I think I speak for most, if not all, English teachers when I say that it’s quite easy to see if a student has planned their text essay. This is because, well, unplanned text essays are (generally) crap.
I know, I know. Planning takes time. Planning is hard. That may be true, but I can guarantee that planning makes an essay much, much better.
You see, text essays that are planned have:
- a clear contention,
- clear arguments,
- arguments that logically belong together,
- arguments that make sense in the order they appear.
I usually don’t need to read beyond the first body paragraph to know if the student had a plan when writing. This is because:
- there is usually no contention,
- the ideas ramble all over the place,
- the arguments don’t follow one another,
- there’s lots of storytelling.
So, before you write your next essay, PLAN THE DAMN THING.
I hope that was helpful. Make sure you subscribe to get all the latest posts!
~Shirlaine
