Essay Writing at Uni?!

I’m a final year so this isn’t new to me but for the first time in my 3 years at university I feel like one of the essays I am writing is just complete BS and I’m winging it?!
I had a plan for it and everything but because the guidelines for the essay are so limited (they aren’t very inclined to help us this year) I just feel like I’m trying to follow my plan but god only knows if it’s even right!
Slightly scared because I’ve never had to feel like I’m winging a piece of work before, plus it’s third year so that doesn’t help...

Does whoever set your essay have office hours? If so, book in to see them and see if you can get a bit more guidance. Maybe tell them what you're doing and say you're worried you've gone in the wrong direction? They may not tell you exactly what to do, but they will probably let you know if you're totally messing up? If you're normally a good student, they won't want to fail you.

Good luck!

The best they can do is see my essay plan and give me feedback (which they did) and it was all very positive. However, a plan isn’t exactly like the real essay itself and I feel like the guidance given for the real essay is not as explicit as the plan. Unfortunately I’m away from University atm but I know you cannot discuss what you are writing within the actual essay with them as they simply do not allow it sadly. This means that I feel like I am slightly going into it blind sighted, I know I’m not the only Student feeling this way, but I also know some students are the type of people to just persevere and think outside the box enough to get them by and still retain a decent mark at the end of it. Some students probably won’t even complete it till the night before it’s due (end of April) and still achieve grades I couldn’t in a longer stretch of time.
I don’t normally struggle this much, which makes me think I’m over thinking it slightly, but when left to my own devices I do feel somewhat out of touch with what I am supposed to be doing for the assignment, that’s my problem here :/

It's annoying they're so strict, but I suppose it helps them be fair. If your plan is good, then I doubt that your finished essay will be terrible.

Is it just an essay? Could you work out how much of your final grade it's worth, and just accept that if it's worth 30% of 20% of 60% of your degree, a bad grade won't totally mess you up?

So it's worth about 13% of your final grade, which isn't loads. If you get a 2.2 or even a third, you'll be able to bring your grade up to a 2.1 if you do well elsewhere.

I'm not saying don't put any effort in but don't panic about it either.

Is it your dissertation?

Okay, thank you! So far I’ve been on and off writing it for 2 weeks (from my plan I made earlier this year) and I’m on 2500 words and it’s 3000 words long - I still feel like I have so much more to say though haha. Noo my dissertation I completed a few weeks ago, that’s worth 40 credits (double weighted) so it counts for more of this year than my other assignments do

Once you've got a draft done, you can always edit it though- having lots to say is better than not having enough!

True, so should I just focus on transferring my plan over and then fill in and edit the gaps afterwards?