Distance Learning - Help. How do i write an essay plan?

[Tortington]

I have got myself into a stupid situation. and gone back to education. I am now almost crippled with fear. I am not clever and i have to work very very hard to be average.

I have to hand in an essay plan for my first postgrad assignment. I can't remember ever doing a plan before - certainly not one i had to hand in to be assessed.

this will be the first contact bu which my tutor will know me and this is really taking over and blighting my life.

firstly i couldn't bring myself to read the question out of fear, then i couldn't navigate the distance learning website... i feel so fucking old.

i really dont know what i'm doing and i want to cry

its just an essay plan

An essay plan is just an overview of what you plan to put into your essay.
Start by breaking down the question to show you understand what is being asked.
You then need to think about the points you want to make - at first these might not be in any particular order.
Once this is done think about whether you need evidence to back them up and make notes on what this might be.
I would think that at this stage you could also be listing questions about any areas you are unsure of ready to ask your tutor for help with - that is what they are there for ad if they want to see a plan I guess they would be expecting this.
Good luck!

Hello - I'm a secondary school teacher so I teach a lot about lesson planning. Might be able to help? First things first: what's the question? A basic lesson plan consists of an Introduction (which sets out your stall in terms of what you're going to say) a Middle (which contains all the points you want to make) and a Conclusion (which summarises your answer to the question).

If you send me the question, I'm happy to help if I can.

Final point; people are only as clever as the work they put in. The problem is not your lack of cleverness; it's just that you don't know where to start. Don't panic.

Coops
x

thank you
i didn't think about the questions - thats a good idea

any and all other advice welcome - it really truly is

thanks

One other quick thing: the tutor will be requesting this to get to know your ability; not to judge you but to ensure s/he is adapting their teaching to suit your needs. Teachers/tutors exist to help you; don't be afraid! :-)

thnks coops i will

My tutor told us

Tell me what you're going to say (introduction)

Say it (middle)

Draw it all together and tell me why you said it (conclusion)

righto, i will try

i feel like such a fraud

thanks so much

I study with the OU. I've had to do these, not sure if yours is the same, can you ask your tutor? Basically this is what I do:

You will have been given a word count. Work out how many words you need roughly for the intro and conclusion. Then divide remaining words into paragraphs of roughly equal length. Choose topics and sub-headings for your essay. So an essay based on 1000 words would be:

Intro: 50 words

Paragraph 1: 100 words, about 6 or 7 sentences, about main point.
- put list of things here

Para 2: 100 words, about 6 or 7 sentences, support for main point
- put list of things here

Para 3: words/sentences as above, pros to main point
- put list of things here

Para 4: as above, cons to main point.
-put list of things here

Para 5: as above, reasons for my agreement/ disagreement/etc
-put list of things here

And so on, ending with Conclusion, 50 - 100 words.

Obviously the things in black will not be what I've suggested, but will be based on the topic and question of the essay. Include rough ideas in every paragraph. Use spider diagrams, anything helpful. What they're looking for is that you have a good idea how to set about doing an essay.

Very good luck

I have used

this

and

this

and I love this for mind maps

You are far from stupid custy. What are you doing?

This has been a really good book for me
Critical thinking skills

that book has been suggested reading insancerre!

oh hathor, i think the essay map will be very useful!

and todaysagoodday - that is a really helpful breakdown.

you have all been so helpful thank you x