by The Open University
Available in 34 free installments
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On a superficial level, even the appearance of work can be a give-away and betray a lack of planning. Solid blocks of text can look overwhelming. You should normally aim for an average of three or four paragraphs per side of word-processed A4 paper. Solid blocks of text imply that the writer hasn't taken the time or is unable to organise the material. At the other extreme, written work with the appearance of being very ?broken up? ? lots of separate sentences, each treated as a paragraph ? conveys the same impression: that the writer doesn't have a plan or hasn't developed his or her ideas in sufficient detail.
No paragraphs? Go back and look at your plan.
Too much in brackets? Something is in the wrong place or is not strictly relevant, go back to planning.
?As I mentioned earlier?, ?As I said before? If you need to say this often, you are going round in circles; you need a better plan.
Can you think of some other warning signs, things that you write when you have lost your way in an assignment?
Try to dig a little further and apply the questions from Activity 13. They were:
Is there an introduction and a conclusion, which help to guide the reader?
Are important concepts or ideas communicated?
Does the writing build and have a sense of direction?
Can you discern an overall plan?
Having discussed the reasons to plan writing and the impact planning may have, now we need to look at planning itself and its two stages.
To begin your planning, you need to generate ideas or brainstorm. At this stage, you are including everything that you think may be relevant. Nothing should be dismissed yet; this part is about gathering your resources and your thoughts.
For instance, using the essay title ?There are advantages to studying as a mature student. Do you agree??, we tried to brainstorm for ideas and produced this list (but, of course, it wasn't this tidy):
Gregory quote (steelworkers) ? life experience
degree certificate ? what does it say about you?
home commitments and comparison with younger students
government policy ? numbers studying
changes in the workplace, need to retrain
need for family support
self-discipline and motivation
agree or disagree with statement
define mature? ? no ? too obvious.
This isn't everything, but it is a start and is helpful in understanding what the question requires.
Try to do the same for your next assignment. Brainstorm all your ideas and sources.
The important thing to remember is that anything that comes to mind may be relevant, leave nothing out at this stage.
Now you need to think about grouping the ideas, creating a flow for your assignment.
We started by grouping together our ideas and material for the essay on the possible advantages of being a mature student. This helped us to create a mind-map by seeing where links could be made and so made it much easier to decide where the weight of evidence was taking our argument (Figure 2).
