What is the best way to structure an essay?

Planning is a crucial stage of essay writing as it ensures that everything you need to say is covered somewhere in your essay. Allocating a few minutes at the beginning of an exam to do a rough outline will be a huge help as it keeps your essay focused and prevents the annoying scenario of forgetting everything you want to say half an hour into the exam. This is even more relevant for coursework as you have the time to make a detailed plan which will make your writing far easier and create a more fluent and cohesive essay. Consider carefully how the question is phrased, whether it’s asking you ‘how’ or ‘why’. Underlining the key words is a useful way to remind yourself what the essay should be focusing on.Starting with a clear introduction will demonstrate to the examiner that you understand the material and what the question is asking of you. Briefly cover the main points you want to make in your essay and how they contribute to your argument. Don’t go too in depth yet, just show that you have an argument to make and know how you’re going to make it.The main bulk of the essay should divide fairly evenly into paragraphs. Before the exam, you should have done a few past papers so you know how much you are going to be able to write in the limited time (or the required word count if you’re writing course work) so you know how many paragraphs you’ll be able to get through. The examiner is looking for quality over quantity so don’t focus on just getting everything you know onto paper. Find four or five main points that you want to make in the essay and dedicate a paragraph to each, developing that point with relevant quotes that support your argument or provide an interesting counter argument to show that you have considered the question from different angles. Using an approach like CQA (comment, quote, analysis) is a simple way to get your point across. The analysis should be very detailed and often extra marks can be gained by including additional information such as the historical context.The conclusion is your final opportunity to show that you have understood the question and have strong evidence behind your answer. Using the wording of the question is a good way to show that your essay has remained focused. Summarise the points you have made and reiterate why these led you to your answer. Often in exams this will be the most rushed section so a strong conclusion will help your essay stand out.