1. Planning is one of the most critical aspects of academic writing. It can help you craft a well-written essay that conforms to your professor's expectations. It can also save you time in the long run by allowing you to focus on the parts of your paper that need more work. Take a look at our Academic Essays: An Overview for valuable insights into the essay writing process.

2. Knowing what is required to complete an assignment will help you determine what information you will need and how to answer the question. It's essential to analyse the question to determine what each part means and how to structure your response. Learn how to do this in our Question Analysis course.

3. The process of writing down everything you know about the topic is called brainstorming. You can use mind maps, lists or any other technique to make a quick record of the information you have gathered thus far. Brainstorming can help you identify what you know about the topic and what information you will need to research to complete the assessment. Look at our Brainstorming course for more information.

4. Academic essays are often evaluated on the breadth of reading, the quality of the argument presented, and the evidence used. By understanding the different types of scholarly and non-scholarly genres available to you to complete your assessments, you can determine which sources are most appropriate to support your arguments and where to find them. Our courses, Researching: Understanding Genres and Researching: Assessing Sources, will remove the guesswork.

5. Once you have selected the appropriate sources for your assessment, you will need to read and comprehend them critically. Students report that they take an average of 20hrs to read one journal article because they try to read it like a book. Learn how to evaluate sources, read actively and with purpose with our Critical Reading course.

6. Referencing your essay accurately is paramount. There are numerous referencing styles, and you may be required to use several different styles, depending on the class you take. In addition, if you fail to cite and reference your sources correctly, you may breach your institution's academic integrity policies, which could result in a fail or even worse. Learn more about these topics in our Referencing and Academic Integrity courses to comply with the standards set out by their university.