How to structure and plan an essay

What is an essay? 

An essay is a focused, academic discussion of a particular question, problem or issue.

There are all sorts of reasons why essays are common forms of assessment. They allow you to explore a problem in-depth, express yourself concisely and precisely, and debate other people's published opinions on a topic. They're also a good warm-up for traditional forms of academic publication, such as a journal article.

Academic essays usually follow an established organisational structure that helps the writer to express their ideas clearly and the reader to follow the thread of their argument. 

An essay's structure is guided by its content and argument so every essay question will pose unique structural challenges. 

Planning your essay

Essay writing is a process with many stages, from topic selection, planning and reading around, through to drafting, revising and proofreading.

Breaking the task down and creating a clear plan with milestones and intermediate deadlines will allow you to focus attention more fully on the writing process itself when you put your plan into action. The following steps might help you to organise your approach to an essay:

1. Understand the question

• Is the question open-ended or closed? If it is open-ended you will need to narrow it down. Explain how and why you have decided to limit it in the introduction to your essay, so the reader knows you appreciate the wider issues, but that you can also be selective.
• If it is a closed question, your answer must refer to and stay within the limits of the question (ie specific dates, texts, or countries).
• What can you infer about an appropriate structure for your essay from the essay title?

Take a look at the Glossary of essay instruction words to see how the essay title might shape its structure:

Glossary of Essay Instruction Words (PDF, 100KB)

2. Brainstorm for ideas

• What you already know about the topic from your lectures and reading?
• What you don't know about the topic, but need to find out to answer the question?
• What are the possible responses or answers to the question? 
• Consider using a mind map to organise your thoughts.

For information on mind mapping, visit StudySkills@Sheffield How to mind map your academic work:

How to mind map your academic work

3. Independent research

• Find and read some recent, relevant research relating to your ideas. 
• You may wish to use Generative AI to refine and develop your thinking based on this initial research (see Using Generative AI below). 
• Formulate an initial ‘claim’ or 'mission statement' for your essay–your overall argument or response to a topic or question.

For more ideas on finding relevant sources, visit StudySkills@Sheffield How to plan an effective information search:

How to plan an effective information search

4. Make a plan

Planning your essay allows you to work out a logical structure and an endpoint for your argument before you start writing. It means you don't have to do this type of complex thinking at the same time as trying to find the right words to express your ideas. 

• Try to identify the key themes that have emerged from your background thinking and research. 
• These themes will make up the main sections of your essay. 
• Try to organise themes logically to ensure that there is a clear flow of ideas through your essay. 
• Try using the hourglass structure (below) to organise your structure and create a clear plan. 

The Hourglass essay

If you're stuck on an overall structure for your essay, try this simple model for organising a typical academic essay. An hourglass essay introduces a broad area, before narrowing the focus towards the specific question that you are answering. It finishes by placing that narrow area back into a wider context. 

Introduction: the funnel of the hourglass

Set the scene and lead your reader into your essay by introducing the broad area of interest and then narrowing towards your specific focus:

• Start broad with a hook to catch the reader's attention
• Provide some context for the hook. What does your project add to it?
• Focus on the narrow area of your essay: can you summarise it in a single sentence mission statement?

Body: the stem of the hourglass

The body of your essay should be as narrow and focused as possible. Body paragraphs will take one sub-topic at a time and provide a logical flow of ideas for your reader:

• Start each paragraph with a topic sentence to tell your reader what it will cover
• Fill your paragraph with a range of supporting evidence and examples
• Finish your paragraph with a final wrapping-up sentence to summarise and/or link ahead

Conclusion: the base of the hourglass

Your chance to reinforce your key messages and go out with a bang:

• Revisit your mission statement: how have you addressed it?
• Summarise the main points of your argument or findings
• Finish with a broader scope, explaining how your topic might inform future research or practice, or where gaps remain

Come along to an Essay Structure and Planning workshop, which will outline how to analyse your essay question, discuss approaches logically structure all your ideas, help you make your introductions and conclusions more effective, and teach how to link your ideas and ensure all essay content flows logically from the introduction.

Book onto an Essay Structure and Planning Workshop

Using Generative AI

Gen AI can be a powerful tool to support your written work.  Building on your own ideas, it can act as a critical friend to help you to develop and refine your structure and identify arguments and lines of reasoning that you may have missed. 

Scoping and background research

Gen AI is very good at presenting a neutral overview of a given topic. However, academic writing is usually about making an informed judgement and adopting your own unique position, which is something that Gen AI is much less good at. Your opinion matters and it is important that you build your work around your original thinking, rather than letting Gen AI do the thinking for you. 

Consider using the following process to use Gen AI to support the development of your ideas:

1. Background research and thinking

What do you know about a topic already? What ideas do you have? What further research may be necessary?

Use the University of Sheffield Library, Star Plus, Google Scholar or a subject database to find and read some recent, relevant research relating to your ideas. Formulate an initial ‘claim’–your overall argument or response to a topic or question–to explore further using Gen AI.

2. Initial prompting

Design a prompt, or use the stems provided in the academic prompt bank for inspiration, to explore the topic.

PROMPT: Compare and contrast [two or more theories/models] in [subject], highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

3. Dialogic prompting

Build on your initial output by using a follow-on prompt to explore the topic in greater detail.

PROMPT: Provide some case studies/real-world examples to illustrate the above points.

PROMPT: Provide counter-arguments to the above points including perspectives that are underrepresented. 

4. Critical analysis of outputs, fact checking and further research

Consider how the output might relate to or build on your initial position. If you intend to refer to any of the ideas or examples provided in the Gen AI output, be sure to use traditional search tools to fact check and read around them. 

You can find more information on how to use GenAI alongside a traditional search process in the following online tutorial:

Start the online tutorial - Using AI and GenAI to find information

5. Acknowledge, describe, evidence

When using the outputs from GenAI to support you with an assignment, it is important that you disclose how you used them. This will enable your tutor to see how your own thinking intersects with the GenAI tool’s outputs. 

You can acknowledge your use of Gen AI using the Acknowledge, Describe, Evidence template or by following your department guidelines.

Access the Acknowledge, Describe, Evidence template

You may wish to follow this process several times to explore different themes related to a topic. Used in this way, Gen AI can provide a powerful tool to help widen your perspective on a chosen research area. 

Please note: if you are undertaking research towards an undergraduate- or masters-level dissertation project, you should exercise caution in your use of prompts to avoid breaching confidentiality or disclosing restricted information or data. This includes the following:

• Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individuals
• Confidential information (for example, disclosed as part of an industry partnership)
• Data or information that can be considered as intellectual property (for example, your own research data)

Always check with your supervisor before using GenAI as part of a dissertation or research project.

You can find more information about this process on the How to use GenAI critically page:

Visit How to use GenAI critically

Planning and structuring

Identifying an overall structure for an assignment is an important early stage of the planning process and can help you to organise your thoughts and break down the writing process. Once you have identified how you intend to approach a topic (see Scoping and Background Research above), you may be able to use GenAI to help develop your overall structure.

Some points to consider when using Gen AI to help you to develop an assignment structure are as follows: 

• You will need to identify what format the assignment will take (for example, a report, an essay, a dissertation).
• You should provide your initial ideas as a starting point. This will ensure that your thinking is leading the GenAI tool rather than the other way around.
• You can use the GenAI tool to act as a critical friend by identifying gaps, challenging your thinking and/or suggesting the limitations of your work.
• You may wish to use the Structure section of the academic prompt bank for inspiration when you design your prompt
• Using GenAI in this way is an iterative process. You may need to write follow-on prompts to build on or develop the outputs. What perspectives may have been missed?
• Models or structures generated in this way should be a starting point for your own writing rather than an end point. Do you agree with the suggestions? How can you adapt them and make them your own?
• Don’t forget to fact-check any new ideas that emerge from this process and make sure you have identified reliable academic sources that can support them.

For example:

For more ideas on how to use GenAI to plan and structure your work, visit the GenAI Academic Prompt Bank.

Visit the Generative AI Academic Prompt Bank

Top Tips

• Start planning early, leave your plan for a couple of days, and then come back to it. This may give you a fresh perspective.
• It is often easiest to write the introduction last, but when you are planning your essay structure make sure you have your mission statement.
• A good plan will make it much easier to write a good essay. Invest the time in making a plan that works.
• Check what your tutor wants, but it is often best to focus on one element in great detail, rather than discuss several aspects superficially.
• Make sure you allow time to proofread your work before submission!

Next steps

• How to structure a paragraph
• How to paraphrase and quote
• How to write in an academic style