How to Use an Essay Planner to Write Successful Papers

I’m a self-professing English baby through and through. At one point in my confused middle years, I thought I was too good for prewriting. I’m talking about that blank page staring back at you before a standardized test. In my college-credit high school English classes, I discovered a method to the madness. By consolidating all of my information before beginning, I could hammer out an A+ paper in a little over thirty minutes going off of a solid planning page.

This is why I created a printable based on what I use to write these papers. If you’re a subscriber, it’s available to you for free! It’s exactly what I use as a college student myself, and this post is to walk through just how I use it.

If you want access to this printable, all you have to do is subscribe to this blog. You’ll receive an email with an access key for the resource library. The resource library is available at the top menu on the homepage, and subscription options are on the right sidebar beneath my “About Me” section.

Note: The resource library contains a printable PDF, a Word (PC) document, and a Pages (Mac) version. Pick your poision with analogue or digital.

Now let’s get started on this essay planer.

Fill out the left column with your name, class, professor, paper topic, and due date
- I include my claim with the topic. This is what’s developed into the thesis statement.
Make notes of requirements and expectations
- Make sure to note if your prof wants MLA, Chicago, or APA formatting. Also, make sure you know your target word count before beginning
- Using both your rubric and what your professor says in class, make notes of what your prof expects content-wise
- The key to receiving good grades on your essay is writing to your specific professor. Listen to how they speak about past student submissions, the course content, and your readings. Jot down notes when they make their preferences known in class, formally or informally. Write down what they want. Write to that specific prof and no other teacher you’ve had before
- Note other specifics. My literature teacher gets riled up if students give her papers that aren’t stapled. I made sure I had this written down so I wouldn’t make that mistake
- Start to map out what you think your body paragraphs could be. You will use this and your claim below to gather textual evidence

Compile your textual evidence
- Most profs demand and expect textual evidence. Even if they don’t, you need to support your claims with direct evidence from the text. This could mean a page number cited after a sentence, or a direct quote embedded into your essay.
- Use this portion of the essay planner to sort your textual evidence. After you nail down your claim, reread the story and look for specific passages that support what you’re saying about the story/characters.
- Use the left column for specific page numbers and paragraphs, so you can easily reference when you’re writing your paper. I actually prefer to type out the full quotes as I reread, so when I’m writing the essay I just copy and paste into my Word document when I need the quote.
- Use the right column to make specific notes on how the passage relates to your claim.

Write your thesis
- Work on crafting your thesis statement, which is the last sentence of your introduction. It should hit all of your main points and serve as a roadmap for the entire essay. Try several revisions, and write your final one here.
Map your introduction
- Jot down a few bullet points detailing what to talk about in your introduction, including a snazzy “attention getter” if your teacher expects an exciting introduction.
Start mapping out your main points
- Sort points to hit in each paragraph, including page number. When you finally get to writing your essay, you’ll already have a sound, organized structure. You’ll be shocked by how quickly it can actually go with planning like this.
Map out your conclusion and restated thesis
- This one is slightly subjective. I had one literature teacher who loathed conclusions and thought they were a waste of time. I included fresh – but related – information for him. My other composition teacher was adamant about conclusions not introducing any new information. For him, I went back and hit the main points again before restating my thesis for the last sentence.
- If your professor doesn’t make any specification, it’s safe to summarize the body paragraph’s information and then restate your thesis. Keep it short.
- This all points back to write to your specific professor.