ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some handy tips on how to plan, research, write, and reference a sociology essay, all of which should save the reader time and improve our performance. Essay writing is a skill that gets better and easier with practice, and the readers should allow themselves sufficient time to produce at least three drafts of any essay before submission. In terms of hours spent on an essay, the reader should expect a bare minimum of 20 hours for a first-year essay of around 1500 words. After doing some preliminary reading, the reader should begin to map out an essay plan. By putting their thoughts on paper, the reader will identify what their essay entails and what information readers need to find. Virtually all universities use plagiarism-detection software that not only compares essays among all students in a class, but also compares them with essays submitted in previous years, essays from other universities and published journal articles.
