Read the question carefully – what are the outcomes required? What supporting evidence will be needed? What are the action words? Are you being asked to describe something, evaluate several different approaches, or compare and contrast a couple of concepts or practices, or a range? Refer to the question on the assignment brief, but also to the criteria for the unit which often give more clues on what is required in terms of detail. Lastly, review any student guidance provided either written, or from your notes from the Unit session. If you’re unsure what the question is requiring you to do, ask your personal tutor.

It’s important that you know what the expectations are for word count, and whether this is exact, or within a range (this should be stated clearly on the assignment brief). There may also be particular requirements on layout and formatting of your essay. 

Specific requirements for a references list (which lists sources you have used or quoted from directly) and/or a bibliography (which lists other material you have found useful but not drawn on specifically) will be highlighted on the assignment brief.

Stage 1

In our guide: How to study effectively, it’s suggested that you have a system in place to gather your notes, your references, and the materials, textbooks and various website resources to hand when you sit down to plan. You’ll also need the assignment brief and any guidance sheets provided. Make sure you have a good hour at least for this ’thinking‘ work, as it will form the basis for your research and initial writing. 

Note the deadline, and work backwards, planning for an initial draft, a second draft, and then time to tidy up your final draft. Leave plenty of time if you’re working in a busy environment, as unexpected work pressures may overturn your plan. 

Stage 2

Taking into account the question and the requirements for evidence or examples, start to consider your current knowledge, your latest learning, your knowledge of your organisation’s approach to the topic (or where you may get this from if you’re not employed or you can’t use information from your organisation), and any comparative views you heard, read or are aware of from wider research. What practices does your organisation have, and what do competitors or relevant third parties do? What is the context in which you are responding to the question – internal and external factors? Start with broad considerations, then narrow down to the precise issues and approach to be discussed. 

What other sources (journals, texts, internal documents) will you need to refer to, and how might your appendix (if permitted) support your essay? It’s essential that you make a full record of anything you read when researching your topic, or you can waste valuable time looking for that perfect quote you found, but didn’t write down the page number or source document! While researching for your essay, you’re likely to do a lot of reading and note-taking – our guide on How to study effectively has more on reading and note-taking skills. 

The introduction will start with a brief summary of the context of the question, with an outline of the topic, and a statement of how you intend to address the question; whether you’ll be using primary or secondary research or both, and referring to other sources of key information which you’ll rely on. 

The main body of the essay will be your findings, your personal views, and the views of others (from your reading or quotes from individuals if you’re using primary research). You may break this into relevant sub sections, and you may decide to use some subheadings to guide the reader through your ideas. Any sources you refer to and any quotes you use should be given in the appropriate format in your essay text – see more on citing sources in the paragraph below on references. 

Finally, the conclusion will contain a summary of the outcomes and the reasons why you’ve reached your viewpoint. If recommendations are required, they would usually be given after the conclusion – there is often guidance on whether recommendations are part of your essay requirements. 

The way you refer to your sources in your essay text (known as ‘citing’ your sources) and your list of references and/or bibliography needs to done in a specific way. The majority of CIPD courses use the Harvard referencing style – see our guide on How to set out references. The guidance in Cite them Right! also follows the Harvard style and is used by many colleges and universities. Marks are often awarded for good referencing as they show how widely you have read as well as allowing others to check your sources. They are also important to avoid claims of plagiarism (presenting other people’s work as your own). 

Where your essay refers to a particular report, or key document, you may choose to include a small amount, often in diagrammatic form, in an appendix to your essay, if this will provide relevant information which cannot be contained in the word count. You should refer to the appendix at a relevant point in the main body of the essay, and make sure you state the source clearly in the appendix and include the source in your references list. 

A poorly presented piece of work may distract the marker from the points you are making, or indeed make it difficult for them to follow your thinking. 

Some key tips:

• Always get someone else to read your work. Can they follow it? If no, why not? 
• Check your spelling and grammar – this is important when writing business documents as well. 
• Check consistency of headings and text layout. 
• Have you referred to anything in the essay which needs to be numbered, or put into a matching appendix? 
• Where you have used quotes, tables or diagrams from elsewhere, have you quoted your source and put it into the Reference list? 
• Using a front page for your essay is usually recommended as it allows you to state your essay title, course, name or candidate number, date of submission as well as word count and any other information required. 
• Last but not least; don’t leave it to the last minute, as this final preparation all takes time. Keep the submission date in mind, and plan to finish several days beforehand. Submitting late can carry penalties, and may lead to your work only being marked once, with no opportunity for improvement.

Open University – skills for study

Palgrave Macmillan Study Skills

COTTRELL, S. (2013) The study skills handbook. 4th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

HORN, R. (2009) The business skills handbook. London: Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. 

HORN, R. (2012) Researching and writing dissertations: a complete guide for business and management students. 2nd ed. London: Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. 

MCMILLAN, K. and WEYERS, J. (2007) How to write essays and assignments. Harlow: Pearson Education. 

SOLES, D. (2005) The academic essay. Bishops Lydeard: Studymates Ltd. 

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