Writing is a skill. We may either posses the skill, or we can easily acquire it. For instance, imagine for a moment that we had to write an essay [or a report] on how to parcel up a present ready for posting. It does not really matter whether our parcel is to be a symmetric box or one of those amusing, complicated shapes which renders surprise in the recipient quite impossible ... perhaps a bicycle ... The handlebars are a bit of a give-away.

To write our essay we will need a plan. A plan helps us to avoid producing a jumble of ideas and thoughts which will be difficult for someone else to understand.

Essays fall into two categories. The first is creative and the second is analytical. Generally speaking, essays produced in your programme will be of the second category, analytical. We will be reporting on something which has happened or is happening in our particular field of knowledge.

So now to our plan. At the risk of displaying a rather firm grasp of the over obvious, the most simple essay plan is one that may be described as having a beginning, a middle, and an end [or in analytical essays, a conclusion].

Simple though this be, it is a simplicity which often can be obscured by the blinding whiteness of our empty first page. Let us use our plan now, to proceed. Let us return to our parcel wrapping report.

Our beginning can take the form of an introduction. For example, we might write that we had bought a present for someone and were going to wrap it up ready for posting to them.

We might note that that is really quite easy to write. Perhaps a few paragraphs would suffice. Indeed were the project much more complicated than wrapping a parcel, the introduction would still be easy. The principle is the same. The introduction will describe the where, why and when the project started and what it is about.

The reader of our essay now knows what our essay will be about. This guides the reader towards the middle part, the difficult part. This is the ‘how’ part and it too can be made easy to produce.

Here is how. Let us stay with our trusty parcel. The wrapping of our parcel requires three aspects to be considered. Interestingly, so do most of the very complicated of human activities whether it be sending a man to the moon and back, or building the Channel Tunnel.

All human activity requires [a] knowledge [b] skills, and [c] attitude.

[a] Taking knowledge first, we have to have the knowledge that we will need brown paper, tape, and possibly string and scissors.

[b] Skill includes being able to fold the brown paper and cope with one end popping up whilst we work on another part of the parcel. We might employ our skill of managing others to have someone apply their index finger to the string whilst we complete the knot.

[c] Finally, there is attitude. We must want to wrap the parcel and go through all that that entails.

Using our knowledge, skill and attitude then, we can see that we can easily write an essay which would explain to our reader what, when, where and how to do it.

Of course someone might point out that it is easy for us to say that it is easy. What do we do if after our three line plan we are still left with a blank sheet ... and a mind which is rapidly going blank too. What about writer’s block?

Getting a mental block is a common problem. It happens to all writers at some time. A first reaction to mental block is often to try thinking harder. This can be doubly frustrating as it usually produces the reverse effect of what we want.

Mercifully, the solution is often quite simple. All that we need to do is to back off a little. Putting the kettle on, taking a walk around the block or in some way diverting ourselves often frees up the connecting routes between our conscious and sub-conscious minds. Our sub-conscious is where problems are constantly analysed and resolved. It never makes mistakes. Simply relaxing, letting our whole self relax can be sufficient to enable us to connect with our powerful sub-conscious.

Try to avoid political correctness. It conveys to your reader an un-academic, shallowness which can then unfairly undermine your otherwise excellent work. It is the abnegation of truth.

When you have completed your first draft, check it for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

A favourite schoolboy howler is to start a proposition in one tense and end it in another. Punctuation is important since a comma in the wrong place can utterly change the entire meaning from black into white.

A useful rule on paragraphs is that each paragraph should contain one main idea or concept. The best place for this is the first sentence. Do beware of spell checkers in computers. Spell checkers do not know that their should have been there nor that who’s should have been whose.

Beware of the use of flowery, adjective filled language. Here is an example. The ingressional - egressional facility had been inadvertently maladministered . This would have read better and been more easily understood if the simple facts had been stated - someone had left the door open.

And finally, the most important thing to try to do throughout your study is to enjoy it and look ahead to when that knowledge will be available to you to call upon just as easily as you remember your own name.