Essay planning: 13 Sentences method

Here’s a different way to plan an essay. Perhaps some of you will prefer this method over the normal note-taking or brainstorming approaches.

The idea is simple:

Make a list of 13 points for the 13 sentences that your essay will contain. For each point, give the “sentence job” and any relevant ideas or words that you can think of.

I’ll show you a 13-sentence plan for the question below.

Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organisation.

Why might this be the case? What could be the disadvantages of being self-employed?

My “13 sentences” plan:

1. Introduce the topic. Paraphrase: work for themselves, instead of, employee
2. Quick answers: various reasons, some drawbacks
3. Topic sentence: two main reasons for self-employment
4. First reason: freedom, flexibility, own rules
5. Extend: ability to be creative, more interesting and enjoyable
6. Second reason: opportunities for greater success, grow the business
7. Example: become a successful business leader like Richard Branson
8. Topic sentence: main disadvantages are responsibilities and risk
9. First disadvantage: responsible for everything from sales to accounting
10. Result: stress and being overworked, not seeing family
11. Second disadvantage: risk of failure, bankruptcy
12. Example: a friend who had to close his surveying business
13. Conclusion: self-employment is attractive, but there are clear risks

With a plan like this, writing the essay should be relatively easy. We can simply follow the numbers and write a full sentence for each one.