Ha-a-a-ng on a minute….
Did someone say that was the hardest part?
Well, yehh, maybe. But it’s definitely not the only part. All you have so far is an answer to a question. You have a sentence.
What you need is an essay.
(Don’t look too closely. That’s a collection of random illustrations)
Anyway, NOW … you need a plan.
And I don’t mean you need advice about what to do next.
I mean an actual essay plan. You can download one here,
1 Template for Introduction Paragraph
2 Template for Middle Paragraphs
3 Template for Conclusion Paragraph
It looks like this:
You will need one page for each middle paragraph. You will probably want around three of these, depending on how long your essay is supposed to be.
(Of course, there are plenty of other essay plans. There are essay plans all over the place. There are some here and here and here and here and here. But just to keep this simple let’s assume you’re looking at mine. It’s based on Mr W’s which is a great website.)
And now what you do is …
Go to the Template for the Introduction Paragraph and write your sentence that is the overall answer to the question into the green “Sentence 3” box.
And then sit down again. Because if you have the plan in front of you, you’ll be able to see there are plenty more boxes that need filling.
No no. Come on …
You already have a sentence that sums up what the whole essay is saying. Tick. √
And we’re going to leave a lot of the boxes for now, and just try to fill out the topic boxes for the middle paragraphs.
So now … if you are not finding it too bad there by your fire,
or out on your grassy hillside …
If your bum hasn’t got too numb, and your legs aren’t too tired …
well now …
It’s time to think about the middle of the essay.
Thanks to these people for the images.
“Essay” By James Parkinson (1755–1824). Typeset and printed in 1817 by Whittingham & Rowland of London. (Project Gutenberg [1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
“essay page” By CIC777 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amr_Shabana_taking_advice_from_his_coach.jpg By Ian Butterworth [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
“Jump for joy”by Kreg Steppe n Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/spyndle/3480602438 Creative Commons licence Attribution – ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC by SA 2.0)
“Anxious face” Melbourne graffiti in Christine Dew, Uncommissioned Art, 2007, Melbourne University Press.
“Fire” by Ervins Strauhmanis on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/ervins_strauhmanis/15640862801/ licence Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC by SA 2.0)
“Always walking alone in the forrest (sic)” by Takeshi on Fickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/45682148@N05/7808537798/ licence Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC by SA 2.0)
Anxious Face graffiti in Hobart. In Christine Dew, Uncommissioned Art, 2007, Melbourne University Press.