Step-By-Step Instructions For Writing A Psychology Essay

1. Prepare.


2. Read the instructions for your essay, the read them again. At this point you need to know precisely what you are being asked to do. Check the word count and the submission date.


3. At this point is there any additional information you need to enable you to start the planning stage of your essay? If there is or you are not sure then check details with your tutor.


4. Add the submission date to your diary. Working backwards from there choose a date a week before as this is when you will have completed your draft.


5. Plan


6. Using the theme of your essay as a starting point, start jotting down a few ideas that may form the basis of your work.


7. Try brainstorming a few ideas that you may cover. Have you balanced your arguments? Will your work cover both theory and case studies?


8. What research will you need to do? Can it be done online or will you need to use your college/school library? How much time can you afford to spend on research?


9. Research


10. Decide what you need to research and stick to that plan, otherwise you will very easily end up getting side-tracked.


11. Even if your essay is only 1500- 2000 words, start a project diary. Add any ideas that you have about the work into this diary, don’t use scraps of paper!


12. Using the diary is also helpful as it will help you to remember where you read something so you cite the work correctly.


13. Draft


14. Start an initial plan, making sure that your ideas follow a logical progression and the ideas/arguments are balanced and supported by suitable references.


15. Make sure that each paragraph starts with an introductory sentence and ends with a concluding sentence that leads on to the next paragraph.


16. Constantly review what you are writing. The more that you review your work the more defined it will become.


17. Referencing


18. Review and familiarise yourself with the referencing style. Check that you are suing the most up to date version.


19. Cite all work that you have used. Even if you have made reference to work that you have completed (published) in the past, it must be cited.


20. Use the ‘references’ task bar to produce your references and/or bibliography.


21. Completion


22. Read through your work. Preferably get someone else to proof read for you paying attention to typos and grammatical mistakes.


23. Ask your tutor well before the submission date if they could spare a bit of time to read through your work and give an initial opinion.


24. Good Luck