How to Structure an Argumentative Essay (With an Outline You Can Reuse)
A step-by-step guide to the argumentative essay: thesis, body paragraphs, counterargument and conclusion, with a reusable outline and a worked example.
Practical, honest guides to academic writing and student life: how to structure an essay, how to find and cite sources, how to revise and plan your time, and how to budget for university. Every guide cites its sources and is written to help you do your own work better.
Plan, structure and polish an essay, from the thesis to the final proofread.
A step-by-step guide to the argumentative essay: thesis, body paragraphs, counterargument and conclusion, with a reusable outline and a worked example.
A practical method for planning an essay: decode the prompt, brainstorm, group and order ideas, build an outline, and a seven-day schedule for a 2,000–3,000-word essay.
What a thesis statement is, where it goes, and how to test it with the six questions writing centres use, with ten weak theses rewritten into strong ones.
What a strong essay introduction and conclusion do, the opening and closing strategies writing centres recommend, and the clichés markers are tired of reading.
The difference between editing and proofreading, the techniques writing centres recommend, and a 15-point checklist of the errors that cost marks.
Find and evaluate sources, paraphrase and cite them correctly, including AI tools.
Which citation style to use and how: in-text citations and reference entries in APA 7th, MLA 9th and Chicago 18th editions, with examples for books, articles, websites and AI tools.
Where to find academic sources, how to use Google Scholar's “Cited by” and library links, how to tell a peer-reviewed article from a web page, and how to evaluate any source with the CRAAP test.
What a literature review is for, the three ways to organise one (chronological, thematic, methodological), how to synthesise rather than summarise, and a synthesis matrix template.
Why swapping synonyms is still plagiarism, the six-step paraphrasing method from Purdue OWL, when you need a citation, and a worked example of a good and a bad paraphrase.
How universities approach generative AI in assessments, how to check what your course allows, how to keep a record of your use, and how to cite AI output in APA, MLA and Chicago.
Revise, take notes and manage your time with methods backed by research.
Practice testing and spaced revision beat rereading and highlighting. What the learning research shows, and a four-week revision plan built on it.
How the Cornell note-taking system works, when to use outline or mapping notes, what the research really says about laptops versus handwriting, and how to turn notes into revision.
A practical time-management system for university: a term calendar, backward planning from each deadline, a weekly plan, focused work blocks such as the Pomodoro Technique, and what to do when you fall behind.
Budgeting and housing for your first years at university.
How to build a first-year student budget: what the maximum maintenance loan covers in 2026/27, what student rooms actually cost, and a monthly budget template, with sources for the UK and the US.
How halls of residence and private student renting differ in England: licences and tenancies, the Renters' Rights Act changes from May 2026, the five-week deposit cap, deposit protection and what to check before you sign.