Get in the habit of colour-coding your essays to make the structure easier to visualise and follow.
The concept of colour coding is simple. First, each essay should have a clear title, which is the first colour. Then there’s the introduction and conclusion, which are represented with the same colour.
The introduction should set out the core themes of the essay and instruct the reader as to how the essay will answer them. The conclusion should reiterate those core themes and demonstrate how the essay answered them. Introductions and conclusions should link together.
There’s a separate colour for the main paragraphs and a colour for the link sentence that leads from one paragraph to another. That makes four colours in total:
- One colour for the title (we’ve chosen yellow).
- One colour for the introduction and conclusion (we’ve used pink).
- One colour for the topic paragraphs (we’ve used green).
- One colour for the link sentence (we’ve used blue).
By keeping your structure clear and easy to follow, you’ll stay on track from start to finish.
Clearly signposted structures also make your work easier to follow and, ultimately, easier to mark.
