Well, I was cruising around the Education/Careers section, hoping to write an opinion on A level Politics, or History, or Geography, but I spotted this category and decided I was probably qualified to write an opinion on this. I'm in my Upper Sixth year, my second year of constant lessons on how to write an essay in History and Politics. On a big-headed note, I got an A at AS level so I can't be too bad!

The first thing I should mention is how much essay writing is down to individual preference. Even my teachers contradict each other on cetain aspects, notably what to write in your Introduction and Conclusion, so if you disagree with what I say, don't do it!

Before I launch into how to write a good paragraph, and essay plans and all that, you need to be able to recognise the structure of the essay you will be writing. Different questions require different structures and different emphasis on aspects of the essay. I'll try to keep it simple.

You can write an essay in two ways, depending on the question. If the questions asks 'why' or 'how', you will probably want to list your points in order of importance. For example, if the question is 'Why Are Sunderland In The Premiership', you would write your points in order of importance - i.e. Kevin Phillips, then The Stadium, then Peter Reid, and so on. If the question asks 'Sunderland are a Premier League Quality Club. Discuss', you would want to split the essay into two halves - 'Yes, Sunderland are a Premier League Quality Club', and 'No, They Aren't'.

Another type of essay is the comparative essay, where you need to compare two things - like Sunderland and Newcastle. A question like 'Are Sunderland Better Than Newcastle?' would demand a more complex structure.

Personally, I would split this essays into four bits - Sunderland are Good, Newcastle are Bad, Sunderland are Bad, Newcastle are Good. Then conclude. However, you could directly compare and contrast each aspect of the club, for example, one paragraph could be 'Who has a better stadium'.

OK, lets look at actually writing the essay. Once you have decided the basic structure of the essay, an essay plan is essential.

The depth of the essay plan depends on how much time you have. If you are in an exam where you are short of time, you might just want to scribble down the key words of each paragraph you intend to write. However, if you have plenty of time, you may want to do this extended version.

1)Plan your introduction. This should include background on the issue, and an outline of what you plan to cover. More on Intros later.
2) For each paragraph, write a little one sentence summary of the paragraph which will be your main point. Then, write some evidence for this. For each piece of evidence, note how this relates to the question. This keeps it relevant at all times. At the end of the paragraph, write what you will cover in your concluding sentence.
3) For your conclusion, write how you will conclude. Knowing how you will conclude helps you to keep a consistent argument throughout the essay. Finally, note your best pieces of evidence to support your view.

Next, you can actually write your essay! Wahey!!

Introduction
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This should give background to the issue you are writing about. The more time you have for your essay or the larger the word limit, the more you should write. Then, you can do one of three things. One is to state the structure your essay will take. The second is defining any complicated key words in the question. The third is rephrasing the question - which is a good way of leading yourself nto the essay. Personally, I prefer the third option. If the essay is long, say, 3500 words, I would suggest a 250-400 word intro.

Main Section
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Each paragraph should contain the following. Firstly, your main point, for example. 'Sunderland are better football club than Newcastle because they have a better stadium.' Then you should use evidence to back this up, such as 'This is because Sunderland's food prices are lower - a hamburger is £3 compared to £4 at Newcastle.' The more evidence you use, the better the paragraph is. After your evidence, you should analyse. This is basically assessing this point's relative importance to your other points. For example 'Sunderland's lower ticket prices are of greater importance to Newcastle greater stadium capacity because it is the ticket prices that directly affect the consumer.' This may not be possible in the first couple of paragraphs as you haven't got any points to compare. Finally, you should relate your point back to the question. For example, Sunderland's better stadium makes Sunderland a better football club because it shows a greater appreciation of the fan's commitment to the club, as well as providing revenue for the club.' This keeps your point relative to the question.

By the way, my examples may not make sense, but the idea is right!

Finally, your conclusion - possibly the most important part of the essay. In this you should simply sum up your arguments, and decide which is most important - and make a decision. Are Sunderland better than Newcastle? (Yes!). Use your best evidence to back up your claim. I like to finish the conclusion by answering the question using the actual wording of the question.

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Basically, there are some main points to remember:

1) Always do an essay plan, however short. It keeps your essay in good structure.
2) It helps if you know how you are going to conclude - it prevents you emphasising conflicting points.
3) Always refer back to the question at the end of each paragraph to keep your points relevant.
4) Analyse at the end of the paragraph and in the conclusion to take your essay to a higher level - decide which points are most important!

God help you if you ever have to write an essay.....but if you do......hope this helps!