# Essay planning desk: the question, the readings and the word counts in one view

> For University and college students writing an assessed essay.

the question sits on a Card at the top, each section of the Page has a word target in a Field beside it, and every quote goes into a Table with its page number the moment you read it — so the draft is planned against the brief, not the night before. Distinct from /blog/essay-research (the method) and /university-students (the campaign page): this is the desk set-up.

## What goes on the desk

- Card ‘The question’ (/help/widget-card)
- Page ‘Outline and draft’ with one heading per section (/help/widget-page)
- Field widgets as number targets per section (/help/widget-field)
- Table ‘Quotes’ (Quote, Source, Page, Section (single select)) (/help/widget-table)
- Browser on the library database (/help/widget-browser)
- File or link for PDF readings (/help/widget-file-or-link)
- Timer for 25-minute writing sprints (/help/widget-timer).

## Set it up

create the desk with a due date and a Duration (/help/desk-create), or start from the Writing starter (a Draft page with Outline and Ideas / cuts stickies, /help/desk-templates).

## Use it day to day

one sprint per section; tick sections off.

## Where Plexii helps

Plexii finds the quote and page number and cites the reading; it never writes the essay (/university-students); AI Assist summarises a passage you select on a page in the Browser widget (/help/widget-ai-assist).