Essay plan
Produce a detailed essay plan for your critical investigation, covering everything that you hope to include in your first draft over Christmas.
Break your ideas and research down into sections and paragraphs with headings, summaries and a list of quotes/references that you hope to include at each step. You may also want to plan a rough word count for each section, remembering you are aiming for around 2,000 words (not including quotes - probably around 2,500 with quotes). You can see some excellent examples from previous years by clicking on Navneet's or, going back further, Sonam or Jaleesa.
Make sure that you label each point you hope to include by linking it to Key Concepts (MIGRAIN) and Wider Contexts (SHEP). (You could just include the initial letter in brackets). This way you can see whether you have covered everything that you need to in an even way. Also, ensure that you think about where you will include theories/theorists, issues/debates and media keywords. (Keep the 'Essential Word Dictionary' handy). You may find that the tasks we have completed recently such as textual analysis and your historical text research help you to plan certain sections too.
This will make writing your essay MUCH easier. However, it is a big task as it requires you to read through all your research very carefully and plan what you should include and what isn't relevant. This is the key academic skill that universities teach - expect it to be difficult and take time!
You may want to produce this plan as a straightforward series of bullet points or as a more complex mindmap. If it's the latter you may have to do it by hand and then scan it in before posting it up on your blog. Or you may want to try out an online mind-mapping tool like bubbl.
Deadline: Friday 8 December
Note: You must get your essay plan approved by your teacher before Christmas so you are able to write the draft over the holidays.
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