PLANNING & STRUCTURE:

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Introduction

Here are two models to help you think about how to plan your academic writing.

The first one, an essay production process (click for diagram), is a simple linear model to remind you of all the essential stages in writing – and the fact that you need to allow time for all of them in your planning.

The second one, An Alternative Representation of the Process of Writing as a Social Practice (Clark and Ivanic 1991) (click for diagram) shows you how all these different stages can overlap and includes wider social considerations.  These are:

• You as a human being undertaking academic writing assignments: it can be pleasurable and it can also be painful
  
  
• Thinking a lot about the reader and what they expect and want to read in your writing

Further suggestions for planning your assignment:

1. Quantity
   How many words do you have to write?  How many pages will that be?  That is how many words per page do you type?
   
   
2. Types of plan
   
          2.1 A plan can be linear - like the essay production process
   or   2.2 A plan can be a pattern - like the "Alternative representation"
          2.3 Use the type of plan that suits you!
   
   
3. Changing and developing the plan
   
          3.1 It's best to start with some sort of plan - main headings and sections for examples
          3.2  Remember to change your plan as you develop your ideas through reading and research
          3.3 Keep the plan balanced: make sure the main sections are roughly similar in size,
                 not one very big and the next very small

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