English essay planner
Good English essays are planned, not improvised. This single sheet takes five minutes to fill and turns a blank page into a thesis, a sequence of evidence-led paragraphs, and a check against the mark scheme before a word of the essay itself is written.
Before planning
- Underline the question's exact wording and command term
- Write your one-sentence answer (thesis) in the box at the top
Plan three body paragraphs
- Point: one clear claim per paragraph, linked to the question
- Evidence: the quotation or reference, chosen short and exact
- Analysis: what the evidence shows and why it matters to the thesis
- Link: one sentence tying the paragraph back to the question
Before writing
- Check: does every paragraph serve the thesis? Cut the one that does not
- Check against the mark scheme: analysis chains? context? terminology?
- Order the paragraphs for the strongest possible first impression
Tutor tip: Five minutes of planning routinely lifts an essay a whole band. Tutors build the same habit into every session: plan first, write second, rewrite against the scheme third.