Essay writing guide

Step 1: What is the command term?

Every question has one and it tells you how the question will be assessed and how much to write. 

Step 2: What global politics knowledge that we need for this question?

Which sections of the syllabus are related to this question?

Step 3: What are the key concepts?

There may be many key concepts in the question, if not, you should identify which are relevant. 

Step 4: What is the pivot point to the essay?

This means the line between the two sides: for/ against or agree/disagree.

To begin with you will probably argue taking a binary yes/ no. However, as you become more confident you can start to think in terms of three arguments or even more!

Step 5: What are my main arguments?

Briefly come up with as many different arguments as possible.

Then think of a real-world example for each argument. If you can't think of one, cross out the argument. 

Step 6: How will I structure my arguments for this question?

This is the toolkit for analysing global politics. There are many ways you can structure your arguments. For example, you could look at the question from different scales/ different stakeholder perspectives (actors) / different factors like social, economic, environmental, political/ changes over time etc.