The most important part of writing a good essay actually comes before you've even put pen to paper – in the preparation. In fact, good preparation is the key to producing good writing of any kind. There are three key stages you need to go through in preparing your essay. The first involves brainstorming, researching the topic and sourcing relevant material; the second involves making notes on what you've read; and the third is the process of taking your ideas and building them into a well-designed plan. Let's look at each of these stages in turn.

Information-gathering: brainstorming, researching and selecting material

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a kind of free thinking about a particular idea, problem or topic. It consists of focusing on that idea, problem or topic and coming up with a creative response or solution, pushing ideas as far as possible and not censoring ideas that may seem silly – after all, ‘silly’ ideas often generate creative and interesting ones. The essential function of brainstorming is to open up as many possibilities as possible without having preconceptions or limits; you can then decide which are most reasonable or useful for your purposes.