why planning an essay is important

Essay writing

• Introduction

Answering the question

Generating ideas, planning your essay, different planning methods.

• Writing your essay
• Developing your essay writing

Useful links for writing essays

• Study Advice Helping students to achieve study success with guides, video tutorials, seminars and one-to-one advice sessions.
• Academic writing LibGuide Expert guidance on punctuation, grammar, writing style and proof-reading.
• Guide to citing references Includes guidance on why, when and how to use references correctly in your academic writing.
• Reading and notemaking LibGuide Expert guidance on managing your reading and making effective notes.
• Academic Phrasebank Use this site for examples of linking phrases and ways to refer to sources.
• Ten stages of assignment success (Prezi) Based upon Burns and Sinfield, Essential Study Skills.
• Critical Thinking A short video on Critical Thinking that the BBC have prepared in partnership with The Open University

The first thing to do when preparing to write an essay is to make a plan. You could just rush in and write everything that comes into your head, but that would make it difficult for your marker to read and would reduce the effectiveness of your ideas. These will make much stronger arguments if you group them together than they would do on their own.

The guidance on this page will show you how to plan and structure your essay to produce a strong and focused response to the question.

A very common complaint from lecturers and examiners is that students write a lot of information but they just don't answer the question. Don't rush straight into researching – give yourself time to think carefully about the question and understand what it is asking.

Underlining key words – This is a good start point for making sure you understand all the terms (some might need defining); identifying the crucial information in the question; and clarifying what the question is asking you to do (compare & contrast, analyse, discuss). But make sure you then consider the question as a whole again, not just as a series of unconnected words.

Re-read the question – Read the question through a few times. Explain it to yourself, so you are sure you know what it is asking you to do.

Try breaking the question down into sub-questions – What is the question asking? Why is this important? How am I going to answer it? What do I need to find out first, second, third in order to answer the question? This is a good way of working out what important points or issues make up the overall question – it can help focus your reading and start giving your essay a structure. However, try not to have too many sub-questions as this can lead to following up minor issues, as opposed to the most important points.

• Answering the question and planning (video) Watch this brief video tutorial for more on the topic.
• Answering the question and planning (transcript) Read along while watching the video tutorial.

The kinds of things to note briefly are:

• What you already know about the topic – from lectures, seminars, general knowledge.
• Things you don't know about the topic, but need to find out in order to answer the question.
• Initial responses or answers to the question – what you think your conclusion might possibly be.

This helps you start formulating your argument and direction for answering the question. It also helps you focus your reading, as you can pinpoint what you need to find out and go straight to the parts of books, chapters, articles that will be most relevant.

After reading - After your reading, it is often good to summarise all your findings on a page. Again, a spider diagram can help with this.

Bringing together the key points from your reading helps clarify what you have found out, and helps you find a pathway through all the ideas and issues you have encountered. If you include brief details of authors and page nos. for key information, it can act as a quick at-a-glance guide for finding the evidence you need to support your points later.

It also helps you see how your initial response to the question might have changed or become more sophisticated in light of the reading you've done. It leads into planning your essay structure.

• It enables you to work out a logical structure and an end point for your argument before you start writing.
• It means you don't have to do this type of complex thinking at the same time as trying to find the right words to express your ideas.
• It helps you to commit yourself to sticking to the point!

You need to work out what to include, and what can be left out. It is impossible to cover everything in an essay, and your markers will be looking for evidence of your ability to choose material and put it in order. Brainstorm all your ideas, then arrange them in three or four groups. Not everything will fit so be prepared to discard some points (you can mention them briefly in your introduction).

Outline what you are going to include in each section:

• Introduction : Address the question, show why it's interesting and how you will answer it.
• Main body : Build your argument. Put your groups of ideas in a sequence to make a persuasive argument. One main point in each paragraph.
• Conclusion : Summarise your arguments and evidence, and show how they answer the original question.

Writing a summary - Some people plan best once they have written something, as this helps clarify their thinking. If you prefer to write first, try summarising the central idea of your essay in a few sentences. This gives you a clear direction for working out how you are going to break it down into points supported by evidence. You can then use one of the methods below to write a more detailed plan.

• Structuring your essay (video) Watch this brief video tutorial for more on the topic.
• Structuring your essay (transcript) Read along while watching the video tutorial.

Bullet points / linear plans - This type of plan lists the main points using bullet points or numbers. It can be a brief outline of the main point per paragraph, or a more detailed plan with sub-points and a note of the evidence to support each point (e.g. source and page no.).

No plan is perfect, so be prepared for your ideas to change as you write your essay. However, once you have an initial plan it is much easier to adapt it and see where new things fit if your thinking does change.

• << Previous: Home
• Next: Writing your essay >>
• Last Updated: Jan 29, 2024 11:27 AM
• URL: https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/essays

• LEARNING SKILLS
• Study Skills
• Essay Planning

Search SkillsYouNeed:

Learning Skills:

• A - Z List of Learning Skills
• What is Learning?
• Learning Approaches
• Learning Styles
• 8 Types of Learning Styles
• Understanding Your Preferences to Aid Learning
• Lifelong Learning
• Decisions to Make Before Applying to University
• Top Tips for Surviving Student Life
• Living Online: Education and Learning
• 8 Ways to Embrace Technology-Based Learning Approaches
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Critical Thinking and Fake News
• Understanding and Addressing Conspiracy Theories
• Critical Analysis
• Top Tips for Study
• Staying Motivated When Studying
• Student Budgeting and Economic Skills
• Getting Organised for Study
• Finding Time to Study
• Sources of Information
• Assessing Internet Information
• Using Apps to Support Study
• What is Theory?
• Styles of Writing
• Effective Reading
• Critical Reading
• Note-Taking from Reading
• Note-Taking for Verbal Exchanges

Planning an Essay

• How to Write an Essay
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Essay Writing
• How to Write a Report
• Academic Referencing
• Assignment Finishing Touches
• Reflecting on Marked Work
• 6 Skills You Learn in School That You Use in Real Life
• Top 10 Tips on How to Study While Working
• Exam Skills

Get the SkillsYouNeed Study Skills eBook

Part of the Skills You Need Guide for Students .

• Writing a Dissertation or Thesis
• Research Methods
• Teaching, Coaching, Mentoring and Counselling
• Employability Skills for Graduates

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and start improving your life in just 5 minutes a day.

You'll get our 5 free 'One Minute Life Skills' and our weekly newsletter.

We'll never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

This page is the first of two that describe the processes involved in producing an essay for academic purposes, for school, college or university and covers the planning stages of essay writing, which are important to the overall process.

The second page, Writing an Essay , provides more information on the steps involved in actually writing an essay. We recommend you read both pages to gain a full understanding.

Developing the skill of essay writing takes practice, time and patience , your essay writing skills will improve and develop the more you write.

With the help of your course tutor (teacher or lecturer) and peers (other students) and from constructive feedback from the marker of your work, writing an essay will become easier as you progress through your studies and your confidence increases.

This page details general good practice in essay planning, including what you should do and what you should try to avoid. It is important however, that you understand the specific requirements of your school, college or university.

Writing an essay helps you to consider the issues raised in your course and to relate them to your own experience, way of thinking, and also any wider additional reading and research you may have undertaken in order to tackle the essay topic. 

Writing an essay (or other assignment) is an important part of the learning process.  In the writing of an assignment, learning occurs as you think through and interpret the points raised (together with those of other writers on the subject).

Presenting your experience and showing understanding within your assignment will, from the marker's point of view, demonstrate your knowledge of the subject area.

The Purpose of an Essay

The original meaning of an essay is ' an attempt ', or a try, at something. It is therefore appropriate to consider writing an essay as a learning exercise.

Essays, and other academic writing, focus the mind and encourage you to come to conclusions about what you are studying.

Writing is often the best possible way to assimilate and organise information. Writing helps to highlight any areas that you have not fully understood and enables you to make further clarifications. It develops your powers of criticism, analysis and expression, and gives you a chance to try out your and other writers' ideas on the subject.

The feedback you receive from the marker of your essay should help to advance your study skills, writing, research and  critical thinking skills .

What is the Marker Looking For?

As an essay - in the context of this page - is an assessed piece of work, it can be very useful to consider what the person who will be assessing the work, the marker, will be looking for.

Although different types of essays in different subject areas may vary considerably in their style and content there are some key concepts that will help you understand what is required of you and your essay.

When marking an assignment, a marker will look for some of the following elements, which will demonstrate you are able to:

Find relevant information and use the knowledge to focus on the essay question or subject.

Structure knowledge and information logically, clearly and concisely.

Read purposefully and critically. (See our page: Critical Reading for more)

Relate theory to practical examples.

Analyse processes and problems.

Be persuasive and argue a case.

Find links and combine information from a number of different sources.

Answer the Question

One main factor, always worth bearing in mind, is that a marker will usually only award marks for how well you have answered the essay question.

It is likely that the marker will have a set of criteria or marking guidelines that will dictate how many marks can be awarded for each element of your essay.

Remember it is perfectly possible to write an outstanding essay, but not to have answered the original question.  This will, in all likelihood, mean a low mark.

Planning Your Essay

Planning is the process of sorting out what you want to include in your essay.

A well-planned and organised essay indicates that you have your ideas in order; it makes points clearly and logically.  In this way, a well-planned and structured essay enables the reader, or marker, to follow the points being made easily.

Essay assignments are usually formulated in one of the following ways:

As a question

A statement is given and you are asked to comment on it

An invitation to ‘ outline’ , ‘ discuss’ or ‘ critically assess’ a particular argument or point of view

Remember always write your essay based on the question that is set and not on another aspect of the subject. Although this may sound obvious, many students do not fully answer the essay question and include irrelevant information. The primary aim of an academic essay is to answer the task set, in some detail.

To help you do this, you might find the following list of stages helpful.

Producing an Essay Plan

The essay plan below contains ten steps.

It is often useful to complete the first six steps soon after receiving your essay question. That way information will be fresh and you are more likely to be thinking about your essay plan as you do other things.

Study the essay question intently.

Write the essay question out in full.

Spend some time, at least half an hour, brainstorming the subject area.

Write down your thoughts on the question subject, its scope and various aspects.

List words or phrases that you think need to be included.

Note the main points you should include to answer the question.

If, at this point, you feel unsure of what to include, talk to your tutor or a peer to clarify that you are on the right track.

Once you have finished the first six steps and you feel sure you know how to proceed, continue to expand on your initial thoughts and build a more in-depth essay outline.

Skim through any course material or lecture handouts and start to build up a more detailed outline. Scan through your own lecture notes, and if anything strikes you as relevant to the assignment task, write where to find it on your detailed outline

Write down where you will find the necessary information on each of the points in your detailed outline (lecture notes, course handouts etc.).  Indicate on the outline where you feel that some further research is necessary.

Be careful not to allow your outline to become too complicated; stick to main points and keep it relevant to the question.

If you have been given a reading list or a core text book then check the relevant sections of that.

See our page: Sources of Information for more ideas of where you can find relevant information for your essay.

Academic essays usually have a word limit and writing within the word limit is an important consideration. Many institutions will penalise students for not writing the correct amount of words – for example, the essay question may call for a 2,000 word essay, there may be a 10% grace, so anything between 1,800 and 2,200 is acceptable.

Think about the main elements that need to be covered in the essay. Make sure you allocate the greatest number of words to the 'main body of the essay' and not to a subsidiary point.

Decide how much space you can devote to each section of your outline.  For example, a third of a page for the introduction, half a page for point 1 which has two sub-points, one and a half pages for point 2 which has five sub-points etc.  Although you will not follow such a space scheme rigidly, it does enable you to keep things under control and to know how much detail to put in, keeping the balance of the essay as you originally planned.

Of course, you will make minor adjustments to your essay plan as you actually write. However, do not make major adjustments unless you are absolutely certain about the alternative and how it fits into your original scheme.

Having a strong essay plan makes the actual task of writing an essay much more efficient.

Continue to: Writing an Essay Sources of Information

See also: Essay Writing Tips Note-Taking for Reading Finding Time To Study

How to plan an essay: Essay Planning

• What's in this guide
• Essay Planning
• Additional resources

How to plan an essay

Essay planning is an important step in academic essay writing.

Proper planning helps you write your essay faster, and focus more on the exact question.  As you draft and write your essay, record any changes on the plan as well as in the essay itself, so they develop side by side.

One way to start planning an essay is with a ‘box plan’.

First, decide how many stages you want in your argument – how many important points do you want to make? Then, divide a box into an introduction + one paragraph for each stage + a conclusion.

Next, figure out how many words per paragraph you'll need.

Usually, the introduction and conclusion are each about 10% of the word count. This leaves about 80% of the word count for the body - for your real argument. Find how many words that is, and divide it by the number of body paragraphs you want. That tells you about how many words each paragraph can have.

Remember, each body paragraph discusses one main point, so make sure each paragraph's long enough to discuss the point properly (flexible, but usually at least 150 words).

For example, say the assignment is

Fill in the table as follows:

Next, record each paragraph's main argument, as either a heading or  topic sentence (a sentence to start that paragraph, to immediately make its point clear).

Finally, use dot points to list useful information or ideas from your research notes for each paragraph. Remember to include references so you can connect each point to your reading.

The other useful document for essay planning is the marking rubric .

This indicates what the lecturer is looking for, and helps you make sure all the necessary elements are there.

Pathways and Academic Learning Support

• << Previous: What's in this guide
• Next: Additional resources >>
• Last Updated: Feb 15, 2024 1:23 PM
• URL: https://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/essay_planning

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

9.3 Organizing Your Writing

Learning objectives.

• Understand how and why organizational techniques help writers and readers stay focused.
• Assess how and when to use chronological order to organize an essay.
• Recognize how and when to use order of importance to organize an essay.
• Determine how and when to use spatial order to organize an essay.

The method of organization you choose for your essay is just as important as its content. Without a clear organizational pattern, your reader could become confused and lose interest. The way you structure your essay helps your readers draw connections between the body and the thesis, and the structure also keeps you focused as you plan and write the essay. Choosing your organizational pattern before you outline ensures that each body paragraph works to support and develop your thesis.

This section covers three ways to organize body paragraphs:

• Chronological order
• Order of importance
• Spatial order

When you begin to draft your essay, your ideas may seem to flow from your mind in a seemingly random manner. Your readers, who bring to the table different backgrounds, viewpoints, and ideas, need you to clearly organize these ideas in order to help process and accept them.

A solid organizational pattern gives your ideas a path that you can follow as you develop your draft. Knowing how you will organize your paragraphs allows you to better express and analyze your thoughts. Planning the structure of your essay before you choose supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and targeted research.

Chronological Order

In Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , you learned that chronological arrangement has the following purposes:

• To explain the history of an event or a topic
• To tell a story or relate an experience
• To explain how to do or to make something
• To explain the steps in a process

Chronological order is mostly used in expository writing , which is a form of writing that narrates, describes, informs, or explains a process. When using chronological order, arrange the events in the order that they actually happened, or will happen if you are giving instructions. This method requires you to use words such as first , second , then , after that , later , and finally . These transition words guide you and your reader through the paper as you expand your thesis.

For example, if you are writing an essay about the history of the airline industry, you would begin with its conception and detail the essential timeline events up until present day. You would follow the chain of events using words such as first , then , next , and so on.

Writing at Work

At some point in your career you may have to file a complaint with your human resources department. Using chronological order is a useful tool in describing the events that led up to your filing the grievance. You would logically lay out the events in the order that they occurred using the key transition words. The more logical your complaint, the more likely you will be well received and helped.

Choose an accomplishment you have achieved in your life. The important moment could be in sports, schooling, or extracurricular activities. On your own sheet of paper, list the steps you took to reach your goal. Try to be as specific as possible with the steps you took. Pay attention to using transition words to focus your writing.

Keep in mind that chronological order is most appropriate for the following purposes:

• Writing essays containing heavy research
• Writing essays with the aim of listing, explaining, or narrating
• Writing essays that analyze literary works such as poems, plays, or books

When using chronological order, your introduction should indicate the information you will cover and in what order, and the introduction should also establish the relevance of the information. Your body paragraphs should then provide clear divisions or steps in chronology. You can divide your paragraphs by time (such as decades, wars, or other historical events) or by the same structure of the work you are examining (such as a line-by-line explication of a poem).

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that describes a process you are familiar with and can do well. Assume that your reader is unfamiliar with the procedure. Remember to use the chronological key words, such as first , second , then , and finally .

Order of Importance

Recall from Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” that order of importance is best used for the following purposes:

• Persuading and convincing
• Ranking items by their importance, benefit, or significance
• Illustrating a situation, problem, or solution

Most essays move from the least to the most important point, and the paragraphs are arranged in an effort to build the essay’s strength. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to begin with your most important supporting point, such as in an essay that contains a thesis that is highly debatable. When writing a persuasive essay, it is best to begin with the most important point because it immediately captivates your readers and compels them to continue reading.

For example, if you were supporting your thesis that homework is detrimental to the education of high school students, you would want to present your most convincing argument first, and then move on to the less important points for your case.

Some key transitional words you should use with this method of organization are most importantly , almost as importantly , just as importantly , and finally .

During your career, you may be required to work on a team that devises a strategy for a specific goal of your company, such as increasing profits. When planning your strategy you should organize your steps in order of importance. This demonstrates the ability to prioritize and plan. Using the order of importance technique also shows that you can create a resolution with logical steps for accomplishing a common goal.

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that discusses a passion of yours. Your passion could be music, a particular sport, filmmaking, and so on. Your paragraph should be built upon the reasons why you feel so strongly. Briefly discuss your reasons in the order of least to greatest importance.

Spatial Order

As stated in Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , spatial order is best used for the following purposes:

• Helping readers visualize something as you want them to see it
• Evoking a scene using the senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound)
• Writing a descriptive essay

Spatial order means that you explain or describe objects as they are arranged around you in your space, for example in a bedroom. As the writer, you create a picture for your reader, and their perspective is the viewpoint from which you describe what is around you.

The view must move in an orderly, logical progression, giving the reader clear directional signals to follow from place to place. The key to using this method is to choose a specific starting point and then guide the reader to follow your eye as it moves in an orderly trajectory from your starting point.

Pay attention to the following student’s description of her bedroom and how she guides the reader through the viewing process, foot by foot.

Attached to my bedroom wall is a small wooden rack dangling with red and turquoise necklaces that shimmer as you enter. Just to the right of the rack is my window, framed by billowy white curtains. The peace of such an image is a stark contrast to my desk, which sits to the right of the window, layered in textbooks, crumpled papers, coffee cups, and an overflowing ashtray. Turning my head to the right, I see a set of two bare windows that frame the trees outside the glass like a 3D painting. Below the windows is an oak chest from which blankets and scarves are protruding. Against the wall opposite the billowy curtains is an antique dresser, on top of which sits a jewelry box and a few picture frames. A tall mirror attached to the dresser takes up most of the wall, which is the color of lavender.

The paragraph incorporates two objectives you have learned in this chapter: using an implied topic sentence and applying spatial order. Often in a descriptive essay, the two work together.

The following are possible transition words to include when using spatial order:

• Just to the left or just to the right
• On the left or on the right
• Across from
• A little further down
• To the south, to the east, and so on
• A few yards away
• Turning left or turning right

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph using spatial order that describes your commute to work, school, or another location you visit often.

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

Key Takeaways

• The way you organize your body paragraphs ensures you and your readers stay focused on and draw connections to, your thesis statement.
• A strong organizational pattern allows you to articulate, analyze, and clarify your thoughts.
• Planning the organizational structure for your essay before you begin to search for supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and directed research.
• Chronological order is most commonly used in expository writing. It is useful for explaining the history of your subject, for telling a story, or for explaining a process.
• Order of importance is most appropriate in a persuasion paper as well as for essays in which you rank things, people, or events by their significance.
• Spatial order describes things as they are arranged in space and is best for helping readers visualize something as you want them to see it; it creates a dominant impression.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

• 301 Academic Skills Centre
• Study skills online

Essay structure and planning

Information on how to structure and plan your essay.

What is an essay?

An essay is a focused, academic discussion of a particular question, problem or issue.

Many of you have been writing essays for years, and are probably good at it. That's great, and everything you look at here will build on and develop those skills.

But it's worth asking: are there different things expected of a university essay from those for school, college, or other contexts?

The obvious answer is yes, and it takes time and effort to learn the range of writing skills needed to produce university essays effectively.

There are all sorts of reasons why essays are common forms of assessment. They allow you to explore a problem in-depth, express yourself concisely and precisely, and debate other people's published opinions on a topic.

They're also a good warm-up for traditional forms of academic publication, such as a journal article.

Academic essays usually follow an established organisational structure that helps the writer to express their ideas clearly and the reader to follow the thread of their argument.

An essay's structure is guided by its content and argument so every essay question will pose unique structural challenges.

301 Recommends: Glossary of Instruction Words

Our Essay Structure and Planning workshop will outline how to analyse your essay question, discuss approaches logically structure all your ideas, help you make your introductions and conclusions more effective, and teach how to link your ideas and ensure all essay content flows logically from the introduction. The Putting it into Practise workshop  

Have a look at our  Glossary of Essay Instruction Words (PDF, 100KB) , or watch this short  Study Skills Hacks video  on identifying the tasks in a question to help you identify what is required.

Planning stages

Essay writing is a process with many stages, from topic selection, planning and reading around, through to drafting, revising and proofreading.

Breaking the task down and creating a clear plan with milestones and intermediate deadlines will allow you to focus attention more fully on the writing process itself when you put your plan into action either as part of an assignment or an exam.

1. Understand the question

• Is the question open-ended or closed? If it is open-ended you will need to narrow it down. Explain how and why you have decided to limit it in the introduction to your essay, so the reader knows you appreciate the wider issues, but that you can also be selective.
• If it is a closed question, your answer must refer to and stay within the limits of the question (ie specific dates, texts, or countries).
• What can you infer from the title about the structure of the essay?

2. Brainstorm for ideas

• What you know about the topic – from lectures, reading etc
• What you don't know about the topic, but need to find out to answer the question
• Possible responses or answers to the question – any ideas about your conclusion.
• Consider using a mind map to organise your thoughts…

3. Make a plan

• Planning your essay makes it more likely that you have a coherent argument
• It enables you to work out a logical structure and an endpoint for your argument before you start writing
• It means you don't have to do this type of complex thinking at the same time as trying to find the right words to express your ideas
• It helps you to commit yourself to sticking to the point!

The Hourglass essay

If you're stuck on an overall structure for your essay, try this simple model for organising a typical academic essay. An hourglass essay introduces a broad area, before narrowing the focus towards the specific question that you are answering. It finishes by placing that narrow area back into a wider context. 

Introduction: the funnel of the hourglass

Set the scene and lead your reader into your essay by introducing the broad area of interest and then narrowing towards your specific focus:

• Start broad with a hook to catch the reader's attention
• Provide some context for the hook. What does your project add to it?
• Focus on the narrow area of your essay: can you summarise it in a single sentence mission statement?

Body: the stem of the hourglass

The body of your essay should be as narrow and focused as possible. Body paragraphs will take one sub-topic at a time and provide a logical flow of ideas for your reader:

• Start each paragraph with a topic sentence to tell your reader what it will cover
• Fill your paragraph with a range of supporting evidence and examples
• Finish your paragraph with a final wrapping-up sentence to summarise and/or link ahead

Conclusion: the base of the hourglass

Your chance to reinforce your key messages and go out with a bang:

• Revisit your mission statement: how have you addressed it?
• Summarise the main points of your argument or findings
• Finish with a broader scope, explaining how your topic might inform future research or practice, or where gaps remain

301 Recommends: Essay Planning Template

Use this template (google doc) to plan a structure for your essay, paying particular attention to the ways in which you have broken down the topic into sub-themes for your body paragraphs. 

Top tips and resources

• Start planning early, leave your plan for a couple of days, and then come back to it. This may give you a fresh perspective.
• It is often easiest to write the introduction last, but when you are planning your essay structure make sure you have your mission statement.
• A good plan will make it much easier to write a good essay. Invest the time in making a plan that works.
• Check what your tutor wants, but it is often best to focus on one element in great detail, rather than discuss several aspects superficially.
• Make sure you allow time to proofread your work before submission!

Internal resources

• Library Research and Critical Thinking - Referencing
• English Language Teaching Centre (ELTC)– Language Resources  

External resources

• Royal Literary Fund–  Writing Essays
• University of Reading–  Planning and structuring your essay
• Cottrell, S (2008) The Study Skills Handbook. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan
• Bailey, S (2003) Academic Writing: A Practical Guide for Students. Routledge
• Reading University–  Study Resources
• University of Manchester–  Academic Phrasebank

Related information

Academic Skills Certificate

Scientific writing and lab reports

Proofreading

Be the first to hear about our new and upcoming workshops!

The 301 Academic Skills Centre newsletter is a fortnightly email for study skills, mathematics and statistics.

Be the first to find out about our:

• new and upcoming workshops,
• special events and programmes, and
• new and relevant online materials and resources.

Sheffield is a research university with a global reputation for excellence. We're a member of the Russell Group: one of the 24 leading UK universities for research and teaching.

• Link to facebook
• Link to linkedin
• Link to twitter
• Link to youtube
• Writing Tips

How to Write a Perfect Essay Plan

4-minute read

• 9th December 2019

Every good essay starts with a good essay plan. And planning your essay is important, as it will help you express each point you need to make clearly and in a logical order. But what goes into a good essay plan? And how can you write one? Join us for a quick look at how this works.

1. Read the Question Closely

The first step in any essay plan is to look at the question you’ve been set. It should provide some clue as to the kind of essay required, such as whether it is an open or closed question . These differ as follows:

• An open question permits various answers. For instance, if you were set an English literature essay, you might be asked What are the main social themes in the writing of Charles Dickens? This would allow you to discuss a range of concepts in response. Writing you essay plan would then involve narrowing down your subject matter so you can focus on one issue.
• A closed question focuses on a specific issue, often asking you to agree or disagree with something. For instance, a closed question could be Is technology a destructive force in the writing of Charles Dickens? In this case, the question dictates the form of the essay, as you would need to look at arguments for and against the claim and, finally, come to a conclusion.

Keep in mind that both question types require an in-depth answer! Some closed questions could technically be answered by writing ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on a piece of paper, but this won’t get you great marks. Instead, think of the question as a prompt for you to show off what you know on the topic.

And if you’re not sure about anything, such as how a question is worded, you will want to check this with whomever set the assignment.

2. Brainstorm Ideas and Organise Your Research

After studying the essay question, the next step is to brainstorm ideas for answering it. And the starting point for this is to organise your research.

In other words, it’s time to get out those lecture notes! In fact, you should make a mind map of everything you know on the essay topic.

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

Look for anything that is relevant to the essay question. You can then narrow down the possible answers to the topics that interest you most. This should also help you identify any gaps in your knowledge, so you can make notes on what else you may need to research for your essay.

3. Draft an Essay Outline

The last step in writing an essay plan is to outline your essay. This means breaking it down section by section, paragraph by paragraph, so you know exactly what you need to write to answer the essay question.

The exact content will depend on the topic and word count . But, as a rule, most essays will have a basic structure along the following lines:

• Introduction – A paragraph or two that sets out your main argument.
• Main Body – This is the main chunk of your essay. To plan this, break down your argument into paragraphs or sections, sticking to one main idea per paragraph. Once you’ve done this, note down how each point supports your argument, plus any quotes or examples you will use.
• Conclusion – A brief summary of your arguments and evidence.
• References – A list of sources you plan to use in your essay.

This will then guide the writing process, making sure you always stay on topic.

Expert Essay Proofreading

Planning your essay is just the first step: you then need to write it! And to make sure it’s the best it can be, you’ll want to have it proofread . Our expert editors can help with that, making sure that your writing is always academic in tone and completely error free. Just let us know how we can help!

Share this article:

Post A New Comment

Get help from a language expert. Try our proofreading services for free.

The benefits of using an online proofreading service.

Proofreading is important to ensure your writing is clear and concise for your readers. Whether...

2-minute read

6 Online AI Presentation Maker Tools

Creating presentations can be time-consuming and frustrating. Trying to construct a visually appealing and informative...

What Is Market Research?

No matter your industry, conducting market research helps you keep up to date with shifting...

8 Press Release Distribution Services for Your Business

In a world where you need to stand out, press releases are key to being...

3-minute read

How to Get a Patent

In the United States, the US Patent and Trademarks Office issues patents. In the United...

The 5 Best Ecommerce Website Design Tools 

A visually appealing and user-friendly website is essential for success in today’s competitive ecommerce landscape....

Make sure your writing is the best it can be with our expert English proofreading and editing.

Academic Writing

• Introduction

How to Plan an Essay

• Writing Paragraghs
• Plagiarism This link opens in a new window
• Essay Planning
• Video Explanation

Essay planning is an important step in academic essay writing.

Effective planning can speed up the essay writing process, and give the essay direction and precision.  As you are working through the process of drafting and writing your essay, you can record any changes you make on your essay plan, so that your essay and the plan develop side by side.

One way to start planning an essay is with a "box plan."

First, decide how many stages there are in your argument – how many important points do you want to make? Then divide up a box into an introduction, one body paragraph for each part of your argument, and a conclusion.

Next, figure out how many  words per paragraph  you will need. This depends on the  word count  and  how many paragraphs  you want. Remember you need one paragraph to discuss each main point you are making. The introduction and conclusion are both usually 10% of the word count and what is left is divided into how many body paragraphs you have.

Let's use the following example: Discuss how media can influence children. Use specific examples to support your view.

1200 words 

Next, in each body paragraph box record your main argument, either as a heading or as your topic sentence. 

Finally, use dot points to list useful information or ideas from your research notes for each paragraph. Remember to include references so you can cite each idea in your essay.

Remember, a useful document for essay planning is the marking rubric (also known as the marking checklist or marking criteria). This indicates what the lecturer is looking for, and helps you make sure that all the necessary elements are there.

• << Previous: Introduction
• Next: Essay Structure & Writing >>
• Last Updated: Oct 3, 2023 11:15 AM
• URL: https://bcsmn.libguides.com/Academic_Writing

Posted on 11th April 2019

How to Plan an Essay

By Cite This For Me

Planning is one of the most important parts of the writing process, but it’s also one of the most overlooked. Some students think planning is a waste of time, while others aren’t exactly sure how to plan.  

In this article, we’ll explain why planning actually saves you time, plus give you tips on how to create an effective plan for any essay or paper.

Why you should plan your essays

So, why is planning such a big deal? Why can’t you just start writing?

A plan is an organized roadmap for your essay. It helps you sort your ideas into coherent paragraphs that flow logically. Without a plan, you might end up rambling and leave your readers lost and confused.

Planning also gives you a chance to make sure that your ideas make sense and that you have plenty of evidence before you start writing. You don’t want to get halfway through your essay and realize you’ve lost your train of thought—or that you don’t have adequate evidence to support your claims.

How Planning Saves You Time

Far from being a time waster, planning actually saves you time in the long run. Once you’ve done the work of planning, writing your essay comes easily.  You’ll already have all of the information you need for your essay in one place. Now all you have to do is put it into sentence form!  

What Does a Plan Look Like?

There’s no one way to plan an essay. You can format your plan using whatever method works best for you.

You may want to try a traditional outline , a bubble map, or even some carefully organized notes. However you choose to record your plan, there are some key elements you should include.

What to Include in a Plan

In order to plan thoroughly and effectively, be sure to include the following items.

At the top of your planning sheet, write your thesis statement. Your thesis should clearly, concisely state the main claim or argument you’ll be advancing in the essay. If you’re writing the essay in response to a prompt, your thesis is a clear answer to the question the prompt is asking.

Often, your thesis will also list 2-3 main points in support of your claim.

Here’s an example:

Overuse of social media is dangerous because it limits face-to-face interaction, and studies show it increases anxiety and depression while decreasing self-esteem.  

You should list your thesis at the top of your paper because it controls your entire argument. Every paragraph, supporting detail, and piece of evidence in the rest of your essay exists to support your thesis.

As you map out the rest of your paper, continue consulting your thesis. Does the information you’re including directly support your thesis? If not, leave it out. (Or rewrite your thesis.)

Your thesis also dictates the structure of your essay. Based on the sample thesis above, readers would expect information about how social media limits face-to-face interaction, increases anxiety and depression, and decreases self-esteem. And they would expect the information in that order.

For these reasons, start by generating a thesis statement and writing it at the top of your planning sheet. Then allow your thesis to guide the remainder of your plan.

2-3 Supporting Reasons

Your plan should also include your 2-3 supporting reasons (the reasons why you’ve chosen to take a particular stance or make a certain claim).

For our essay about the dangers of excessive social media use, for instance, our supporting reasons are already outlined in the thesis statement:

• Social media limits face-to-face interaction.
• Overuse of social media increases depression and anxiety.
• Overuse of social media decreases self-esteem.

These supporting reasons will be the main topics of your body paragraphs.

Once you’ve written your thesis and determined your supporting reasons, it’s time to plan out your evidence.

How will you support each of your supporting reasons (which in turn support the thesis of your essay?)

Depending on what type of paper you’re writing, your evidence may include:

• Information about current or historical events

If you’re writing the paper for an assessment, it’s likely that you’ll be provided with a prompt and a series of passages or texts. In this case, you must use only textual evidence (evidence selected from the provided texts).  

For each of your supporting reasons, try to plan at least three pieces of strong, relevant evidence. When you write your essay, you’ll also need to provide your own commentary or analysis of the evidence you select, so ensure you only choose evidence that you can explain in your own words.

As you select your evidence, begin building your bibliography. Recording them as you research and write is easier than doing it at the end of your process where you may forget where a piece of evidence came from. It’s also important to include a parenthetical citation or another type of in-text citation when mentioning evidence within your paper.

Counterargument  

If you’re writing an argumentative/persuasive essay, you’ll also need to plan your counterargument. A counterargument has three main parts:

• Introduce the opposition
• State an opposing argument
• Refute the opposing argument

Choose an argument from the other side that you’d like to address in your paper. It should be one of the most popular arguments from the other side, and it should be one that you’re confident you can refute.  

Once you’ve selected an argument, plan how you’ll refute it as well. You may point out a logical fallacy, provide a stronger reason from your own side, or offer a compromise.

Once you have all the pieces of your essay planned, putting it on paper is simple.  

Your introductory paragraph will include your thesis statement (and list your 2-3 supporting reasons). The topic sentence of each body paragraph will introduce one of your 2-3 supporting reasons (in the order they were mentioned in your introduction). Each body paragraph will contain the evidence you’ve already planned out to support it.

All you need to do is organize this information into sentence form, insert transitions, add commentary to your evidence, and include a conclusion.

Final Thoughts

Some students see planning as a pain, but it actually saves you time and makes your essay clear and organized.  

A solid plan should include:

• Thesis statement
• 2-3 supporting reasons
• 3 pieces of evidence for each supporting reason
• Counterargument (if persuasive/argumentative)

Still don’t believe in the power of planning?

Try it out next time you’re assigned an essay. Notice how much easier it is to write your essay—and how much better your writing is with just a bit of advance planning!

Cite This For Me has citing tools like a Harvard referencing generator , an APA citation generator , and Chicago style citation maker to help you create a bibliography for your paper. Try it today!

Essay writing: Planning & drafting

• Introductions
• Conclusions
• Analysing questions
• Planning & drafting
• Revising & editing
• Proofreading
• Essay writing videos

Jump to content on this page:

“Why should you make a plan for your essays? Why 'waste time' ...? Because it will pay off in the long run in terms of the relevance, organisation and clarity of your essay.” Don Shiach, How to Write Essays

An academic essay is a very specific form of writing. Its purpose is to answer the question in an organised and comprehensive manner. In order to do this, care should be taken at the planning stage so that you can be confident that you have included the most relevant material and that your reader can follow your line of argument as you make the points that lead to your conclusion.

1. Initial thoughts and reading

2. Rough planning

You should now be able to draft either a simple conclusion or a rough plan of your introduction. This is the point where you need to be deciding the key points for each of your paragraphs.

How many key points (paragraphs)?

The number of key points that you need to make to reach your conclusion will, to some extent, be dictated by the length of your essay. Academic paragraphs are usually between 200 and 300 words long (they vary more than this but it is a useful guide). With that in mind, you should be able to work out roughly how many points you need to make given the length of your essay. If we look at 3 examples:

2,000 word essay (200 for introduction, 200 for conclusion, leaves approx. 1,600 word main body) = 6-8 paragraphs (6-8 points) 3,000 word essay (300 for introduction, 300 for conclusion, leaves approx. 2,400 word main body) = 8-12 paragraphs (8-12 points) 4,500 word essay (450 for introduction, 450 for conclusion, leaves approx. 3,600 word main body) = 12-18 paragraphs (12-18 points)

The paragraphs in the longer essays will probably be grouped into themes to give your argument a bit more organisation.

Plan your key points

Now you know how many points you need, spend time deciding what they are. You can do this as a list of bullet points, a mind map, a diagram; whatever works for you.

3. Gather the information you need for your essay

We have workshops on finding quality information if you need any help and advice with this.  

4. Read and take notes   from the information you have gathered

5. Create a detailed plan of the middle section of your essay

Using the reading you have done, revisit your draft introduction/conclusion to see if you want to amend it due to your reading. Once this is done, create a plan of the middle section of your essay which is much more detailed than your original rough plan and which takes into account any changes you made to the conclusion.

Include in your plan, your main sections and arguments, in the order in which you will present them. It may be a good idea to write out in full the topic sentence of each paragraph - the sentence that makes the point that the paragraph is about. You can see from this if your essay has a natural  flow , with the general narrative (logical story leading to your conclusion) making sense.

6. Write a full draft of your essay

Many students write the middle section of the essay first. If this is your preferred method, use the detailed plan you have just created to help you do so. When you are satisfied with your middle section, tidy up the draft introduction or fill out your conclusion to add more detail.

This forms the basis of your essay. From now on you are revising and editing  it, not  writing  it.

• << Previous: Analysing questions
• Next: Revising & editing >>
• Last Updated: Nov 3, 2023 3:17 PM
• URL: https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/essays
• Login to LibApps
• Library websites Privacy Policy
• University of Hull privacy policy & cookies
• Website terms and conditions
• Accessibility
• Report a problem

• © 2024 Careers Blog | Internship News | Inspiring Interns

Why Planning Your Essays In An Exam Is So Important

• April 25, 2017
• Liberty Dawson

You’ve got an hour and a half to write a well structured, thought out, top-mark-worthy essay. You open the paper, read the questions, panic and start writing.

Many students end up with a disorganised, incoherent essay after delving in without stopping to think about what they’re going to write. When you’re covering essay preparation in class, you’re always told to spend the first 5-10 minutes thinking about the question and planning your response. It’s surprising how many students do not take note of this.

Writing down everything you know about a specific topic and avoiding the question is easily done. It may seem like a good thing to do at that time; after all, you’re up against the clock. But this can show admissions officers that you’re either someone who simply blows off directions and instructions, or who can’t understand how to follow them. It’s not a good first impression on your marker.

It is through planning that you can prevent this. Spending that time thinking about what ideas you have will ensure that you engage and reflect upon the question properly, and that is what the marker is looking for.

There’s no doubt, if you’ve revised a specific topic too well and see it pop up in the exam, you’ll get excited. You won’t even read the question because you’ve already seen the one thing you’ve been hoping for. Yes, this can be a great thing, but knowing and being able to recite the entire plot to Of Mice and Men  doesn’t mean you’ll be able to discuss the shifts in power relations in the novel. A quick mind map will help you realise this and help you to make a better decision.

Do the maths

If it’s a 90 minute exam and marked out of 60, then on average you’ve got 1.5 minutes to get each mark. An hour and a half may sound like a lot of time, but realistically it is not. You must plan time accordingly. You need to watch the clock but not religiously, and you still need to remember the plan is not the exam. Remember what your tutor said: 5-10 minutes. More time spent on this is wasted; it’s there to get your initial thoughts down so that you can end up with a well structured essay.

Structure is probably the most important element of an essay, alongside the content. However, a lot of the time, it is the structure of your essay that needs work. It’s usually the one thing your tutors are constantly commenting on and it’s the one thing you’re telling yourself you need to improve on. This is because if you don’t structure your sentences correctly, your writing will sound strange and your marker will not be able to make sense of your ideas, leading you towards a bad grade.

Planning your essay allows you to write strategically, and having some basic knowledge means you can come up with your key points before deciding on an order. So, if structure is your weakness, always plan and clarify your ideas before you begin. Fixing problems with your overall structure will fix 80% or more of the problems with your essay. Result!

Another reason you should plan is because brainstorming the topic is almost essential for you to know what you’re going to be talking about. There is nothing worse than getting half way through an essay and realising you’ve got nothing more to say. Having a rough idea of some key points will not only put your mind at ease but also aid your structure. You want to feel as comfortable as you possibly can in an exam, and having this sense of direction, it’ll make writing your essay a lot easier. If you know what you’re talking about, you’re also automatically going to write faster so there is no need to worry about that 5 minutes you’ve spent beforehand.

For the cost of a few minutes and a quick mind map, why wouldn’t you want to write an organised, well structured, essay that could push you up a grade?

Inspiring Interns is a  graduate recruitment  agency which specialises in sourcing candidates for  internships  and giving out  graduate careers advice . To  hire graduates  or browse  graduate jobs , visit their website.

95,502 people like this. Sign Up to see what your friends like.

Related Posts

• November 10, 2017
• Rachel Chorley

9 Reasons Why You Should Study Abroad

With your uni routine in full flow and all of the trees slowly dying outside, you might be thinking: “Man, I want to get out of here!” Well, unfurl yourself from that blanket, my friend, because you’ve got some escape planning to do.

• December 5, 2018
• Marketing Team

Tips on moving to Bristol

Bristol is a trendy city, and it’s giving London serious competition. Although it’s compact, this city is jam-packed with selling…

• April 20, 2018

5 Things that Annoy Recruiters (that you should avoid doing!)

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a job offer? It’s possible, you know. We’re in an upturn right now, which…

Select CV * (.doc, .docx, .pdf)

Or drag and drop files below.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

An Overview of Academic Writing, Planning, and Prewriting

It can be tempting to dive into an essay immediately without taking the time to really think through what you are writing about and why you might be doing so. This can lead to essays that lack coherence and veer off topic, and not having an organized prewriting process can also create quite a bit of stress for the writer. The quality of writing without prewriting is often inconsistent, as the writer becomes trapped in simply writing and hoping that their initial instincts have set them on the correct course. As you move into your professional life, you will need to adopt a writing process that is consistent, creates effective papers, and, perhaps most importantly, minimizes the stress and anxiety that can come along with any writing endeavor.

Prewriting activities might be intimidating, especially if you have never spent much time on them in the past. However, an effective prewriting process, while perhaps requiring some additional time at the outset, will save you quite a bit of time and stress in the long run. The ideas covered in this chapter will help you map out your paper and consider how your intended audience might affect its structure, tone, and content. In doing so, it will help you escape the “writing and hoping” trap.

We Will Begin Our Journey By Exploring Basic Prewriting Concepts

Read through the following content on effective prewriting strategies, which has been adapted from Ann Inoshita, et al ‘s English Composition: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate. As you do so, try employing some of the strategies to plan out your papers for this course and beyond!

Prewriting is an essential activity for most writers. Through robust prewriting, writers generate ideas, explore directions, and find their way into their writing. When students attempt to write an essay without developing their ideas, strategizing their desired structure, and focusing on precision with words and phrases, they can end up with a “premature draft”—one that is more writer-based than reader-based and, thus, might not be received by readers in the way the writer intended.

In addition, a lack of prewriting can cause students to experience writer’s block. Writer’s block is the feeling of being stuck when faced with a writing task. It is often caused by fear, anxiety, or a tendency toward perfectionism, but it can be overcome through prewriting activities that allow writers to relax, catch their breath, gather ideas, and gain momentum.

The following exist as the goals of prewriting:

• Contemplating the many possible ideas worth writing about.
• Developing ideas through brainstorming, freewriting, and focused writing.
• Planning the structure of the essay overall so as to have a solid introduction, meaningful body paragraphs, and a purposeful conclusion.

Discovering and Developing Ideas

Quick prewriting activities.

Quick strategies for developing ideas include brainstorming, freewriting, and focused writing. These activities are done quickly, with a sense of freedom, while writers silence their inner critic. In her book Wild Mind , teacher and writer Natalie Goldberg describes this freedom as the “creator hand” freely allowing thoughts to flow onto the page while the “editor hand” remains silent. Sometimes, these techniques are done in a timed situation (usually two to ten minutes), which allows writers to get through the shallow thoughts and dive deeper to access the depths of the mind.

Brainstorming begins with writing down or typing a few words and then filling the page with words and ideas that are related or that seem important without allowing the inner critic to tell the writer if these ideas are acceptable or not. Writers do this quickly and without too much contemplation. Students will know when they are succeeding because the lists are made without stopping.

Freewriting is the “most effective way” to improve one’s writing, according to Peter Elbow, the educator and writer who first coined the term “freewriting” in pivotal book Writing Without Teachers , published in 1973. Freewriting is a great technique for loosening up the writing muscle. To freewrite, writers must silence the inner critic and the “editor hand” and allow the “creator hand” a specified amount of time (usually from 10 to 20 minutes) to write nonstop about whatever comes to mind. The goal is to keep the hand moving, the mind contemplating, and the individual writing. If writers feel stuck, they just keep writing “I don’t know what to write” until new ideas form and develop in the mind and flow onto the page.

Focused freewriting entails writing freely—and without stopping, during a limited time—about a specific topic. Once writers are relaxed and exploring freely, they may be surprised about the ideas that emerge.

Operation Beat Writer’s Block: Brainstorming

Let’s start with a basic brainstorming activity.

• Watch the following video from Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) and think about what makes brainstorming an essential prewriting activity. What are some of the potential costs of not brainstorming?
• Don’t have a topic yet or need to think through things more before you attempt the mind map? Try the brainstorming exercise embedded in the video itself (at the 1:50 mark).

Next Step: Create a Mind Map to Visualize Your Essay

Mind mapping is an early stage prewriting strategy that you can use to help generate ideas for an essay. It lets you visually map out an essay and then organize and expand these loose ideas into an increasingly coherent and nuanced project. As the following video will demonstrate, mind maps can take a variety of forms, but regardless of what your map looks like, mind maps offer an invaluable way to move past writer’s block and let your ideas flow.

• Watch the following video from Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) on mind mapping and free writing.
• When you’ve finished, use the template that follows to map out your essay! Don’t have a topic yet? Try the exercise embedded in the video itself.

Use This Mind Mapping Template to Map Out Your Paper!

Click Here to Download the PDF

Template Created by Scott Ortolano

Researching

Unlike quick prewriting activities, researching is best done slowly and methodically and, depending on the project, can take a considerable amount of time. Researching is exciting, as students activate their curiosity and learn about the topic, developing ideas about the direction of their writing. The goal of researching is to gain background understanding on a topic and to check one’s original ideas against those of experts. However, it is important for the writer to be aware that the process of conducting research can become a trap for procrastinators. Students often feel like researching a topic is the same as doing the assignment, but it’s not.

The two aspects of researching that are often misunderstood are as follows:

• Writers start the research process too late so the information they find never really becomes their own setting themselves up for way more quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing the words of others than is appropriate for the 70% one’s own words and 30% the words of others ratio necessary for college-level research-based writing.
• Writers become so involved in the research process that they don’t start the actual writing process soon enough so as to meet a due date with a well written, edited, and revised finished composition.

Being thoughtful about limiting one’s research time—and using a planner of some sort to organize one’s schedule—is a way to keep oneself from starting the research process too late to

See Part V of this book for more information about researching.

Audience and Purpose

It’s important that writers identify the audience and the purpose of a piece of writing. To whom is the writer communicating? Why is the writer writing? Students often say they are writing for whomever is grading their work at the end. However, most students will be sharing their writing with peers and reviewers (e.g., writing tutors, peer mentors). The audience of any piece of college writing is, at the very minimum, the class as a whole. As such, it’s important for the writer to consider the expertise of the readers, which includes their peers and professors). There are even broader applications. For example, students could even send their college writing to a newspaper or a legislator, or share it online for the purpose of informing or persuading decision-makers to make changes to improve the community. Good writers know their audience and maintain a purpose to mindfully help and intentionally shape their essays for meaning and impact. Students should think beyond their classroom and about how their writing could have an impact on their campus community, their neighborhood, and the wider world.

Planning the Structure of an Essay

Planning based on audience and purpose.

Identifying the target audience and purpose of an essay is a critical part of planning the structure and techniques that are best to use. It’s important to consider the following:

• Is the the purpose of the essay to educate, announce, entertain, or persuade?
• Who might be interested in the topic of the essay?
• Who would be impacted by the essay or the information within it?
• What does the reader know about this topic?
• What does the reader need to know in order to understand the essay’s points?
• What kind of hook is necessary to engage the readers and their interest?
• What level of language is required? Words that are too subject-specific may make the writing difficult to grasp for readers unfamiliar with the topic.
• What is an appropriate tone for the topic? A humorous tone that is suitable for an autobiographical, narrative essay may not work for a more serious, persuasive essay.

Hint: Answers to these questions help the writer to make clear decisions about diction (i.e., the choice of words and phrases), form and organization, and the content of the essay.

Use Audience and Purpose to Plan Language

In many classrooms, students may encounter the concept of language in terms of correct versus incorrect. However, this text approaches language from the perspective of appropriateness. Writers should consider that there are different types of communities, each of which may have different perspectives about what is “appropriate language” and each of which may follow different rules, as John Swales discussed in “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Essentially, Swales defines discourse communities as “groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals.”

Writers (and readers) may be more familiar with a home community that uses a different language than the language valued by the academic community. For example, many people in Hawai‘i speak Hawai‘i Creole English (HCE colloquially regarded as “Pidgin”), which is different from academic English. This does not mean that one language is better than another or that one community is homogeneous in terms of language use; most people “code-switch” from one “code” (i.e., language or way of speaking) to another. It helps writers to be aware and to use an intersectional lens to understand that while a community may value certain language practices, there are several types of language practices within our community.

What language practices does the academic discourse community value? The goal of first-year-writing courses is to prepare students to write according to the conventions of academia and Standard American English (SAE). Understanding and adhering to the rules of a different discourse community does not mean that students need to replace or drop their own discourse. They may add to their language repertoire as education continues to transform their experiences with language, both spoken and written. In addition to the linguistic abilities they already possess, they should enhance their academic writing skills for personal growth in order to meet the demands of the working world and to enrich the various communities they belong to.

Use Techniques to Plan Structure

Before writing a first draft, writers find it helpful to begin organizing their ideas into chunks so that they (and readers) can efficiently follow the points as organized in an essay.

First, it’s important to decide whether to organize an essay (or even just a paragraph) according to one of the following:

• Chronological order (organized by time)
• Spatial order (organized by physical space from one end to the other)
• Prioritized order (organized by order of importance)

There are many ways to plan an essay’s overall structure, including mapping and outlining.

Mapping (which sometimes includes using a graphic organizer) involves organizing the relationships between the topic and other ideas. The following is example (from ReadWriteThink.org, 2013) of a graphic organizer that could be used to write a basic, persuasive essay:

Outlining is also an excellent way to plan how to organize an essay. Formal outlines use levels of notes, with Roman numerals for the top level, followed by capital letters, Arabic numerals, and lowercase letters. Here’s an example:

• Hook/Lead/Opener: According to the Leilani was shocked when a letter from Chicago said her “Aloha Poke” restaurant was infringing on a non-Hawaiian Midwest restaurant that had trademarked the words “aloha” (the Hawaiian word for love, compassion, mercy, and other things besides serving as a greeting) and “poke” (a Hawaiian dish of raw fish and seasonings).
• Background information about trademarks, the idea of language as property, the idea of cultural identity, and the question about who owns language and whether it can be owned.
• Thesis Statement (with the main point and previewing key or supporting points that become the topic sentences of the body paragraphs): While some business people use language and trademarks to turn a profit, the nation should consider that language cannot be owned by any one group or individual and that former (or current) imperialist and colonialist nations must consider the impact of their actions on culture and people groups, and legislators should bar the trademarking of non-English words for the good of internal peace of the country.
• Legislators should bar the trademarking of non-English words for the good and internal peace of the country.
• Conclusion ( Revisit the Hook/Lead/Opener, Restate the Thesis, End with a Twist— a strong more globalized statement about why this topic was important to write about)

Note about outlines: Informal outlines can be created using lists with or without bullets. What is important is that main and subpoint ideas are linked and identified.

• Use 10 minutes to freewrite with the goal to “empty your cup”—writing about whatever is on your mind or blocking your attention on your classes, job, or family. This can be a great way to help you become centered, calm, or focused, especially when dealing with emotional challenges in your life.
• For each writing assignment in class, spend three 10-minute sessions either listing (brainstorming) or focused-writing about the topic before starting to organize and outline key ideas.
• Before each draft or revision of assignments, spend 10 minutes focused-writing an introduction and a thesis statement that lists all the key points that supports the thesis statement.
• Have a discussion in your class about the various language communities that you and your classmates experience in your town or on your island.
• Create a graphic organizer that will help you write various types of essays.
• Create a metacognitive, self-reflective journal: Freewrite continuously (e.g., 5 times a week, for at least 10 minutes, at least half a page) about what you learned in class or during study time. Document how your used your study hours this week, how it felt to write in class and out of class, what you learned about writing and about yourself as a writer, how you saw yourself learning and evolving as a writer, what you learned about specific topics. What goals do you have for the next week?

During the second half of the semester, as you begin to tackle deeper and lengthier assignments, the journal should grow to at least one page per day, at least 20 minutes per day, as you use journal writing to reflect on writing strategies (e.g., structure, organization, rhetorical modes, research, incorporating different sources without plagiarizing, giving and receiving feedback, planning and securing time in your schedule for each task involved in a writing assignment) and your ideas about topics, answering research questions, and reflecting on what you found during research and during discussions with peers, mentors, tutors, and instructors. The journal then becomes a record of your journey as a writer, as well as a source of freewriting on content that you can shape into paragraphs for your various assignments.

Works Cited

Elbow, Peter. Writing Without Teachers . 2nd edition, 1973, Oxford UP, 1998.

Goldberg, Natalie. Wild Mind : Living the Writer’s Life. Bantam Books, 1990.

Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings , 1990, pp. 21-32.

For more about discourse communities, see the online class by Robert Mohrenne “ What is a Discourse Community? ” ENC 1102 13 Fall 0027. University of Central Florida, 2013.

Sources Used to Create This Chapter

The majority of the content for this section has been adapted from OER Material from “Prewriting, ” in Ann Inoshita, et al’s English Composition: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate (2019). This work was published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States (CC BY 3.0 US) License.

Media Resources

Remixed and Compiled by Scott Ortolano

An Overview of Academic Writing, Planning, and Prewriting Copyright © by Leonard Owens III; Tim Bishop; and Scott Ortolano is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Academic Writing: Academic Writing

• Academic Writing
• Planning your writing
• Structuring your assignment
• Critical Thinking & Writing
• Building an argument
• Reflective Writing
• Summarising, paraphrasing and quoting

What is Academic Writing?

Academic writing is a formal style of writing used in universities to communicate ideas, information and research.  It tends to follow certain conventions in terms of content, structure and style. Academic writing is...

• Structured: different assignment types may vary in structure (e.g., report, essay, dissertation) but all should be clearly structured.  For more information about different assignment types click here.
• Evidenced: opinions and arguments should be supported with references to your reading.  By including citations in your essay and a reference list at the end, you demonstrate how your writing is informed by evidence and research.  
• Critical: Academic writing involves more than just description.  It is important to compare a range of views to show that you are familiar with different and conflicting ideas on a topic.  For more information about critical writing click here.
• Balanced: Academic writing considers different aspects of an argument and tries to avoid bias, but it also conveys a sense of the student writer’s stance on a particular topic.
• Precise: Academic writing should be clear and precise.
• Objective: Academic writing is objective – the emphasis is placed on the arguments and information, rather than on the writer’s beliefs.
• Formal: Academic writing is more formal than everyday writing and it tends to avoid informal colloquial language.

Quick guides

• Top 10 Tips for academic style
• *Avoid personal language (e.g., ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘you’, ‘in my opinion’)
• Avoid contractions (e.g., don’t, it’s, isn’t = do not, it is, is not)
• Be precise (e.g., way=method, thing=object, person=participant)
• Avoid run-on expressions (e.g., etc, and so on, and suchlike…)
• Avoid subjective or emotive language (e.g., nice, incredible, awesome), try to be objective and detached instead (e.g., useful, appropriate).
• Use complete sentences (each must have a main verb and make complete sense standing alone).
• Avoid direct questions with question marks (e.g., why is this? = There are several underlying reasons for this…)
• Use clearly referenced supporting evidence in your essay and at the end in your reference list.
• Use cautious language for speculation, opinion, unsupported evidence (e.g., this may be because…there could be a link between…this could lead to…)
• Avoid colloquialisms (e.g., laid back, comfort zone, kids, dad, mum)

*Please note that conventions around pronoun use may vary from discipline to discipline, so check with your department.   

Read the following examples to see how academic writing differs from more informal everyday writing:

Further Reading

• Next: Planning your writing >>
• Last Updated: Jul 29, 2023 3:55 PM
• URL: https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/academic-writing

➔ About the Library

➔ Meet the Team

➔ Customer Service Charter

➔ Library Policies & Regulations

➔ Privacy & Data Protection

Essential Links

➔ A-Z of eResources

➔ Frequently Asked Questions

➔Discover the Library

➔Referencing Help

➔ Print & Copy Services

➔ Service Updates

Library & Learning Services, University of Suffolk, Library Building, Long Street, Ipswich, IP4 1QJ

✉ Email Us: [email protected]

✆ Call Us: +44 (0)1473 3 38700

Planning and Structuring Assignments

• Book a session

Steps to planning your writing

Understanding the assignment, planning your content, structuring your answer, writing your answer, signposting language.

• Quick resources (5-10 mins)
• e-learning and books (30 mins+)
• SkillsCheck This link opens in a new window
• ⬅ Back to Skills Centre This link opens in a new window

Looking for sessions and tutorials on this topic? Find out more about our session types and how to register to book for sessions. You can view our full and up-to-date availability in UniHub  Appointments and Events . 

Not sure where to start developing your academic skills? Take the  SkillsCheck for personalised recommendations on how to build your academic writing and study skills alongside your course.

Planning is an essential part of writing a successful assignment and ensuring you reach your full potential. Key benefits to a clear plan are that it:

• Helps you to manage and make efficient use of your time
• Ensures that you understand and appropriately fulfil the assignment criteria
• Makes the writing process easier and helps you to produce a coherent and well-structured assignment.  

At the start of writing your assignments, it is helpful to create a schedule to help organise your time and break the assignment process up into manageable chunks. Your schedule should include:

• Analysing the question
• Research, reading and note taking
• Planning your answer
• Writing the first draft
• Time to meet with your tutor or module lead (if needed)
• 1 st edit, further research, amendments
• Proofing and formatting

What type of assignment is it?

It’s crucial to understand what type of assignment you are being asked to produce – is it an essay, a literature review, a report, annotated bibliography, or a piece of reflective writing? Each type of assignment has different conventions and will have different requirements to be successful.

Understanding the title

Break down your question to make sure you understand what is being asked of you and what your focus should be.

Questions can usually be split into three sections:

• Instruction words – these will guide/instruct you in how you should approach addressing the question . A list of definitions for commonly used instruction verbs can be downloaded at the bottom of this box.
• Topic words – these will tell you the primary subject of the assignment and may draw your attention to an aspect of the subject that should be given consideration in your response.
• Limiting words – these function as restrictions that help narrow the scope of the question and focus your response.

Let’s look at an example:

The green topic words give us our focus – these can be used as key search terms in Library Search as a way of kickstarting your research on the topic. The red term acts as a restriction – if we started to write about how Batman’s actions had impacted crimes in neighbouring cities, or on a national scale, this would fall outside of the boundaries of the question, and therefore would not gain any marks in this particular assignment.

Question the question

Once you understand the assignment type and have analysed the question, there are a few more questions you should ask:

• Are there key concepts/theories that you will need to define?
• Are there particular aspects of the topic that you want to emphasise?
• If you are required to make a judgement, or give a verdict on something, how will you make this decision?
• Are you going to impose any of your own limiting factors? (This can be a helpful way of focusing a very broad question topic. You can impose your own limiting factors by including them in the introduction of your essay)

Practical considerations

Finally, there are a few practical considerations before you start your essay plan:

• What’s the word count?
• What’s the referencing style? For help with APA referencing look here [insert hyperlink]
• How am I being asked to present my work? Can I include subheadings? What are the requirements for font and size?

It’s useful to know these from the start to save time making changes later in the process.

• Essay terms explained Download our list of instruction words and their definitions to help identify the tasks from your assignment briefs and assessment criteria.
• Essay planning template An A3 guide to essay structure and what each section should include.

Prior knowledge and resources

As you start to plan your answer, the first step should be to consider what you already know about the topic. Think about what has been covered in your lectures/seminar/labs/reading – you may already have quite a lot of relevant information to help you. Likewise, check to see if there are any online reading lists available as these are a very useful starting point.

From here you should have a good idea of what aspects of the question you will need to research in greater detail and where to focus your reading.

When you are reading, your note taking should be an active process. This means engaging with the text rather than just being a passive reader mindlessly highlighting large chunks of text. Here are some key tips to make sure you are an active reader/note-taker:

• Keep your notes selective and concise
• Write notes in your own words as this will help your understanding of the topic
• If you do want to use any direct quotations, keep them short and purposeful. Also, remember to note down the page number straight away so you don’t struggle to find it later!
• Look out for links between what you are reading and what you’ve previously read - do authors agree/disagree? Are theories/models well supported/poorly supported? Are there key challenges?
• Use sub-headings to organise your notes as this well help when you come to write your essay plan.
• Don’t be afraid of making your notes memorable – use colours, underlining and highlighting to draw attention to important information.

For more information, visit our online study guides to critical writing and effective reading .

Throughout this process you should try to reflect on your position in relation to the question and start thinking about what your conclusion might be. This is especially important for questions that are looking for you to give your verdict or opinion on a topic/debate. To help support this it can be useful to try and sum up your argument in one or two short sentences; this helps to ensure that your argument is clear and will help keep your response well-structured and coherent once you start writing.

Now that you’ve completed your reading, it’s time to structure your writing:

• Establish links between different parts of your reading through mind-mapping or identifying common themes.
• Create headings to organise your links – these will become the basis for your paragraphs.
• Start to structure these headings into a logical order and consider how you will order and use these examples to construct and support your response to the assignment.
• There are several different ways you can structure your response, and this might be dependant on what your assignment is asking you to do. For example, if your assignment is organised around themes it might be structured something like this:

Alternatively, if you were contrasting two theories it might look like this:

Of course, these aren’t the only ways to structure your writing and it’s likely that you will need to adapt your plan for each assignment depending on what is required. However, remember that a plan should always help to organise your content so that your response is clear, coherent and well-structured. 

In the same way that essays have a clear structure (introduction, main body, conclusion), the paragraphs within your essay should also follow a pattern. Considering how you structure your paragraphs is important as it helps to improve the clarity of your writing by presenting your chosen evidence and subsequent critical response in a clear and effective way.

Paragraphs should be TIED together:

• Topic sentence – The first sentence of your paragraph should introduce the main topic, theme or next step of your argument. It should summarise what the reader can expect from your paragraph. If the paragraph links directly to the question or assessment criteria you’ve been set, think about what key words make this clear to the reader.  
• Introduce evidence - Before discussing your evidence, it is helpful to signpost to the reader what aspect of the literature you will talk about in more detail. This can be achieved by drawing their attention to something interesting or contextually important that will be relevant in the following section of the paragraph.  
• Evidence – This is where you introduce references and highlight how these support your argument. You could also include counterpoints to your position within this section (and why these challenges are not upheld) or you could have this as a separate paragraph – the choice is up to you!  
• Discussion – Your paragraph should end with your interpretation of the evidence and how this links back to the assignment topic. Within these sentences you may explore ideas such as relevance, significance, impact and future directions – for more help with this, check out our guide to critical writing [insert hyperlink]

Let’s look at this in an example:

"As noted by Alexander (2017), talk has always been an essential component of teaching, and, consequently, learning. Evidence has demonstrated that talking about prose can enhance written responses to texts through increasing student confidence about qualities such as character, theme, and motifs ( Coultas , 2006). Despite this however, the most recent version of the National Curriculum has hugely decreased the role of speaking and listening; this includes even going so far as to remove speaking and listening from formal assessment in GCSE specifications. Furthermore, as noted by Yandell (2013), this has included moving the focus of talk as a collaborative experience to only being on the speaker, thus relegating listening as a key skill. Parallel to this, the types of talk discussed within the classroom has considerably narrowed, to the extent that what students now understand as spoken English, is little more than public speaking. Consequently, teachers are now faced with the responsibility of instilling the foundational skills of speaking and listening in students at an earlier age, to ensure that they have the necessary skills to navigate the complex social world.

Linking your ideas

Signposting language is also a key part of academic writing. Signposts are words or phrases that show a link between two ideas and can also be used to signal transition in your writing. This helps to make your writing more coherent and avoids any jarring changes of topic that leave your reader struggling to understand the connection between two paragraphs. Likewise, you can use signposting to develop your argument by identifying ideas that support or contrast one another, or ideas/findings that have built upon the outcomes of prior work. Ultimately, signposting helps to show the reader the structure of your argument and the direction of your response.

In terms of your planning and structuring, you should think carefully about to use signposting language to link the ideas between your paragraphs, signal key transitions develop your argument. Some examples are included below:

To reference other parts of your essay

• As noted above
• As previously stated,
• Given the evidence outlined earlier in the essay

To introduce a supporting point

• In the same way,

To introduce a contrasting point

• Against this,
• A clear challenge for
• By contrast

To introduce reason/outcomes

• Consequently,
• Taken together the evidence seems to suggest
• Accordingly,

To introduce a conclusion

• As this essay has demonstrated
• From the evidence detailed here, it seems that
• In summary,
• In conclusion,
• << Previous: Book a session
• Next: Quick resources (5-10 mins) >>
• Last Updated: Mar 6, 2024 10:26 AM
• URL: https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/essayplanning

Planning an assignment

We are often so fixated with the final product that we jump in and start writing, neglecting some of the crucial steps of the writing process.

The process of writing often involves these kinds activities:

• Researching
• Making notes
• Contrasting
• Forming ideas
• Developing an argument
• Editing and proofreading

This clearly highlights that writing is a non-linear process , and that lots happens before we actually sit down and write.

Where you have been

Where you are now, related links.

• The Open University
• Guest user / Sign out
• Study with The Open University

My OpenLearn Profile

Personalise your OpenLearn profile, save your favourite content and get recognition for your learning

About this free course

Become an ou student, download this course, share this free course.

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

6.1.2 Essay planning

Carefully read the following short essay. Try to identify its strengths and weaknesses in terms of planning. Take your time, but don't think you need to be familiar with the content, you are trying to find what provides the writing's framework.

Then try to answer the questions that follow in Activity 13.

There are advantages to studying as a mature student. Do you agree?

Government bodies and the universities are committed to a policy of widening access to higher education. In the attempt to develop a trained, educated workforce, there is greater flexibility in terms of entrance requirements and routes to a degree. If you are 21 or over and do not have conventional qualifications you may be given credit for your life and work experience.

An Open University lecturer wrote that teaching mature students:

… is sometimes an unnerving experience: at a lecture on Dickens's Hard Times I suddenly realised that I was explaining the rigour of industrial work … to ex-steel workers. Everyone of them knew more than I did and indeed they all knew more than Dickens about the lives of workers in heavy industry. (Philippa Gregory, 1994)

The mature student has often learned a powerful work discipline and can find self-directed learning difficult to adjust to. The mature student may also work full-time and have a home to run. Despite enthusiasm for returning to study, the mature student may be scared by comparing themselves to younger students who seem very quick (having spent their recent years in full-time education).

Your degree certificate is evidence that you have taken the opportunity that you missed when you were younger, it tells people that you have reached a certain level of academic attainment, that you have time management and priority setting skills, and that you have shown sustained interest, commitment and self-discipline.

As I mentioned earlier, increasingly people all over Europe are realizing that education and learning are lifelong processes, much too valuable to belong only to the young. The oldest Open University graduate is 92. More and more mature students are entering Higher Education. In 1971, the first 24 000 Open University students began their studies. In 1994, there were more than 200 000 students registered. At least 2 million people have studied with the Open University. People are living longer and having fewer children. Changes in the workplace may mean that older workers have to retrain and seek a new career.

The mature student may find it difficult to make room in their lives and their homes for study. Many people like to shut themselves off from the rest of the family, without interruptions (but this is almost impossible without the support of your partner and children). It is much easier for young people to be selfish and shut themselves off. They don't have as much to worry about as older students. It is even more difficult if you are a single parent who has to go out to work as well as taking care of children, along with studying.

It is a really big step to add to a busy life at work and at home and start to study, but you do broaden your outlook and the range of ideas and people that you are acquainted with. The self-discipline and motivation that you need to develop will be a great help in the future. Once you have finished studying it may still be difficult to find a different job because of ageism, employers may think that you can't be as quick or as full of ideas as a younger graduate.

Philippa Gregory (1994), Foreword in Taggart, C. (1994), The Essential Handbook for Mature Students , London, Kyle Cathie Ltd.

Activity 13

Is there an introduction and a conclusion, which help to guide the reader?

Are important concepts or ideas communicated?

Does the writing build and have a sense of direction?

Can you discern an overall plan?

This essay contains some interesting and important points; but does it work?

1 Is there an introduction and a conclusion, which help to guide the reader?

There is no introduction and no conclusion – in fact, at the end the essay is almost left ‘hanging’ by a throw-away remark about ageism. For the reader, it is rather like undertaking a journey without a map and, instead of being in ‘safe hands’, finding that the driver is inexperienced.

2 Are important concepts or ideas communicated?

The writer does seem to know what is important to get across. But, there doesn't seem to be much of a framework and so the ideas tend to get lost.

3 Does the writing build and have a sense of direction?

This seems to be one of the major problems. There is good material here but the writer doesn't seem to know which facts are more important than others, there is no real attempt to classify or group points in order to create a sense of flow, of building an argument.

Here are two examples of this lack of order.

Information about the ‘big picture’ (presumably obtained through careful research) that is, government policy, numbers entering higher education and changes in the workplace, is sprinkled throughout the essay, rather than gathered together. The focus changes back and forth between this ‘big picture’ and the personal quite frequently. The writer certainly has opinions about the issues that a mature student needs to overcome, but these don't appear to be in any particular order.

The quote about the steelworkers is really appropriate and grabs the attention of the reader, but it isn't linked to the idea of the mature student's life experience mentioned at the end of the first paragraph. This takes away some of its impact and probably means that the writer would not get as many marks for its inclusion as she or he might have done.

The original topic is ‘There are advantages to studying as a mature student. Do you agree?’ We don't really know whether the writer has a point of view on this or has just put ideas in because the words or phrases look right and may be relevant. The important thinking over of the issues doesn't seem to have happened.

4 Can you discern an overall plan?

Well? What do you think?

Is the presentation of evidence or supporting material effective?

Which points are prioritised or do they all have equal billing?

Are links made between different points?

Does the essay flow?

Has the writer made the ideas his/her own?

Are chains of logic created?

The more time we spent thinking about this – reflecting on it – the more it seemed to us that the key is direction: if you can give your writing direction, then the rest will follow. In other words if you have a case to put, an argument to make, this provides the essay's direction; the elements listed above will then slip into place much more easily.

Why Planning Is Important (Explained)

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on May 4, 2022

Categories Business , Productivity

When it comes to planning, most people think of things like schedules and organization. While these are important aspects of effective planning, there’s much more to it than that! Good planning can help you achieve your goals and dreams by keeping you on track and focused – in business, and in life. Here are just a few reasons why planning is so important.

Why Planning Is Important

Plans are important. Although they may seem like an onerous mechanism designed to burden you with strict regulations and stressful deadlines, the planning process can actually be a liberating force that opens your mind to new possibilities and helps you put your ideas into action.

If you stay flexible and dynamic enough, planning can become a way of life. Your plans will change depending on the situation – and like life itself, they won’t always work out the way you hoped. But if you know how to adapt at all times, there’s no reason things can’t turn out for the best.

Planning is important in business and management because it gives companies a firm structure for their future so that their activities are consistent and organized.

Planning is also important in education because it helps students study for exams or complete assignments and learn more about certain subjects by preparing them with easy-to-understand information before the actual exam takes place.

Why Is Strategic Planning Important in an Organization?

Planning is critical for any business. In most cases, companies that don’t have a mission and vision are doomed to fail – because, without goals, there are no targets or actions to guide the company.

Without a plan, it’s almost like you’re flying blind in the dark or playing without a net – which can lead to unpredictable results. And remember, we all know what happens when you shoot in the dark: You usually hit something hard.

So … why is strategic planning important?

Because it enables organizations to achieve their strategic goals and achieve them well. It helps them prioritize and allocate resources effectively – leading to greater efficiency and a higher standard of living for all.

Of course, it takes time to create an effective plan, but when it’s done well, every organization benefits from having it in place as soon as possible, even if there are no immediate benefits at first glance.

Planning Is a Way to Stay Goal-Oriented

Setting goals is one of the most important things you can do as a business leader because they help you stay focused. Planning allows you to create a good structure and keep your team on task.

Once you’ve set your goals, it’s time to develop a plan that will help you achieve those goals.

A good business plan gives direction to your business and serves as a source of inspiration for everyone involved in your business. It provides an overview of what’s going on in the business and how it plans to achieve its goals.

If you don’t have this kind of clarity, it’s much harder for your employees to know what their specific jobs are or how they contribute to the company’s overall mission.

Your business planning doesn’t have to fill several volumes and require a group presentation before it’s approved by all the managers in your organization-you can quickly create it on your own or with a handful of members of your team who’ve relevant experience in the field (or all by yourself if you’re ambitious).

Even though large companies use complex planning methods, that doesn’t mean small companies have to. Even if you just write down a few key points about why certain strategies are effective and what results they’re likely to produce, it can be easier to write down an idea like this when you’re trying to figure out which avenues are worth pursuing next.

Long-Range Plans Provide the Guidance Needed to Meet the Goals of An Organization

For organizations to survive and thrive, they must make good long-term plans. Otherwise, their goals won’t be achieved or they’ll not be able to keep up with the rapid changes the world is currently experiencing.

For plans to be effective, they must be aligned with an organization’s goals.

In addition, a plan is only complete if there are measures to track progress. Long-term planning requires good communication within an organization so that everyone involved understands what needs to be done and how it fits into the big picture.

For example, if you were in charge of a mail delivery company, your plan might include hiring new employees who’ve good interpersonal skills so they can better deal with customers and solve problems that arise. If you include too much detail in your plan or try to cover too many areas without focusing on what’s most important to the success of your business, you could run out of time and resources before you get anything done.

Whether you’re running a small business from home or a large company with thousands of employees around the world, being able to plan for the future will help you keep up with growing demands and changing trends.

Without thoughtful, long-term planning, a business won’t be able to survive in today’s fast-paced global marketplace. Good planning is critical when dealing with organizational change.

It Helps an Organization Meet Its Objectives and Missions

Most companies have a mission statement, sometimes more than one. But what does it mean?

A mission statement is the reason for a company’s existence. It describes what the company wants to achieve and what values guide its behavior. Mission statements usually begin with the words “Our mission is…” or “The mission of [company name] is…”. They’re meant to be inspirational, visionary, and even poetic.

Mission statements are often confused with corporate goals.

A corporate goal describes how you’ll achieve your mission. For example, “Increase our sales by 30% over 2 years” would be a goal of the chief executive officer (CEO) of a chain of toy stores who wants to grow his business.

The CEO might say to his team, “Our mission is to increase sales by 30% over time. To achieve that goal, I want us all to focus on selling more toys.” Although the goal may follow from a discussion of the mission, these are different things, and goals don’t always have to follow directly from an organization’s stated purpose.

The Importance of Strategic Planning

What’s strategic planning?

Strategic planning may sound like a highfalutin term from the business world or something only large corporations need to worry about, but a strategic planning process is actually something every organization can use.

Let’s take online publishing, as an example.

The concept itself is pretty simple: you look at your team and your goals, and then design either a written plan or a visual graphic – the best way to achieve those goals. This way, you can identify what’s working and what could be better in clear steps.

Strategic Planning to Support and Engage Your Audience

The first step in strategic planning is to figure out who your audience is and where they’re going.

Once you’ve done that, you can tailor your content to their interests (and keep them engaged by avoiding the most common social media marketing mistakes). For example, if one of your followers likes Game of Thrones, they might also be interested in posts about medieval weaponry.

Next, think about how you can best communicate with these people.

Do you create short videos? Longer blog posts? Or do you want to set up an email list so people can get information from just one place? If it helps you organize things, take note of how often and when certain posts are optimal – maybe Facebook Live works best in the morning, or maybe Twitter conversations thrive on Tuesday evenings.

Also, think about how much time each strategy will take – some tactics require more energy than others!

Then, once you’ve got everything planned out and all the details ready to go, don’t forget to document it all somewhere. A masterful strategic plan should have some sort of record so everyone knows exactly why things are happening the way they are!

An Effective Business Plan Provides a Roadmap for Success

An effective business plan aims to achieve one or more of the following goals:

• To help attract investors by showing that your company is stable has lots of potential and will yield a high return on investment
• To help you secure financing by providing lenders with financial information about your business
• To guide the management team as they make day-to-day decisions about how to run their business and conduct the organizational activity
• To help you anticipate challenges so you can better manage them as they arise

Of course, if businesses didn’t need plans, it wouldn’t be a bad thing! Having a plan can take time away from other important tasks, like running your business and making money for yourself.

However, most large companies in the United States have written formal business plans that outline their goals for the future and methods for achieving them.

Therefore, it’s safe to assume that if professional businesses include formal plans in their operations, small businesses can benefit from planning as well-at least enough to provide an outline for success but not necessarily an exhaustive guidebook to managing every aspect of their company on a daily basis or down to the last decimal point in Excel spreadsheet projections.

Why Is Planning Important in Management?

Planning is an essential part of management. It helps the company set goals for the future, sets a course to sail from the present into the future, and helps keep things organized and efficient as time passes.

Most organizations will have at least one project manager dedicated to this job.

Planning also sets the course for communication and decision-making within an organization. Daily planning and effective project management ensure that everyone knows what needs to be done and when it needs to be done, helping the business run more smoothly from day to day.

Finally, project planning helps with accountability- when you’re not just making decisions off the cuff, you’ve concrete records of how those decisions have impacted your business (or personal life) in the past, which can help you make better decisions in the future.

A plan may seem like a dull affair at times, but once you realize that it pays off over time, it becomes one of your most valuable tools for staying in control of your situation.

What Should Be Included in a Business Plan

A business plan is a document that clearly communicates the mission, purpose, and goals of your business. The first and most important section of the business plan is the executive summary. This is what investors will read to decide if they want to invest in your business.

To get where you want to go, there are some important things to consider:

• First, how does your business or idea fit into the world?
• What is the business idea?
• What makes it special and different?
• Then, who are your customers or clients?
• What problems do they have that your service or product can provide a solution for?
• You should also take a look at the competition – who’s doing the same thing?
• How is your business better than theirs?

Business Plans Help Facilitate Communication, Establish Priorities, and Set Smart Goals

Planning is important, and your business plan should be the foundation for it. This document lays out your company’s organizational goal, priorities, goals, and strategies (both short and long term) so that everyone involved can work toward the same goal. It also ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.

Good communication is at the heart of good planning, and the implementation of a plan:

• It helps you communicate with others about what your business does and how it does it. Collaboration is an effective way to make smart decisions, improve productivity and quality of work, and increase the success of your business.
• It sets priorities for your team . You can create a plan based on several possible goals that are most important to you – such as increasing revenue or improving customer service – or based on industry standards or benchmarks, such as industry-specific revenue goals.
• It helps you plan your human resource management and the effective funneling of innovative ideas.
• For each goal, you’ll specify exactly what results you want to achieve and by when. You can then use milestones to track progress against those expectations. This gives you insight into where you stand and allows you to re-evaluate if you need to make adjustments.
• This allows you to be flexible with your goals, leaving room for changes that depend on circumstances such as seasonal demands or economic changes beyond your control. While you’ll keep an eye on key performance indicators to make sure no one strays too far from their goals, having some wiggle room gives you more opportunity to adjust when things go wrong and seize opportunities when something unexpected happens that could bring great new value to your organization (or rather, “your” organization).
• In short, a plan helps keep everyone working together toward a common goal while leaving room for spontaneous developments along the way.

Proper Planning for All Areas of Your Business Can Help You Achieve Your Goals

Planning is important in every area of your life, but especially in business. When you create a good plan, you think about the future you want to achieve and lay out steps to get there. It’s the roadmap to ensuring you meet important goals.

In planning, you ask yourself questions and think honestly about what’ll help you achieve your goals. When you have a plan, you’re prepared for unexpected difficulties.

Why Is Planning Important? (25 Reasons)

There’s a familiar wisdom: “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” I’ve always held this thought close because it captures the essence of why planning matters.

It’s the feeling of crossing off that last item on your to-do list that rewards a well-made plan. It’s about facing the busyness of life with intention, not just action.

Planning goes beyond simple lists; it’s about setting realistic goals for what we can accomplish. It helps all of us, regardless of how swamped we feel.

Keep reading, and find out why planning isn’t just a task — it’s an essential life skill.

Table of Contents

Planning Sets Clear Goals and Objectives

Planning aids in making informed decisions, planning identifies potential obstacles and trials, planning outlines steps to achieve these goals, planning ensures adaptability and flexibility, planning enables the setting of priorities, planning promotes financial stability and control, planning minimizes risks and uncertainties, planning improves time management, planning allows for better resource allocation, planning helps in tracking progress and performance, planning fosters a proactive approach to tasks, planning encourages long-term vision and foresight, planning boosts confidence and peace of mind, planning facilitates efficient workflow coordination, planning optimizes productivity, planning enhances team communication and collaboration, planning minimizes crisis management needs, planning allows for better quality control, planning spurs personal and professional growth, planning establishes a sense of direction and purpose, planning enhances strategic thinking, planning maximizes available opportunities, planning enables consistency in actions and results, planning cultivates discipline and responsibility, frequently asked questions, final thoughts.

Clear goals and objectives give direction to our efforts. When we plan, we establish what we want to achieve and how we’ll get there, creating a roadmap for success. This guides our daily actions and ensures all tasks contribute to an overarching purpose.

Having precise goals and objectives deters us from distractions and keeps our energy channeled toward productive activities. This prevents wasting effort on unrelated tasks and maintains everyone’s focus on what’s important.

Goals and objectives are the motivators that keep us focused and striving forward. They rally a team around a common cause and can create a shared sense of accomplishment.

With everyone working towards the same aims, the collective effort can achieve greater results and foster unity within the group.

Informed decisions are the product of careful planning and groundwork. When we plan, we collect data, explore various scenarios, and decide how to utilize resources best.

This preparation enables us to choose actions that advance our goals in the most effective way.

Here’s why preparation is crucial for informed decision-making:

• It gives us insight into our current situation through thorough data analysis.
• We can predict and evaluate risks, preparing us for different eventualities.
• By understanding our resources, we can allocate them where they’ll make the most impact.

Armed with comprehensive information, our choices are more strategic and less about guesswork. When the unexpected happens, a solid plan provides us with a framework to adapt our decisions swiftly while keeping our goals in sight.

Planning thus equips us with the framework for consistently making good choices and staying agile.

Every journey toward a goal can encounter roadblocks. Planning helps us foresee these potential obstacles, allowing us to strategize ways to either avoid or overcome them.

Recognizing such hurdles in advance prevents them from derailing our plans and allows us to progress smoothly toward our objectives.

Identifying challenges ahead of time is advantageous:

• It prompts the creation of contingency plans.
• We can minimize the impact of challenges on our progress.
• We are better equipped to stay the course even in the face of adversity.

Awareness of potential obstacles optimizes our use of time and resources — key factors in maintaining a steady pace toward our goal.

Moreover, this aspect of planning strengthens our problem-solving skills. It makes us question assumptions, plan for contingencies, and increase our overall strategic acumen.

Planning creates a step-by-step guide towards your goals. It’s like following a recipe; you have all the necessary steps laid out for you.

Each step is a clear action that moves you closer to your goal. This way, you can avoid feeling overwhelmed and focus on one task at a time. Completing each step also builds momentum, giving you small wins and boosting your motivation as you progress.

Having a plan with outlined steps provides structure to your efforts. It prevents confusion about what needs to be done next and keeps you aligned with your final goal.

This structure is essential for making consistent progress and actually achieving what you set out to do.

When you plan, you’re not just deciding what to do; you’re also preparing to adjust when needed.

Changes can come from anywhere — new trends, unexpected events, or new information. Planning ensures you can adapt to these changes without straying from your main goals.

• New information : When you learn something new that could impact your goals, you can adjust your plan to include it.
• Unexpected events : If something happens that you didn’t see coming, you’ve got a framework to figure out the next steps.
• Changing trends : Trends can shift quickly; with a plan, your goals can evolve as needed.

Flexibility in planning is all about staying relevant and effective. This adaptability is essential for long-term success in a world that’s constantly changing.

Having a plan helps you figure out what needs your attention the most. When multiple tasks are competing for your time and resources, it’s important to know which ones are crucial for your goals.

Planning helps you see the big picture and identify which pieces of the puzzle are key:

• You know what is urgent and needs to be done right away.
• You understand what is important and can contribute significantly to your goals.
• You find out what tasks can wait or be delegated to others.

This way, you can focus your time and effort on where they will have the most impact.

Prioritizing stops you from spreading yourself too thin and ensures that important tasks are not overlooked. It helps you stay productive and effective, making the best use of your time and resources.

When you have a plan, you’re better able to handle your money and keep your finances steady. Planning means you keep track of how much money you have, how much you’re spending, and how much you need for the future.

It’s like planning a trip; you make sure you have enough fuel in the tank to get to your destination without running out.

By planning, you budget for expenses , save for emergencies , and invest for growth . This way, you’re not caught by surprise with bills you can’t pay. It’s about control — making sure you’re in charge of your money instead of money worries controlling you.

Financial stability comes from this kind of careful planning. Whether for your own life or a business, being stable with your money means less stress and more space to focus on reaching your goals. Stability and control go hand in hand, and planning is the key to both.

Life is full of things we can’t predict, but planning helps you deal with them better. By thinking ahead, you can figure out what might go wrong and have a plan to handle it. This doesn’t mean you can avoid all risks, but it does mean you’re ready for them.

• Spotting trouble : When you plan, you look for things that could cause problems.
• Getting ready : You make plans for how you will deal with these troubles if they happen.
• Staying calm : Knowing you have a plan in place helps you stay calm when faced with risks.

Reducing risks and being less uncertain makes it easier to move forward toward your goals. It’s about being smart before problems happen instead of just reacting to them after they occur.

Good planning is like a recipe for managing your time well. It helps you see how much time you have, what you need to do, and when you should do it. With a plan, you’re less likely to waste time because you know exactly what your tasks are for the day.

Planning ahead means you set aside time for the important things and cut out what’s unnecessary. This allows you to focus on what’s really needed and get things done more effectively.

With a plan, you can balance work, rest, and fun, making sure no part of your life takes over completely.

When you manage your time through planning, your days feel less rushed and more productive. You’re able to work smarter , not harder, because you’ve laid out a clear timeline for your tasks.

Having a plan means you understand where to best use your resources, which include time, people, and money. It ensures you are not wasting any of these valuable resources on things that do not help you reach your goals. Think of it like packing for a trip; you need to decide what’s essential to take with you to have a successful journey.

When you plan, you:

• Assign resources where they’re needed most.
• Avoid spending on things that aren’t important.
• Make sure you have enough resources to finish what you start.

By doing this, you make the most out of what you have. You put every part of your resources to good use, which means less waste and more efficiency. Better resource allocation helps you reach your goals faster and more smoothly.

Keeping track of how well you’re doing is a big part of reaching your goals. Planning lets you set up ways to measure this progress. It’s like having milestones on a road trip — each one you pass shows you’re getting closer to where you want to go.

Through planning, you:

• Set benchmarks that show you how far you’ve come.
• Can see if you need to work faster or slower.
• Get to celebrate small successes on the way to your big goal.

These measures help you understand if you’re on the right track or if you need to change how you’re working. It’s an important part of making sure you’re moving towards your end goal and lets you feel a sense of achievement as you see the progress you’re making.

Planning makes you proactive, which means you take charge of what needs to be done instead of just reacting to things as they happen. It’s about being ready and taking the initiative.

When you’re proactive, you’re not waiting for problems to appear — you’re already working to prevent them or get a head start on solving them.

With a proactive approach, you are:

• Staying ahead of problems.
• Preparing for opportunities.
• Always thinking about the next step.

This method of dealing with tasks makes you more efficient and less stressed because you’re not constantly putting out fires. Instead, you’re setting things up so that problems are less likely to happen.

Being proactive gives you a sense of control over your work and your life, making you more confident in your ability to handle whatever comes your way.

Putting together a plan encourages you to look ahead and think about the future. This isn’t just about guessing what might happen; it’s about preparing yourself to meet and even shape the future you want.

Having a long-term vision means you have a clear idea of where you want to be down the road, and foresight is about understanding the steps you need to get there.

With foresight, you create a roadmap for the coming years, not just for the immediate time. It helps you to:

• Stay focused on the bigger picture, even when smaller, day-to-day tasks compete for your attention.
• Anticipate changes and possible trends in your field, so you’re never caught off guard.
• Align your short-term efforts with your long-term goals to make sure everything you do contributes to where you want to end up.

Long-term vision and foresight mean that you are working today with tomorrow in mind. It keeps you moving in the right direction, making sure that each step takes you closer to your ultimate goals.

Knowing that you have a plan in place can really help with your confidence. It’s like having a map when you’re in unfamiliar territory — you feel more secure and ready to face what’s ahead.

When you plan, you know that you have thought things through and are prepared for different possibilities.

Peace of mind comes with this confidence. You’re less anxious about the unknown because you’ve laid out a path to follow. This makes it easier to focus on the here and now, knowing you’re set for the future.

Workflow coordination is all about making the work process smooth and efficient. Planning plays a key role in this because it helps organize tasks and ensures everyone knows what they’re supposed to do.

If your team is like a machine, then planning is like the oil that keeps all the parts moving without friction.

Planning helps to ensure that:

• Every task is assigned to the right person.
• Work is done in the right order to avoid backtracking or delays.
• Everyone knows what to do and when so they can prepare and act quickly.

Good workflow coordination means the work gets done faster and with fewer mistakes. It saves time and helps everyone stay on track. When people work well together, more can be done, and the whole team or project moves forward more effectively.

Planning can help you do more in less time. It’s like having a clear map when you’re on a road trip — you know the best route to take and avoid getting lost. With a detailed plan, you spend less time figuring out what to do next and more time actually doing it.

Good planning means you’re:

• Clear on what tasks are most important.
• Ready to start working right away.
• Not wasting time on things that don’t help you reach your goal.

By focusing on the right tasks, your work is more effective. You get more done because you’re not sidetracked by unimportant tasks. Planning sets you up for a productive day, every day.

When you plan with a team, everyone knows what’s going on. It’s like having everyone in sync, each person playing their part at the right time. Planning helps people work together better because they know what’s expected and when.

Here’s how it helps teams communicate and work together:

• Clear roles : Everyone knows what their job is.
• Shared goals : The team is united and moving in the same direction.
• Updates and feedback : It’s easier to share progress and talk about what’s next.

When teams have good communication and work well together, they can achieve much more. Problems get solved faster, and everyone feels part of the success. This is how great teamwork happens, and it all starts with a solid plan.

Dealing with emergencies can be stressful. However, if you plan ahead, you’re less likely to face a crisis.

Planning lets you see problems before they become big issues. It’s like putting a safety net under a tightrope walker — if something goes wrong, you’re prepared to catch the fall.

Good planning means:

• You’re not always “putting out fires”.
• You can stay calm because you have a plan for when things get tough.
• You can focus on moving forward instead of always fixing things.

By reducing the need for last-minute solutions, planning saves you stress and trouble. Instead of reacting to problems, you’re ahead of them. This helps keep everything running smoothly, and when surprises do happen, you’re ready to handle them.

Quality control is making sure that everything you do meets a certain standard. Planning helps with this because it sets out what those standards are and how to reach them. It’s like a chef tasting a dish at different stages to make sure it’s turning out right.

With a plan in place, you can check your work as you go. You can fix small mistakes before they turn into big problems. This way, the final result — whether it’s a product, a service, or any project — is the best it can be.

Good planning sets up checkpoints where you can review what’s been done. This helps you stay on track and maintain the quality of your work.

Better quality control leads to better outcomes and happier people, whether they’re customers or those using what you’ve created.

Growing as a person or in your career doesn’t just happen — it comes with trying new things and learning from experiences.

Planning gives you a structure to follow as you aim to get better in different areas. It’s like having a workout routine; by following it, you get stronger and fitter over time.

Here’s how planning helps you grow:

• Setting goals : You know what you want to improve on.
• Learning new skills : You make time for training and practice.
• Reflecting on progress : You look back at what you’ve done and see how far you’ve come.

By making plans for growth, you push yourself to keep learning and improving. You’re not stuck in one place because you’re actively working to get better. This not only helps in your personal life but also boosts your career.

Feeling like you know where you’re going gives your actions meaning. Planning creates a sense of direction and purpose, like having a personal mission statement. It keeps you moving forward with intention instead of just going through the motions.

When you have direction and purpose:

• You’re more motivated to achieve your goals.
• You make choices that align with what’s important to you.
• You have a reason for doing what you do every day.

Having this direction helps steer all of your actions. You know why you’re working hard and what you’re aiming for. This sense of purpose drives you to keep moving toward your goals, even when it gets tough.

Strategic thinking is all about making plans that will help you in the long run. It’s like playing chess; you need to think about your moves and how they will affect your future game.

Planning encourages you to develop this kind of thinking because you have to make decisions that are not just good for now, but for the future too.

With planning, you learn to look ahead, think about trends, and anticipate what might happen. This helps you make smarter choices and plan better strategies. Strategic thinking is a skill you can get better at over time, and planning is a great way to practice.

Developing strategic thinking through planning means you are better prepared for the future. You can set goals and figure out the best way to achieve them. This kind of thinking is valuable in all areas of life and can lead to better decisions and more success.

When you have a plan, you’re ready to grab opportunities as they come. It’s because you have a clear idea of what you need and what you can do. Planning helps you make the most of chances that could help you move forward with your goals.

Planning lets you:

• Identify opportunities : You can spot chances to improve or grow.
• Prepare to act : You’re ready to go when a good opportunity shows up.
• Match opportunities to goals : You can tell if an opportunity will actually help you with your goals or not.

Being ready and able to take advantage of opportunities is important. It can mean the difference between making a big leap forward or missing out. Planning helps you be in the right place at the right time with the right tools.

Consistency means doing things in a steady and reliable way. When you plan, you create routines and habits that make sure you keep doing what works. It’s like a daily workout routine that helps you stay in shape.

Here’s how planning helps you stay consistent:

• Daily tasks : You know what you need to do each day.
• Expectations : Others know what they can expect from you.
• Results : Keeping up consistent actions leads to consistent results.

A plan helps you stick to a successful formula without getting distracted by new, unproven ideas. This kind of consistency can build trust if you’re working with others and help you make steady progress toward your goals.

Discipline is about making yourself do the things you need to do, even when you might not feel like it. Responsibility means that you are the one in charge of your actions and their outcomes. Planning helps develop both of these qualities.

With a plan, you have a schedule to stick to, which helps you build discipline.

You are also the one making the plan, which means you’re taking responsibility for what needs to be done. It’s like deciding to save money by cooking at home instead of eating out — you’re choosing a plan that requires discipline but is better for you in the long run.

A good plan helps you take control of your life and your goals. This can lead to better habits and more success, personally and professionally.

What are some common misconceptions about planning?

There are some common misconceptions about planning that may hinder its effectiveness or value. Here are some examples:

• Planning is only for big or complex projects : This is a misconception that planning is not necessary or useful for small or simple projects. However, planning can help any project by providing clarity, direction, and structure, regardless of its size or complexity.

Planning can also help avoid potential problems or risks during the project execution.

• Planning is a one-time activity : This is a misconception that planning is done only at the beginning of a project and then forgotten. However, planning is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and updating to reflect changes or feedback in the environment.

Planning can also be flexible and adaptable to accommodate new opportunities or challenges that may emerge during the project execution.

• Planning is the same as strategy : This is a misconception that planning and strategy are interchangeable terms. However, planning and strategy are different but related concepts that serve different purposes:

– Strategy is a long-term and comprehensive plan that defines the overall direction and goals of the organization. – Planning is a short-term and specific plan that outlines the activities and tasks to implement the strategy.

What is the difference between planning and goal setting?

Planning and goal setting are two related but distinct concepts.

Goal setting involves the process of defining specific objectives or desired outcomes that you want to achieve. This could be anything from a personal goal like running a marathon to a professional goal like achieving a specific sales target.

The key characteristic of goal setting is that it focuses on specific outcomes you want to achieve.

Planning , on the other hand, involves determining the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve those objectives. In other words, planning is identifying the steps you need to take to achieve your goals.

While goal setting and planning are distinct concepts, they are closely related and essential to achieving success.

Goal setting helps ensure you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, while planning provides a roadmap for how to get there. Even the most well-defined goals can be difficult or impossible to achieve without effective planning.

Does planning take away spontaneity?

Not necessarily. While planning organizes your time and tasks, it also allows you to set aside time for spontaneity and flexibility. Good planning accounts for the unexpected and adapts to changes.

What should I do if my plan isn’t working?

If your plan isn’t working, assess what is going wrong. Do you need more time? Are the steps not clear? Adjust your plan based on your assessment. Sometimes, consulting with others or taking a break can provide fresh insight.

As we end, let’s remember why planning stands out as a smart move. It’s the key that starts the engine of our daily actions. With a solid plan, we make clear decisions, save time, and dodge troubles.

You know the feeling when things just work out? That’s planning, doing its magic!

Let’s keep it in mind — the time we spend making plans today is our investment in a smoother tomorrow. Simple planning can make the big things and the small daily tasks easier to handle.

This applies to all of us, no matter where we come from. Let’s all plan a bit better and watch how it helps us build strong and happy lives.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

As you found this post useful...

Share it on social media!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Jessa Claire

Jessa Claire is a registered healthcare provider. Music lover. Daydreamer. Thalassophile. Foodie. A hardworking Capricorn. Most days, an incurable empath. An old soul. Down-to-earth. Vibrant.

When she's not writing, she can be seen relaxing with headphones on or engrossed in her favorite fan fiction book.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

How an Indianapolis teacher is using the solar eclipse to inspire her students

Lee V. Gaines

Second graders Hanah Sung, Izaac Stuck and Amaurie Robinson simulate an eclipse by casting a shadow with a play dough moon on an inflatable globe. Their teacher, Natasha Cummings, directs them to aim the shadow over the spot on the globe where Indianapolis would be. Kaiti Sullivan for NPR hide caption

Second graders Hanah Sung, Izaac Stuck and Amaurie Robinson simulate an eclipse by casting a shadow with a play dough moon on an inflatable globe. Their teacher, Natasha Cummings, directs them to aim the shadow over the spot on the globe where Indianapolis would be.

It's a sunny March afternoon at Winchester Village Elementary School in Indianapolis, and teacher Natasha Cummings is leading her class in a brand new lesson. It's the first time she's teaching it – and also likely the last.

The second graders audibly gasp when Cummings explains the day's activity: They'll be simulating a total solar eclipse using the real sun, an inflatable globe and a moon made out of a play dough ball mounted on a stick.

The eclipse gives astronomy clubs an opportunity to shine

On April 8, a narrow strip of North America will experience a total solar eclipse, in which the moon entirely covers the sun, darkening the sky so that only the sun's corona, a ghostly white ring, will be visible.

Indianapolis is one of several cities in the path of totality. The last time that happened was over 800 years ago, and it won't happen again until 2153.

For many of Cummings' students, this event is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Cummings hopes learning about and witnessing the eclipse will inspire her students, and get them excited about science.

It's an experience she expects them to remember for the rest of their lives.

"This is a story you're gonna be able to tell," she reflects before class.

"You, as a second grader, you experienced this totality."

Plan to watch the eclipse from a wild mountain summit? Be ready for harsh conditions

In a grassy area outside the school, Cummings' eclipse simulation begins: Students take turns holding the inflatable globes, and casting a shadow with their play dough moons. Cummings directs them to aim the shadow over the spot on the globe where Indianapolis would be. It's a little chaotic, but the students quickly figure out how to properly position the moon's shadow over their hometown.

"Good job guys, you're really smart," a student says to his friends.

How an eclipse can inspire a career in the sciences

Thomas Hockey, a professor of astronomy at the University of Northern Iowa, remembers his first eclipse experience fondly. On March 7, 1970, when Hockey was 10 years old, he witnessed a partial solar eclipse outside his home in Angola, Ind. — a two-and-a-half hour drive north of Indianapolis.

Natasha Cummings also led her fifth graders through a solar eclipse lesson. The older kids' eclipse simulation incorporated measurements. Kaiti Sullivan for NPR hide caption

Natasha Cummings also led her fifth graders through a solar eclipse lesson. The older kids' eclipse simulation incorporated measurements.

It was nearly a year after the Apollo program had put the first person on the moon, and Hockey's interest in space was already developing. But he credits this partial eclipse as one of the reasons he chose to study astronomy.

"It was mesmerizing, as more and more of the sun disappeared, producing an odd shape," Hockey recalls.

It also sparked a fascination with eclipses. Hockey would go on to become what's called an umbraphile — someone who chases eclipses all over the world — and he recently published a book about the history of eclipse chasers.

Hockey says he didn't learn about solar eclipses when he was in grade school. He thinks the fact that elementary school teachers like Cummings are now teaching about them is an indication that science education has improved since he was a child.

Cummings (left) walks fifth graders Donavan Clarke (center) and Kevin Trinidad Cuautle through a solar eclipse simulation using a ping pong ball to represent the moon, and a bright spotlight for the sun. Kaiti Sullivan for NPR hide caption

Cummings (left) walks fifth graders Donavan Clarke (center) and Kevin Trinidad Cuautle through a solar eclipse simulation using a ping pong ball to represent the moon, and a bright spotlight for the sun.

It's also an opportunity to show kids that science doesn't just happen behind closed doors.

"Science is not done by old, gray-haired people in lab coats, necessarily. Citizens can participate in it. It's not a magic black box, it's all around us," Hockey says.

The April 8 total solar eclipse will be Hockey's ninth. He plans to bring a group of undergraduate students with him to experience totality in his home state of Indiana. He says some of them plan to become science teachers.

"And so they will talk about eclipses to their students, and perhaps we will have a new generation of astronomers inspired by eclipses," Hockey says.

Another important lesson: eclipse safety

For Cummings, teaching her students how to view the eclipse safely is a top priority.

Second graders practice using solar eclipse glasses outside Winchester Village Elementary School in Indianapolis. Kaiti Sullivan for NPR hide caption

"The only glasses that you should use are the solar eclipse glasses to look at the sun safely," she tells her class.

Exposure to the sun without proper protection can permanently damage the eye's retina. But during totality, which lasts only a few minutes, you won't see the sun's corona with those eclipse glasses on. Totality is the only part of the eclipse that's safe to look at without them.

Shots - Health News

Watching a solar eclipse without the right filters can cause eye damage. here's why.

Outside, her students take turns trying the glasses on and looking up at the sun. They shriek with excitement as they gaze at the unfamiliar orb.

"If you look up and see that orange thing that's right there — it looks like a street light," says second grader Ja'Aire Tate.

Cummings' district, Perry Township Schools, is one of several Indianapolis school systems that chose to make April 8 a remote learning day.

The only way to safely look directly at a total solar eclipse is by looking through special glasses like these, or by creating a pinhole viewer. But be sure to take the glasses off during the few minutes when totality happens, so you don't miss the sun's dim corona. Kaiti Sullivan for NPR hide caption

The only way to safely look directly at a total solar eclipse is by looking through special glasses like these, or by creating a pinhole viewer. But be sure to take the glasses off during the few minutes when totality happens, so you don't miss the sun's dim corona.

The district says the decision is an effort to keep kids safe: In Indianapolis, the eclipse will become visible around 1:50 p.m., and totality will begin at about 3:06 p.m. — right around the time of school dismissal.

"Traffic will be pretty backed up... we don't want to have buses and cars stuck on the road," says Elizabeth Choi, director of communications for Perry Township Schools.

Cummings tells her students they can ask their parents to purchase eclipse glasses online or at local stores, like Kroger. Or, she says, they can watch a live-stream of the eclipse on YouTube.

But Hockey hopes these kids do get a chance to go outside during the eclipse. Even without eclipse glasses, he says they can make a pinhole viewer with a few common household supplies that will allow them to view the event safely.

He says, "I pretty much guarantee that those children in the path of totality, who have been guided by their teachers or parents to observe the eclipse and do so safely, will remember it the rest of their lives."

What to know about the crisis of violence, politics and hunger engulfing Haiti

A long-simmering crisis over Haiti’s ability to govern itself, particularly after a series of natural disasters and an increasingly dire humanitarian emergency, has come to a head in the Caribbean nation, as its de facto president remains stranded in Puerto Rico and its people starve and live in fear of rampant violence. 

The chaos engulfing the country has been bubbling for more than a year, only for it to spill over on the global stage on Monday night, as Haiti’s unpopular prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to resign once a transitional government is brokered by other Caribbean nations and parties, including the U.S.

But the very idea of a transitional government brokered not by Haitians but by outsiders is one of the main reasons Haiti, a nation of 11 million, is on the brink, according to humanitarian workers and residents who have called for Haitian-led solutions. 

“What we’re seeing in Haiti has been building since the 2010 earthquake,” said Greg Beckett, an associate professor of anthropology at Western University in Canada. 

What is happening in Haiti and why?

In the power vacuum that followed the assassination of democratically elected President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Henry, who was prime minister under Moïse, assumed power, with the support of several nations, including the U.S. 

When Haiti failed to hold elections multiple times — Henry said it was due to logistical problems or violence — protests rang out against him. By the time Henry announced last year that elections would be postponed again, to 2025, armed groups that were already active in Port-au-Prince, the capital, dialed up the violence.

Even before Moïse’s assassination, these militias and armed groups existed alongside politicians who used them to do their bidding, including everything from intimidating the opposition to collecting votes . With the dwindling of the country’s elected officials, though, many of these rebel forces have engaged in excessively violent acts, and have taken control of at least 80% of the capital, according to a United Nations estimate. 

Those groups, which include paramilitary and former police officers who pose as community leaders, have been responsible for the increase in killings, kidnappings and rapes since Moïse’s death, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University in Sweden. According to a report from the U.N . released in January, more than 8,400 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in 2023, an increase of 122% increase from 2022.

“January and February have been the most violent months in the recent crisis, with thousands of people killed, or injured, or raped,” Beckett said.

Armed groups who had been calling for Henry’s resignation have already attacked airports, police stations, sea ports, the Central Bank and the country’s national soccer stadium. The situation reached critical mass earlier this month when the country’s two main prisons were raided , leading to the escape of about 4,000 prisoners. The beleaguered government called a 72-hour state of emergency, including a night-time curfew — but its authority had evaporated by then.

Aside from human-made catastrophes, Haiti still has not fully recovered from the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed about 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless, many of them living in poorly built and exposed housing. More earthquakes, hurricanes and floods have followed, exacerbating efforts to rebuild infrastructure and a sense of national unity.

Since the earthquake, “there have been groups in Haiti trying to control that reconstruction process and the funding, the billions of dollars coming into the country to rebuild it,” said Beckett, who specializes in the Caribbean, particularly Haiti. 

Beckett said that control initially came from politicians and subsequently from armed groups supported by those politicians. Political “parties that controlled the government used the government for corruption to steal that money. We’re seeing the fallout from that.”

Many armed groups have formed in recent years claiming to be community groups carrying out essential work in underprivileged neighborhoods, but they have instead been accused of violence, even murder . One of the two main groups, G-9, is led by a former elite police officer, Jimmy Chérizier — also known as “Barbecue” — who has become the public face of the unrest and claimed credit for various attacks on public institutions. He has openly called for Henry to step down and called his campaign an “armed revolution.”

But caught in the crossfire are the residents of Haiti. In just one week, 15,000 people have been displaced from Port-au-Prince, according to a U.N. estimate. But people have been trying to flee the capital for well over a year, with one woman telling NBC News that she is currently hiding in a church with her three children and another family with eight children. The U.N. said about 160,000 people have left Port-au-Prince because of the swell of violence in the last several months. 

Deep poverty and famine are also a serious danger. Gangs have cut off access to the country’s largest port, Autorité Portuaire Nationale, and food could soon become scarce.

Haiti's uncertain future

A new transitional government may dismay the Haitians and their supporters who call for Haitian-led solutions to the crisis. 

But the creation of such a government would come after years of democratic disruption and the crumbling of Haiti’s political leadership. The country hasn’t held an election in eight years. 

Haitian advocates and scholars like Jemima Pierre, a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, say foreign intervention, including from the U.S., is partially to blame for Haiti’s turmoil. The U.S. has routinely sent thousands of troops to Haiti , intervened in its government and supported unpopular leaders like Henry.

“What you have over the last 20 years is the consistent dismantling of the Haitian state,” Pierre said. “What intervention means for Haiti, what it has always meant, is death and destruction.”

In fact, the country’s situation was so dire that Henry was forced to travel abroad in the hope of securing a U.N. peacekeeping deal. He went to Kenya, which agreed to send 1,000 troops to coordinate an East African and U.N.-backed alliance to help restore order in Haiti, but the plan is now on hold . Kenya agreed last October to send a U.N.-sanctioned security force to Haiti, but Kenya’s courts decided it was unconstitutional. The result has been Haiti fending for itself. 

“A force like Kenya, they don’t speak Kreyòl, they don’t speak French,” Pierre said. “The Kenyan police are known for human rights abuses . So what does it tell us as Haitians that the only thing that you see that we deserve are not schools, not reparations for the cholera the U.N. brought , but more military with the mandate to use all kinds of force on our population? That is unacceptable.”  

Henry was forced to announce his planned resignation from Puerto Rico, as threats of violence — and armed groups taking over the airports — have prevented him from returning to his country.  

Now that Henry is to stand down, it is far from clear what the armed groups will do or demand next, aside from the right to govern. 

“It’s the Haitian people who know what they’re going through. It’s the Haitian people who are going to take destiny into their own hands. Haitian people will choose who will govern them,” Chérizier said recently, according to The Associated Press .

Haitians and their supporters have put forth their own solutions over the years, holding that foreign intervention routinely ignores the voices and desires of Haitians. 

In 2021, both Haitian and non-Haitian church leaders, women’s rights groups, lawyers, humanitarian workers, the Voodoo Sector and more created the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis . The commission has proposed the “ Montana Accord ,” outlining a two-year interim government with oversight committees tasked with restoring order, eradicating corruption and establishing fair elections. 

For more from NBC BLK, sign up for our weekly newsletter .

CORRECTION (March 15, 2024, 9:58 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated which university Jemima Pierre is affiliated with. She is a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, not the University of California, Los Angeles, (or Columbia University, as an earlier correction misstated).

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Char Adams is a reporter for NBC BLK who writes about race.

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Why Some Companies Grow Amid Uncertainty — and Others Don’t

• Simon Freakley
• David Garfield

A survey of 3,000 global executives suggests that it’s not strategic thinking that sets them apart. It’s their inclination to move quickly.

When you cannot base strategy on reasonably certain premises — or when those reasonable premises are undone by unforeseeable events — what is a company to do? You still have to make plans, allocate capital, and invest for the future. Some argue that agility is the key to thriving in disruptive times, but if all you do is pivot, you are just going around in circles. The annual AlixPartners Disruption Index surveys 3,000 global executives about what is knocking them sideways. Among other things, it shows that three out of five say that it is increasingly challenging to know which disruptive forces to prioritize. Amid all this, there is a group of companies doing very well: about one in five said their companies lead their industry in revenue growth. In this article, the authors dig into that 2024 data to find out what sets these companies apart, and what other companies can learn from them about setting growth strategy in an uncertain world.

Strategic planning plays a key role in helping companies anticipate and manage business cycles. But forces like emerging digital technologies, climate change, and deglobalization — not to mention “black swan” events like the Covid-19 pandemic and wars — have turned a rolling sea into a choppy one, where companies are beset by currents, crosscurrents, riptides, and squalls. This multiplicity of related, unrelated, and inter-related difficulties have one thing in common: They are unpredictable.

• SF Simon Freakley is the Chief Executive Officer of AlixPartners, a post he has held since 2015. He is based in New York.
• David Garfield is a Chicago-based partner and managing director of AlixPartners, and the global leader for the firm’s industry practices.

Partner Center

For those planning training sessions or candidates intending to take an online exam during this period, we will be offering online exam sessions on December 27 and 29, as well as January 5, 2024. You can check the link to online exam events here .

An online learning platform offering expert-led video capsules and certificate programs to unlock a world of knowledge.

A gathering of professionals and experts who discuss on the latest trends and topics

An authentic source of information and inspiration

Online store for ISO and IEC standards, Toolkits, eBooks, etc.

• / Resources

What Is Risk Tolerance, Why Is It Important, and How to Determine It?

Did you know that approximately 90% of startups fail within their first five years, with risk management playing a pivotal role in their survival? In the dynamic world of finance and investment management, the concept of risk tolerance stands as a foundation for individuals and organizations who are navigating the complexities of the market. 

This article delves into the details of risk tolerance within the business context, exploring its definition, influencing factors, importance, and methods for assessment.

What Is Risk Tolerance?

Risk tolerance refers to an entity's willingness and ability to handle uncertainties or potential losses in its investment portfolios or financial decisions. In business finance, risk tolerance guides corporate strategy, asset allocation, and risk management practices. Businesses assess risk tolerance to safeguard financial stability, achieve growth objectives, and maximize shareholder value.

Factors Influencing Risk Tolerance

Risk tolerance is a complex concept influenced by various factors, including:

• Financial Position: The financial standing of a business, including revenue, expenses, debt obligations, and cash reserves, significantly influences its risk tolerance. Organizations with strong financial health and sufficient liquidity may have a higher risk tolerance when it comes to pursuing growth opportunities.
• Strategic Objectives: These include expanding into new markets, developing products, and managing risk. Organizations with higher ambitions may embrace higher levels of risk to get the most out of strategic opportunities and gain a competitive edge.
• Industry Dynamics: Industries characterized by rapid technological innovation or cyclical market trends may need a higher tolerance for risk to adapt to changing market conditions and stay ahead of competitors.
• Regulatory Environment: Constraints on investments or financial activities arise due to regulatory compliance requirements and industry-specific regulations, resulting in an influence on risk tolerance.
• Stakeholder Expectations: The expectations of stakeholders, which include shareholders, lenders, and board members, are significant in determining a business's risk tolerance. Organizations that are under pressure to achieve consistent returns or maintain a stable financial position may adopt more conservative risk management strategies to meet stakeholder expectations.

Risk Tolerance Benefits

Understanding and managing risk tolerance is integral to decision-making and strategic planning in offering several key benefits:

• Strategic Alignment: Matching investment strategies with risk tolerance ensures they are in line with corporate goals, making strategic decision-making and resource allocation easier.
• Capital Allocation: Efficient resource allocation across business opportunities and initiatives is achieved by assessing risk tolerance and managing risk exposure.
• Competitive Advantage: Understanding risk and managing uncertainties gives Organizations an edge, helping them make smart decisions, adapt quickly, and seize opportunities better than competitors.
• Stakeholder Confidence: Demonstrating thorough risk management practices inspires trust and enhances reputation, which instills confidence among stakeholders, including investors, lenders, and business partners.
• Long-Term Sustainability: Businesses can achieve sustainable growth and financial performance by balancing risk and return within their tolerance parameters to ensure continuity and resilience in tough economic times.

How to Determine Risk Tolerance?

Determining risk tolerance is essential for making informed investment decisions and managing financial resources effectively. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you determine risk tolerance:

• Assess Business Objectives: It is important to identify and prioritize business objectives, such as growth, stability, income generation, or capital preservation. The level of risk tolerance should depend on how these objectives align with your willingness to accept uncertainty and potential losses.
• Understand Risk: Understanding risk tolerance is vital when assessing investment risks as they determine the potential for losses and uncertainty in achieving desired outcomes.
• Assess Investment Duration: Determine the investment timeframe. Short-term goals tolerate less risk. Choose low-risk investments for capital preservation.
• Analyze Financial Position: It is important to assess your business's financial health by analyzing factors such as cash flow, liquidity, debt levels, and profitability. A strong financial position may allow for more risk-taking, while a weaker position may require a more conservative approach.
• Consider Industry and Market Factors: Analyze industry trends, market conditions, and economic indicators that could impact your business. Certain industries or markets may inherently carry higher levels of risk due to instability or regulatory factors.
• Review Risk Tolerance Instruments: Discover your risk tolerance by using assessment tools and questionnaires provided by financial institutions or professional advisors. These tools help you measure your comfort level with different levels of risk by providing you with scenarios and questions.
• Assess Comfort Level: Reflect on your comfort level with risk. Consider your reaction to market fluctuations and your ability to withstand potential losses without experiencing undue stress or anxiety.
• Change Strategy: Determine your approach to change. Spreading investments across various classes, industries, and geographic regions can help mitigate risk. Assess whether you prefer a more diversified portfolio or are comfortable concentrating investments in specific areas.
• Consult with Professionals: Seek guidance from financial advisors, consultants, or industry experts . They can provide insights tailored to your business's specific circumstances and help you make informed decisions aligned with your risk tolerance and financial goals.
• Regular Review and Adjustment: Risk tolerance is not static and may change over time due to evolving business circumstances, market conditions, or personal preferences. Regularly review your risk tolerance and adjust your investment strategy accordingly to ensure alignment with your objectives and comfort level.

Two-Dimensional Risk Tolerance Assessment Process

A two-dimensional risk tolerance assessment process offers a holistic approach to understanding and managing risk. This method considers both quantitative financial factors and qualitative psychological aspects to provide a comprehensive view of an organization's risk tolerance. Here is how it works:

• Financial Assessment: This dimension involves analyzing financial metrics such as liquidity ratios, leverage levels, and cash flow projections to assess the organization's capacity to withstand financial risks . It considers factors like revenue stability, debt obligations, and capital reserves to determine the financial resilience of the organization.
• Psychological Assessment: The psychological dimension evaluates stakeholders' attitudes, perceptions, and behavioral biases toward risk. It involves understanding decision-makers' risk preferences, risk perceptions, and emotional responses to uncertainty. This dimension considers risk aversion, overconfidence, and fear of loss to gauge the psychological comfort level with risk-taking.

By integrating these two dimensions, businesses gain deeper insights into their risk tolerance profiles, enabling them to develop more robust risk management strategies and make informed decisions aligned with their financial objectives and psychological comfort levels.

Types of Risk Tolerance

Risk tolerance can manifest in various forms, each reflecting a different approach to managing risk:

• Conservative Risk Tolerance: Organizations with conservative risk tolerance prioritize stability over potential returns. They adopt defensive strategies, such as maintaining high levels of liquidity, investing in low-risk assets, and avoiding speculative ventures.
• Moderate Risk Tolerance: Businesses with moderate risk tolerance strive to balance risk and return by pursuing growth opportunities, and managing risk exposure through diversification, financial prudence, and disciplined decision-making.
• Aggressive Risk Tolerance: Organizations that have an aggressive risk tolerance are those that are willing to assume greater risks to achieve potentially higher returns. Such Organizations are eager to innovate, pursue growth strategies aggressively, and invest in high-risk, high-reward ventures. They accept volatility as an inherent part of their business operations.

Risk Tolerance and ISO 31000 Risk Management 

ISO 31000 , an international standard for risk management, provides a framework and guidelines that can greatly assist organizations in managing risk tolerance effectively. While ISO 31000 does not specifically address risk tolerance, its principles and methodologies can be applied to enhance an organization's understanding and management of risk tolerance in different ways:

• Risk Identification: ISO 31000 recommends that organizations should systematically identify and evaluate risks at all levels of the organization. By identifying risks, including those related to financial, operational, strategic, and compliance areas, organizations are able to gain a better understanding of potential risks. This process helps organizations consider various factors that may influence their risk tolerance, such as financial stability, strategic priorities, and stakeholder expectations.
• Risk Assessment: ISO 31000 provides guidelines for assessing the likelihood and consequences of identified risks. By following risk assessment processes, organizations can evaluate the potential impact of risks on their objectives, quantify and qualitatively analyze risks.
• Risk Treatment: ISO 31000 stresses the importance of choosing appropriate risk treatment options for effective risk management. Organizations can use strategies like risk avoidance, mitigation, transfer, or acceptance to align with their risk tolerance levels. Those with lower risk tolerance may prioritize mitigation, while higher-tolerance organizations may accept risks and focus on opportunities.
• Risk Communication and Consultation: ISO 31000 highlights the importance of effective communication and consultation in risk management processes. By involving stakeholders from various levels and functions within the organization, as well as external parties such as customers, suppliers, regulators, and investors, organizations can ensure that risk tolerance considerations are taken into account when making decisions. 
• Monitoring and Review: ISO 31000 advocates for regular monitoring and review of risk management processes to ensure their effectiveness and alignment with organizational objectives. Organizations can establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track risk tolerance levels, monitor changes in risk profiles, and assess the impact of risk management efforts over time. 

In conclusion, understanding risk tolerance is essential for effective decision-making in finance and investment management. By recognizing its significance, individuals and businesses can navigate the market with confidence, mitigate losses, and seize opportunities. Embracing risk tolerance empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions, optimize strategies, and foster resilience in the face of uncertainty, laying the groundwork for long-term financial success.

About the Author

Vlerë Hyseni is the Digital Content Specialist at PECB. She is in charge of doing research, creating, and developing digital content for a variety of industries. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact her at: [email protected] .

• Quality Management System
• Health, Safety, and Environment
• Continuity, Resilience, and Service Management
• Information Security Management
• Risk and Management
• IT Security
• Governance, Risk, and Compliance
• Transportation, Telecom, and Energy
• Cybersecurity
• Sustainability
• Privacy and Data Protection
• Digital Transformation

Latest Articles

Navigating the network: segmentation vs. segregation.

ISO/IEC 27001 - What are the main changes in 2022?

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Training & Certification

• Ethical Hacking
• Training Course Catalog
• Attributed Territories

Examination

• Exam Rules and Policies
• Online Exam Manual
• Invigilator Guide
• Candidate Handbooks

Certification

• Certification Rules and Policies
• Certification Maintenance
• Certificate Verification
• Master Credentials
• Leadership, Committees and Advisory Boards
• PECB Code of Ethics
• Affiliations

Terms, Conditions, and Policies | Privacy Statement

© 2024 Professional Evaluation and Certification Board. All rights reserved.

Great, you have saved this article to you My Learn Profile page.

Clicking a link will open a new window.

4 things you may not know about 529 plans

Important legal information about the email you will be sending. By using this service, you agree to input your real email address and only send it to people you know. It is a violation of law in some juristictions to falsely identify yourself in an email. All information you provide will be used solely for the purpose of sending the email on your behalf. The subject line of the email you send will be “Fidelity.com”.

Thanks for you sent email.

What is financial planning?

Key takeaways

• Financial planning involves defining your goals, understanding your financial picture, and taking steps to advance those goals.
• Financial planning professionals can help you with a variety of needs, including budgeting, investment management, and retirement planning.
• Wherever you are on your financial journey, a sound financial plan can give you peace of mind and confidence.

Financial planning can help you chart a course to get what you want out of life. By helping you figure out how much money you have and where it should go, financial planning is a way to set goals and get on a path to achieve them.

Feed your brain. Fund your future.

Financial planning is creating a comprehensive plan to reach your financial goals. By considering your whole financial life, it provides guidance on reaching both small, short-term targets as well as larger, long-term ones.

You can create a financial plan on your own or work with a professional financial planner who has the knowledge and time to integrate many aspects of finances into a plan, can identify risks and opportunities, and can help keep you on track in making progress toward your goals.

Why is financial planning important?

Financial planning is important because it helps you identify and prioritize your goals. It also aims to give you a complete picture of where you stand financially and identify changes you may need to make to increase the likelihood of achieving your goals—for example, which account types and financial products make sense for your personal situation. Some advantages of investing like compounding potential returns are realized over time so having a plan and starting early is important for the long term.

A financial plan can also help you uncover vulnerabilities, like not having enough saved in an emergency fund or being underinsured. And it may make you feel more confident and comfortable with the choices in your investment portfolio when the markets go up and down. That's why having a financial plan is important for people of all ages and financial backgrounds—not just older, wealthy people. Note that a financial plan is not a set-it-and-forget-it exercise, but an ongoing process that changes as your circumstances do. Your goals as a single person may be different from those of a married couple with children, for example.

Types of financial planning

Financial planning is a broad term that can cover a range of different techniques and goals. Most financial plans include multiple types of financial planning to take a holistic view and may address some or all of the following.

Cash-flow analysis

You may think of this as budgeting . Cash flow analysis helps you get a sense of what you have coming in each month and how you're using it. You need positive cash flow so that you can generate funds to pay down debt, build an emergency fund, or invest. By getting into the nitty-gritty of your cash flow, you can make conscious choices about where you want your money going and identify areas you may be able to trim or cut out entirely.

Debt management When you have multiple types of debt repayments competing for your dollars (think: credit card debt, student loans , and a mortgage), it can be difficult to figure out which you should prioritize paying first. Financial planning focused on debt management can help you identify ways to lower interest payments and strategize ways to repay your debts that work best for you while keeping you on track to meet your other financial goals and budgeting demands.

Retirement planning We all know we should be saving for later, but the question of how much to save for retirement —and in what accounts—can be tricky, particularly as you get closer to the age you hope to set up your permanent out-of-office message.

Retirement planning for those decades from retirement may be as simple as working their way up to contributing the maximum pre-tax salary allowance to a retirement account, like a 401(k) or individual retirement account (IRA) . For those near retirement, it may involve how to generate retirement income, such as figuring out which retirement accounts to draw from first, covering essential expenses, and how to manage Social Security income. A plan could give you peace of mind that you won't outlive your assets.

Investment planning Both retirement savers and those who are looking to build wealth outside of a retirement account can benefit from investment planning that aligns with their time horizon, financial situation, and risk tolerance . Investment planning can help you analyze and manage your portfolio holdings to better ensure your investments are working as well as they can for you. It may also reinforce the nature of market cycles—short-term downturns are expected but have historically always been followed by upturns, for example. Good investment planning may help keep you calm during rough stretches in the market and resist panic selling.

Education planning There are no ifs, ands, or buts—paying for an education is expensive. And it becomes even pricier if you're hoping to set aside enough for multiple children's educations. Education planning helps you figure out how much you need to save and the best strategies and accounts to cover education costs from pre-K to post-grad.

Tax planning If you're a W-2 worker (most 9-to-5ers are) without a complex financial situation, you may not need much more to do your taxes than self-service tax software. But for those with more complicated finances or people trying to determine the best way to manage income in retirement, financial planning can help you figure out the most tax-efficient way to manage your money. From taking advantage of tax deferral for savings goals, to qualifying for deductions and credits, to minimizing taxes to heirs, taxes touch many areas of financial planning.

Estate planning Don't let the name fool you. When it comes to financial planning, estate planning is less about sprawling manor homes and more about making sure you make your wishes known through documents like wills and trusts. Many estate planning techniques start with careful planning while you're living. Planning for what happens after you or your partner is gone can be hard to think about, but it's an important step in financial planning for all types of people, even those who are younger and who don't have large bank balances. It also helps you plan for who makes decisions if you become unable to and who becomes guardian for your children if necessary—important things regardless of wealth level.

Insurance planning Managing risk is fundamental so you don't encounter financial catastrophe that prevents you from achieving your goals. You probably know the importance of having health insurance, but there are countless other types of insurance that might help you during times of hardship. Financial planning can make sure you understand how disability and  life insurance , as well as long-term care coverage, among other types of insurance, fit into your financial picture to help protect you and those you love.

How much does financial planning cost?

How much financial planning costs depends on whether you decide to go it alone or work with a professional. If you DIY, there are low- to no-cost online tools and resources that can help you put together your own financial plan . For instance, Fidelity has a range of online calculators you can use to estimate how much you need to save to retire by a certain age, or you could a use a robo-advisor to manage your investments. If you prefer to work with a pro, they may charge based on a percentage of the assets they handle for you, by the hour, or a one-time flat fee.

How to create a financial plan

Ready to start financial planning ? Check out our guide on how to make a financial plan . As you draft your plan, either on your own or with a pro, remember that a solid financial plan is more than just numbers. It's a map that puts you in the driver's seat to fund the life you envision for yourself now and in the future.

Smart automation can make investing easy

Fidelity Go ® offers low-cost professional money management.

More to explore

Start a conversation, get organized, hit your goals.

Create a flexible plan you can adjust to your life.

Subscribe to Fidelity Smart Money ℠

Looking for more ideas and insights, thanks for subscribing.

• Tell us the topics you want to learn more about
• View content you've saved for later
• Subscribe to our newsletters

We're on our way, but not quite there yet

Oh, hello again, thanks for subscribing to looking for more ideas and insights you might like these too:, looking for more ideas and insights you might like these too:, fidelity viewpoints ® timely news and insights from our pros on markets, investing, and personal finance. (debug tcm:2 ... decode crypto clarity on crypto every month. build your knowledge with education for all levels. fidelity smart money ℠ what the news means for your money, plus tips to help you spend, save, and invest. active investor our most advanced investment insights, strategies, and tools. insights from fidelity wealth management ℠ timely news, events, and wealth strategies from top fidelity thought leaders. women talk money real talk and helpful tips about money, investing, and careers. educational webinars and events free financial education from fidelity and other leading industry professionals. fidelity viewpoints ® timely news and insights from our pros on markets, investing, and personal finance. (debug tcm:2 ... decode crypto clarity on crypto every month. build your knowledge with education for all levels. fidelity smart money ℠ what the news means for your money, plus tips to help you spend, save, and invest. active investor our most advanced investment insights, strategies, and tools. insights from fidelity wealth management ℠ timely news, events, and wealth strategies from top fidelity thought leaders. women talk money real talk and helpful tips about money, investing, and careers. educational webinars and events free financial education from fidelity and other leading industry professionals. done add subscriptions no, thanks. saving and budgeting investing for income preparing for retirement saving for retirement living in retirement investing involves risk, including risk of loss. fidelity does not provide legal or tax advice. the information herein is general in nature and should not be considered legal or tax advice. consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific situation. this information is intended to be educational and is not tailored to the investment needs of any specific investor. fidelity brokerage services llc, member nyse, sipc , 900 salem street, smithfield, ri 02917 1068803.2.0 mutual funds etfs fixed income bonds cds options active trader pro investor centers stocks online trading annuities life insurance & long term care small business retirement plans 529 plans iras retirement products retirement planning charitable giving fidsafe , (opens in a new window) finra's brokercheck , (opens in a new window) health savings account stay connected.

• News Releases
• About Fidelity
• International
• Terms of Use
• Accessibility
• Contact Us , (Opens in a new window)
• Disclosures , (Opens in a new window)