process
1. Draw up a short list of topics	Consult library catalogues, colleagues and fellow students.
2. Select a topic for investigation.	Discuss possible outcomes with your lecturer and decide what the emphasis of your study is to be.
3. Establish the precise focus of the study.	Draw up a ‘first thoughts’ list of questions and subject each to rigorous examination.
4. Decide on the aims and objectives of the study or formulate a hypothesis.	Think carefully about what is and what is not worth investigating.
5. Draw up an initial essay outline.	List aims and/or objectives, questions to be investigated, possible methods of investigating and literature to be consulted. Consult your lecturer.
6. Read enough to enable you to decide whether you are on the right lines.	The initial reading may give you ideas about approach and methods and how information might be classified.
7. Devise a timetable to enable you to check that all stages will be covered and time allowed for writing.	It is easy to take too long over one stage and so to have insufficient time to carry out essential tasks in the next.
8. Consult your lecturer.	At the stage of deciding on a topic, and after drawing up an initial project outline.
9. Keep a brief record of what has been discussed with the lecturer.	It will serve to remind you about what tasks and targets have been agreed.
10. Proceed with writing the first draft of the essay.	Give yourself at least day or two to write the essay.
11. Ensure that you have provided footnotes where appropriate and a bibliography.	Have you used a whole passage from something you read? Have you paraphrased someone else's written work? Footnote it. Include all sources you consulted in the bibliography.
12. Final draft. Remember to number pages.	Set the essay aside for at least a day or two and then read over, correct and rewrite where necessary.