~4.11.18~
After some thought and caffeine, I figured out a way that will help with essay planning and structure.
I took notes/research, writing down everything that was relevant to my essay question. I noted down references, statistics and what I already knew on the topic. I didn’t worry too much if it was all jumbled amongst each other. I then took a large A3 piece of card, wrote my title/question in the centre and the key points around the edge in a spider mind map style. Using my post-its, i then made minimal notes from my research and stuck them around and moved them to help decide on a logical, concise order to form my essay plan and structure.
Throughout my research process, I also wrote down any sentences/paragraphs that came to me from my notes that would stand as the basis for actual paragraphs in my draft, that I can then tweak to perfect. I will add those to my plan/structure in a different colour too so that I can keep track.
From this, I will build my draft and tweak where appropriate to create what will hopefully be a pass worthy essay.
Hopefully this will also help someone else.