How can I avoid waffle in my essays?

The first step to avoiding waffle in your essays is to plan, plan, plan! Taking five or ten minutes out of your timed essays to effectively plan and layout your points will help you to stick to your argument. Make sure that each point is adding and enhancing what you are trying to say, not veering away from it.Practicing essays under the timed conditions you will face in exams is also a great way to avoid waffle. Writing under a time limit forces you to prioritise your points and choose which are the most relevant to your line of argument and to the question. After you have completed your practice timed essays don't let the experience go to waste! Go back and be your own marker, checking your essay against your own list of areas in your work you know might need improvement. This is a great way to see not only the progress you have made already, but also the work you have left to do. Check for repetition; go back and highlight any points which appear to just be re-phrasings of previously made points. Under timed exam conditions each point has to earn its place and there is no space for waffle.