Abstract
ABSTRACT Undergraduate students are commonly advised to make plans of their essays before they begin writing, yet there is little empirical evidence on the nature, role or efficacy of essay planning. This paper examines findings from a recent study of coursework essay‐writing as an aspect of student learning in the social sciences. A total of 16 Psychology and 17 History students took part in the investigation, which mainly took the form of two sets of semi‐structured interviews. From an analysis of the interview transcripts, five planning strategies were identified. However, it was apparent that to gain a full understanding of the nature of planning, it was necessary to examine these strategies in the light of the main findings of the study—a qualitative analysis of differences in the students’ conceptions of what an essay was and what essay‐writing involved. In sum, what seemed important was less how a student planned than what planning was directed towards.
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