Thank you all for your kind remarks.

As far as my essay goes, I am myself pleasantly surprised and very thankful to Allah, but i will recount what i did keep in mind while attempting the paper.

Firstly, i went for a topic i knew i had sufficient knowledge/know how of, in my case being " Global Warming, Fact or Fiction?".
Now i know that for some it is a pretty dull topic, but my aim was to go for a topic i was comfortable with and would not mess up too much even if i went off-track.

I started off by spending a few minutes to have a think about what i would write, and how i was going to present what ever relevant info/arguments i had. To help me with that i made a rough sketch of the different points i will be discussing and organized those points so as to form a coherent narrative/argument.

I think i spent about 15 - 20 mins in the above activity. But i after that i just kept writing, while of course consulting the outline i had drawn frequently to help me stick to the line of arguments i had chosen.

At that moment in time i was luckily well informed regarding the topic, and therefore splashed around different examples, scenarios, factors, figures, measures etc at relevant places. In fact i think my essay more than anything revolved around these examples/scenarios, and they formed an integral part of the argument process for each section. I was also mindful to relate everything to the topic at hand and to each other, where applicable, in order to have a well knit analysis rather than a disjointed patchy collage of facts alone.

Also i had looked at the past papers and had seen that the requirement of essay is 4500-6000 words, so had gone into the exam keeping in mind that limit, and when i drew my outline i still had that limit in mind and only noticed the new limit (of fewer words) in the Essay 2008 paper later on. Nevertheless, couldn't bring myself to leave any of the things i had decided to write about so i just went ahead and wrote em all . I think my final essay was around 6300-6500 words, but by this i am not advocating every one to do the same, just what i had done. I think the most difficult part of writing this much was to be mindful not to repeat what i had written, i think i did not really repeat much at all, except for emphasis of course.

Rest as i have already said, i was my self pleasantly surprised and grateful to Allah for the outcome of my effort.

Hope this answers your queries, and helps you in approaching your own essay.

Regards