2.1 How to structure a 2000-word assignment

Start by bullet pointing your ideas, or creating a visual on how the structure will work. Here’s how to approach this:

• Use an essay planner to plan your assignment in a big picture, rather than a linear way where you start at the beginning and finish at the end.
• Write your assignment title in the middle of the page – this will help your writing stay relevant to the central idea.
• Make a 2000-word assignment less intimidating. A rule of thumb is that 10% of the word count should be reserved for the introduction and conclusion. With that in mind, by taking out 10% of the word count for the introduction and 10% for the conclusion (you don’t need to write them now – you can leave them to the end if you wish), you are left with 1600 words.
• Distribute 1600 words between four or five big paragraphs.

Here’s an outline document that you can download – you might find something like this helpful as you plan and write.

Essay structural planner

Unfortunately, this is not available in a word document format. Please refer to the openlearn course to access this activity.

But how do you brainstorm and organise? The following section will explore a popular technique that’s widely reported as successful.