Essay Planning

The terror of the blank page is a universally acknowledged phenomena. Seeing the cursor blink at you, impatiently waiting for you to finally write something down, creates a similar anxiety to what I imagine bomb defusers feel when they realise they have 5 seconds left on the clock. The dread of facing an empty google doc often leads to avoidance, distraction, pure panic submissions, and inevitable regret. Never fear, Study Buddy is here and armed with a solution: the humble essay plan. This post will walk you through my process of planning essays based on my planning template. Having an essay planning formula that you can implement and adjust for every assignment will make the writing process faster and easier, and will undoubtedly improve the final product. Instead of the blank page, you will find  a solid foundation you can build off each and every time.  

Step 1: Choosing your question 

The first step in planning your essay is choosing the question you’re going to tackle. My advice: pick the subject area or topic that you’re most passionate about. If there isn’t one, pick a question you can connect to a case study or theory you’re interested in. Don’t get too bogged down with question choice; it’s possible you’ll get further into the planning process and decide this question isn’t working for you. You don’t need to ride or die for question choice # 1, you can jump ship - I have (a lot).  

Okay, so let’s say, after careful thought, that the question we choose to tackle is: 

“Charlotte was the worst member of the Sex and the City girl gang.” Discuss.

Step 2: Initial research 

Emerging triumphant with a question chosen, the first thing you want to do is go back to the corresponding week’s reading list and read the required readings. These will be from the scholars that your professor thinks are the most relevant to the topic. 

In your notes, create a separate column for each reading and summarise their main arguments/thoughts. If you’ve been using my reading notes (link) method throughout the school year, you can simply go back and use those to write your summaries. 

Let’s say that the two main works being discussed in that week’s reading list are about defining the ‘essence’ of ‘Sex and the City’. Author X argues that ‘Sex and the City’ is most centrally about showcasing the ‘modern woman’; her sexual desires, her career goals, her economic independence, and her emancipation from long-held patriarchal gender roles. Author Y argues, however, that the show is, at its core, about the strength of female relationships. Y posits it's about how the bonds of sisterhood can alleviate the heartaches of modern womanhood; breakups, job losses, financial difficulty, and loneliness. 

The question of how many readings you need per essay is unfortunately context dependent. Usually, your professor will give you an idea of how many they expect for your specific assignment. If not, a general rule of thumb could be 4 readings per 1000 words. This can fluctuate though depending on your discipline and assignment type.  

Step 3: Argument brainstorm

Now it’s time to think for yourself!  While high school essay marking often discourages personal opinion, this is not the case at university level. Whose argument do you agree with and why? Which can be most substantially supported? What examples can you think of that illustrate and legitimise author X’s argument, but not author Y’s, or vice versa? Let’s say that we choose to agree with author Y’s understanding  because it can be applied to more episodes than author X’s. Note down all the examples that support Y’s definition — showing that sisterhood is at the centre of Sex and the City. This could be ‘case studies’, such as all the episodes you’ve found that support your argument , or the thinking of other scholars that have followed in Y’s theoretical footsteps.

This may have all seemed rather irrelevant to poor Charlotte, but defining your terms and the frame or lens through which you will be tackling the question is essential to setting up a convincing and coherent argument. Now it is time to apply Y’s theory (our accepted definition) to the essay question. So, if we are taking ‘Sex and the City’ to be most crucially defined by its portrayal of sisterhood, and not its portrayal of a ‘modern woman’, is Charlotte the worst character? I would argue no. In fact, I’d suggest Charlotte provides the most consistently solid and meaningful friendship to all of the girls throughout the series. Great, now it’s time to walk the talk and prove ourselves. To do this, note down some demonstrative examples of Charlotte’s important contributions to the sisterhood in ‘Sex and the City’. This may include: that time she insisted on staying while Carrie read Big’s marriage announcement in the New York Times; or when she helped with the logistics of Miranda’s mother’s funeral, ensuring that all the girls got there and even coached them on how to be more supportive friends; or when she gave Carrie her engagement ring to pay for her rent, despite Carrie being a TOTAL weenie about the whole thing, etc. etc. etc…  

Before we continue with our extremely compelling argument let’s take a quick review. We began by setting the groundwork; giving a brief literature review and a clear definition of our framing analytical lens. We then followed up with an argument, and backed it up with ample examples. Next up? 

Acknowledging counter arguments: 

Remember author X? Although we’ve sided with Y, we’ve got to backtrack a bit and engage with their thinking to show some critical reasoning. So if we took X’s word and understood the ‘essence’ of ‘Sex and the City’ to be the portrayal of the modern woman, then the statement (that Charlotte was the worst member) would hold more validity. Charlotte adheres most closely to traditional gender roles throughout the series. She sees marriage as a priority, leaves her job to be a full-time wife, and doesn’t explicitly display the same drive for independence the other girls do. However, we believe— and will now demonstrate — that X is wrong, and it is really all about sisterhood which is something Charlotte is pivotal in maintaining.  Perhaps here you bring in a sprinkling of author Z, who may have also disproved author X in their functionalist analysis of the show.

Step 4: Thesis Brainstorm

The hard part is over! Now that we know who we agree with, who we don’t, what we’ll be arguing, and why, we need to condense our argument into a succinct thesis statement. To begin, put down the main points you want to cover in the thesis, and that you will expand upon later in the essay:

• Disagrees with statement in question

• Charlotte is a good friend and important to the story

• Charlotte is essential to Sex and the City’s theme of sisterhood

Then use these points to write a sentence that summarises the argument and, boom, thesis. 

E.G; This essay argues that the character of Charlotte is an essential vessel for ‘Sex and the City’ to execute it’s main theme of sisterhood, and is therefore an integral part of the show and of the girl gang. 

Step 5: Skeleton plan 

Next up, I write out a bullet point skeleton plan. This will help to create structure and clear through-line, both key to any successful essay. 

Introduction: 

- Repeat the question that you are going to answer. 

- Thesis - This essay argues that the character of Charlotte is an essential vessel for ‘Sex and the City’ to execute it’s main theme of sisterhood, and is therefore an integral part of the show and of the girl gang. 

- Set out how you will structure the essay. E.G. ‘first this essay will put forward the main theoretical arguments surrounding the central themes of Sex and the City. It will then evaluate these theories and demonstrate through examples why author Y’s theory is applicable to most episodes of the show. This essay will then conduct a character analysis of Charlotte to show that she exemplifies the definition of Sex and the City that Y puts forward, and that she is therefore an integral character to the show’s core message. 

Section 1: Theory 

- To understand what would make a ‘good’ Sex and the City girl gang member, we have to first define what ‘Sex and the City’ is about at it’s core.

• Author X’s theory - including quotes 

• Author Y’s theory - including quotes 

• This essay agrees with Y’s theory because it can be applied to more episodes than author X’s. 

• Examples of Y’s theory in action, demonstrating that the central theme is sisterhood. 

• If we were to agree with X’s definition of ‘modern womanhood’ being the essence of ‘Sex and the City’, then  Charlotte would indeed be the worst  member of the girl gang. However, as we ultimately agree with Y, and Charlotte provides the most solid friendship to all of the girls throughout the series, she is not the worst  member of the gang. 

Section 2: Case study-Charlotte character analysis 

• Examples of Charlotte exhibiting the sisterhood that is at the centre of Sex and the City’s story. 

• Examples of Carrie, the main character, not exhibiting the same sisterhood as Charlotte and therefore being a worse member of the girl gang than Charlotte. 

• Bring in feminist theory to explore how internalised misogyny causes us to view Charlotte’s traditionally ‘feminine’ desires as weak and at her as the worst member of the group. 

• Refer back to how this proves your thesis statement. 

Conclusion: 

• Repeat your thesis statement. 

• Recap of how the essay has been structured, and how you have built your arguments, step by step.  

• End with a pithy one liner. Depending on your personal writing style, this could be asserting why your argument is currently/politically significant: 

“Finally, fully recognising Charlotte’s influence as a generative force of female unity and empowerment can inspire practices of feminism in which multiple forms can coexist in mutually reinforcing and productive ways.”

• Or, it could be a line to re-contextualise the whole essay:

“Most crucially, redeeming Charlotte reminds viewers of the show today that, in relation to the media landscape of it’s time, Sex and the City was remarkably unique in its portrayal of a woman who’s traditionalism didn’t cancel out either her modernity or her potential for female-empowerment.” 

Or, you could even end in an open-ended and ambiguous way, reminding your reader of the questions your discussion has provoked as well as answered... 

Once you’ve finished your skeleton plan, you’re ready to start writing your essay! I usually paste my plan into a new document and then expand upon each section, using quotes and references to buff it out. As you write, don’t forget the importance of your own voice. Essay markers are much more likely to stay engaged and follow your arguments if you are writing in a consistently ‘you’ style. This doesn’t mean your essays should look like a diary entry, but that you should write in formal, academic, structured ways without sounding robotic. The key to this is to have fun, and what better way to enjoy writing than to kick off with a solid plan. A plan eases the stress of the blank page, and gives you a jumping board for every essay.

Happy essaying- you’ve got this!