Plan your writing

Planning is an important part of the writing process. We recommend that you create a plan before you start writing. Don’t rush this stage of the process; it can take time to put a detailed plan together, but it will save you time later when you are writing.

A good plan helps you to:

• define and organise your argument before tackling your first draft
• produce a clear, coherent and well-structured essay
• stay focused on answering the question.

After analysing the assignment task, you should think about what your answer to the question, or your approach to addressing the task, will be. This will help you create a focused plan. For example, if your task is to evaluate something, how will you do this? If you are asked “to what extent”, what do you think your answer will be?

Knowing what you want to say and how you want to express those ideas should be part of your own decision-making process based on your reading and research as well as the ideas and concepts that form part of your programme of study.  When beginning to plan your writing, think about the relevant lectures, tutorials, or practical sessions that you have attended.  If these have been recorded, go back to those recordings and watch the most relevant parts to refresh your memory.  You should also use the materials from taught sessions and anything else provided by your academic staff, including reading lists, podcasts and other multimedia to set the scene for the assessment you are working on.  All this information is likely to be highly relevant and you can boost these resources by finding other relevant sources through, for example, Library Search. 

Let’s look at some useful tips for successful planning. In these tips we have considered where a generative AI tool might be useful.  

Remember that the University guidance on the work you submit is that it should be entirely your own and you should therefore use generative AI tools with caution and only when permitted to do so.  The University has adopted a traffic light system to indicate when you may use generative AI tools in your assessed work; if you have any questions about this, please ask your School. 

Three tips for planning

Tip 1: Use a planning technique that suits you.

You can use a mixture of techniques. For example, a visual method when you are gathering initial ideas followed by a more structured plan before you start writing:

• Use mind-maps: a visual planning method that helps you to quickly come up with ideas and make connections between those ideas.
• Use linear (list) plans: use headings, subheadings and bullet points to plan your main ideas. This can be useful to plan out your writing paragraph by paragraph.

Whichever method you choose, make sure you clearly identify the ideas and information that came from other sources, to differentiate them from your own ideas. This is important for ensuring your academic integrity.

Tip 2: Write it down

When you start to plan, write down:

• what you already know
• what sources of information you already have (lectures, seminars, labs, reading etc.) and what you still might need to gather
• what aspects of the topic you might want to cover
• what different perspectives there might be on this topic
• what questions you have about the topic

This will help you plan your further reading and research, to fill in gaps in your knowledge. You can keep adding information to your plan as you go along.

A way to use generative AI in the planning process, if you are allowed to do so, might be to use it to ask probing questions about the topic to stimulate your own thinking.  Using prompts, such as those below, might generate some starting points:  

What are some possible arguments that would address this essay question? 

What are some key points I could include to discuss this topic? 

What might be some different perspectives on this topic? 

The answers it provides might help you expand your plan further, but always remember that you should be the one who ultimately decides what to include in your assignment, rather than relying on a generative AI tool to tell you what to say. Don’t underestimate the value of your own unique experiences and perspectives on your topic, which a generative AI tool cannot replicate.  

Learn how to find high-quality information for your assignments.

Tip 3: Use your plan to create a structure

Pick out the most relevant points from your plan. Make sure that there is enough evidence to support each point. Consider in what order you need to present the information, arguments or points you want to make.

If your assessment allows you to use a generative AI tool, you could try to use it to create a structure from these points. The information it gives you might form a starting point for your structure, or it might not suit your needs at all. Remember, a generative AI tool won’t have insights into what your specific assessment requires. Always carefully consider whether it is giving you genuinely useful and relevant information.  

Plan in paragraphs, under headings or in sections to help you build a logical structure.

Continue to the Structure your writing section