ESSAY SKILLS

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ESSAY SKILLS

• RESEARCHING AND PREPARING
• PLANNING AND WRITING

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RESEARCHING AND PREPARING

• Before the Essay is set
• Do the preparatory work set notemaking,
  reading, using articles, online research, etc.
• Actively participate in lessons discussing the
  key issues, making notes during discussion,
  noting down pts made by the teacher
• Consider doing any additional reading that might
  be suggested

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RESEARCHING AND PREPARING

• Once the Essay is set
• Make sure you note down
• - the exact title (including any date range)
• - the deadline date (often one week)
• - any presentation requirements (e.g. typed,
  double-spaced)
• - any advice from the teacher on the approach
  to take
• Work on the essay over the week dont leave it
  all to the last minute
• In particular, start planning the essay early on,
  then come back to that and develop the plan
• Planning the essay should be the part that
  involves hard intellectual graft, not the writing
  which should be straightforward once the plan is
  in place.

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PLANNING AND WRITING

• Approaching Essay Planning
• Analyse the question what is the key focus of
  the essay
• Brainstorm the key themes and note them down
  could be a spider diagram or just a list, on
  computer or on paper, but space the points out
  so you can note ideas in next to them.
• Work through your relevant notes and add to your
  rough plan you may well need to add new themes
  at this time.
• Then review your planning page and work out how
  to structure the essay.

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PLANNING AND WRITING

• Structuring an Essay
• Essays should be thematic, not narrative just
  telling the story chronologically will result in
  a poor grade, no matter how detailed and accurate
  the content, because you are not answering the
  question directly
• Usually an essay will have 6-7 main sections
  (usually paragraphs)
• - An introduction
• - 4-5 thematic sections, each of which
  contributes directly to answering the question
• - A conclusion
• Dont quote heavily from historians, or even
  sources the examiners are interested in your
  opinion and your ability to support your ideas
  with factual material.

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PLANNING AND WRITING

• Thematic sections PT, EXPLAIN, EXEMPLIFY
• Each thematic section needs to begin with a key
  sentence, claim or argument that directly
  addresses the question PT
• e.g. economic difficulties were an important
  cause of X
• e.g. Foreign policy was an area in which Xs
  government was not successful
• Then explain your point, usually in two or three
  sentences. EXPLAIN
• Then provide enough evidence and examples to make
  your argument convincing EXEMPLIFY
• Normally a minimum of three pieces of factual
  support are needed to support your point, but
  more are desirable. If your essay is over a date
  range, think about whether your examples need to
  come from several different points over that
  period, rather than being clustered.

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PLANNING AND WRITING

• Introductions and Conclusions
• - Need planning!
• Plan BOTH before you start writing
• Introductions
• Dont scene set
• Identify and explain key terms in the question
  e.g. how should success/failure be measured? Are
  there identifiable aims you can use as criteria?
  What was the nature of the event?
• Preview all the factors that will form your main
  sections. Give an idea of the way you will
  attack the question.

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PLANNING AND WRITING

• Conclusions
• Make sure you weigh up all the factors
• in order to answer the overall question draw on
  any criteria you presented in the intro
• Try to justify your opinion argue why one is
  more important/ more successful, etc.
• Your own opinion must come through

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PLANNING AND WRITING

• Common types of Question
• Causation questions why did X happen?
• Significance how successful was X?

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PLANNING AND WRITING

• Significance Essays
• Need to identify criteria for measuring success
  in introduction often these are the aims of the
  govt/individual.
• Then break the issues down into a number (4-5)
  themes, so that you can analyse their relative
  success/failure in different areas (e.g. Finance,
  Administration, Law and Order, War, handling
  parliament).
• Typically you will argue that they were more
  successful in some areas, less successful in
  others.
• Begin each section with a key sentence, making a
  claim that directly addresses the question
• e.g. In handling parliament X was very
  successful
• e.g. In maintaining law and order X was quite
  unsuccessful
• then explain and provide evidence and examples
  that support that
• PT, EXPLAIN, SUPPORT

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PLANNING AND WRITINGSignificance Essays

• The Conclusion
• Dont just count up areas of success and failure
• instead come to an overall judgement which
  directly answers the question, referring back to
  the criteria which you set up in the
  introduction.
• The conclusion should integrate the arguments of
  all your thematic sections
• Higher level thinking as you plan your essay will
  give you approaches to provide a judgement

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PLANNING AND WRITINGSignificance Essays

• Higher level thinking
• 1) Are there themes in which you can see change
  over time?
• Initially Xs foreign policy was quite
  successful, but after date they experienced
  failures
• As well as backing this up with evidence, can
  you comment on why this change occurred.
• 2) Can you come up with two different
  interpretations of the same theme?
• e.g. X could be seen as very successful in
  handling the economy then support.
• New para. However, it could be argued that
  Xs economic management was actually poor then
  support that view too
• 3) Linking what do the various successes and
  failures have in common?
• e.g. 3 areas of initial success but subsequent
  failure due to loss of commitment
• e.g. 3 areas that were successful but created a
  backlash among sections of society
• e.g. some areas with short-term success, others
  with long-term failure
• e.g. 1 very important theme where success or
  failure influences achievements in other areas
  (poor finance undermining both law and order and
  war)

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PLANNING AND WRITING

• Causation Essays
• Need to identify a number of factors each of
  which is a cause of the event/development you
  have to explain these all need to be previewed
  in your introduction
• Some questions give you one factor and ask you
  assess its importance e.g. How important was
  economic change in causing X?
• In these cases you have to explain that factor
  first and thoroughly, and then identify and
  explain other possible factors before assessing
  which is/are the most important.
• Each factor/cause then has a thematic section in
  the essay PT, EXPLAIN, EXEMPLIFY
• Conclusion must draw together all the
  factors/causes you have covered and provide an
  overall judgement which factor(s) are the most
  important in the explanation? Provide an
  argument to support this claim.
• Higher level thinking as you plan your essay will
  give you approaches to do this.

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PLANNING AND WRITINGCausation Essays

• Higher Level Thinking
• What is the role of each factor/cause in the
  explanation?
• - are some long-term factors conditions
  allowing the event/dev to occur?
• - are others short-term factors triggers
  dictating when and how the event/dev occurred?
• Can factors be grouped into categories e.g.
  political, economic, personality, military, etc.
  does this help your overall explanation?
• Linking how do some factors interact with each
  other? Did X cause Y? Are both S-T factors B
  and C consequences of L-T factor A?
• Comparisons What do your links suggest about
  the relative importance of each factor in causing
  the event/dev?