Back to: Academic and Professional Writing Unit 2
Discuss the importance of planning? What are the steps involved in planning an Academic Essay?
An academic essay refers to a piece of tasks or work which enables the learners to demonstrate and practise their acquired learning while enabling the instructors to learn how much the students have learned. An academic writing refers to a piece of writing which is done to complete the requirements of an educational institution. Any assignment which is given in an academic setting can be referred to as academic writing. Academic writing can be found in sources such as books, essays, translations, research papers, academic journals, conference papers, and the like.
Importance of Planning in academic essay
Logical Structure:
Planning and outlining your essay beforehand will enable you to construct a logical structure for the essay which is easy to read and understand for the readers.
Organised Information:
Planning will also help you to deliver information and content of your essay in an organised manner while including appropriate information in all the constituent parts – introduction, body, and conclusion.
Organise Thoughts:
Planning also enables you to maintain an organised flow and keep your thoughts organised so that you do not miss out on any information.
Prevents Lack of Ideas:
When you plan your essay and jot down the points that occur in your mind, you will not be bereft of information you can include in your essay.
Prioritise Information:
Once you have planned and outlined your essay, you can determine what information you need to include and what you need to exclude to make it perfect.
Structure of an Academic Essay
The structure of an academic essay is as follows:
Introduction:
This is the starting paragraph of an essay which introduces the basic ideas of the essay. It provides the thesis statement of the essay and should grab the reader’s attention.
Body:
The body of an essay should start with a new paragraph which includes transition. Phrases such as Firstly, next important point, and the like must be incorporated. Each sentence in the body should address the topic sentence as well as the thesis statement. It has three parts:
a. First Point
b. Second Point
c. Third Point
Conclusion:
Conclusion forms the last part of the essay completing its structure. It gives the reader a brief reminder of all the ideas and things that have been discussed in the entire essay. It is a concise summary of the essay presented in a simpler form.
An effective academic essay must comprise all these three constituent parts of an essay or it will be considered as incomplete and lacking depth. Academic essays are highly important for persuading and informing the audience and voice can be used for introducing and highlighting the ideas of the writer.
