The essay plan is meant to help develop and test library research and writing skills. This will be your primary source of written feedback and a substantial piece of on course assessment. You should choose ONE (1) Essay Topic from the five below, for this individual piece of work. It contributes a total of 25% to your overall assessment in the subject.
 You should commence your work on this piece of assessment in Week 1 by doing the Independent Library Project which will begin your familiarisation with the literature in your areas of interest. An Academic Writing Workshop in Week 2 forms the second part of your preparation for your essay plan assignment and you should attend this with your completed Library Project and if you have the beginnings of an outline or plan for your essay – that will help you greatly.
Detailed instructions will be provided in the Week 2 Tutorial, but Essay Plan is only short (maximum of 4 pages) consisting of a piece of writing setting out your approach to the topic including a clear statement of the objectives of your essay. It should contain enough writing that we can see your style, accuracy and check your citing of references approximately 250 words or about 0.75 page). Ideally this would be your opening paragraph(s) setting out your overall approach to your essay topic (– but this is often difficult to write early in the development of an essay.
Probably the most important part you should include is an essay outline or plan (approx. 2 pages) with your key points arranged in order and including wherever possible some of the examples you propose to use to illustrate them (and citing the references you intend to draw upon, using the author + date system). Your essay outline should consist of a series of headings and sub-headings with some notes associated with each one and the key references cited for each point you want to make or example you propose to use. DO NOT submit a draft or partial draft essay – this should be a plan or outline.

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