Higher History
Improve your Essay Writing Skills!
DIFFERENT TYPES OF QUESTION
a) Questions that ask you to compare the importance of one specified factor compared to other relevant factors: questions of this kind often begin ‘To what extent…’ or ‘How important…’ eg.
· To what extent was the growth of democracy in Britain after 1830 due to social and economic change?
· How important were concerns about the extent of poverty in Britain in the Liberal Government’s decision to introduce social reforms between 1906 and 1914? (2008)
(For this type of question, you should start by discussing the factor specified in the question before balancing this with your discussion of the other factors and reaching a conclusion)
b) Questions that ask you to make a judgement about historical events: questions of this kind might begin: ‘How successful…’ ‘How significant…’ ‘How accurate is it to describe…’ e.g.
· How significant an impact did the welfare reforms of the Labour Government 1945-1951 have on the lives of the British people? (2009)
· How successfully did British governments achieve their aims in foreign policy before the outbreak of the Czechoslovakian crisis in 1938? (Exemplar Question)
(For this type of question, you should present a balanced discussion using evidence that both supports and disagrees with the point for debate before reaching a conclusion)
NOTE: Sometimes questions can be phrased in the form of a statement:
“By 1928, Britain was a fully democratic country.” How accurate is this view? (2009)
All question types are asking you to argue about points not simply tell a story.
MAKE SURE YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION…
Make sure you know exactly what the question is asking you before you start writing!
Before you start writing, make sure you are very clear about the context of the question and what exactly it is asking. For example, you will probably be awarded very few if any marks:
if the question is asking you about the Liberal Government reforms of 1906-14 and your essay is about the Labour Government reforms of 1945-51
or
if the question is about the Growth of Democracy and you answer only about women’s suffrage
You should also be aware that there are different questions that might be asked about each topic. For example, with regard to the Liberal Reforms, you might be asked how successful the reforms were or you might be asked about the reasons why the reforms were introduced. Each of these would have to be answered in a different way.
Remember, all question types are asking you to analyse and argue about points not simply telling a story or narrative.
You should be prepared to answer all of the potential questions that might come up for each topic. You should prepare a plan with a clear structure for each potential question. However, it is not advised to memorise a set answer as it is unlikely to fit the question exactly. Don’t assume the question you want will come up. It is a common (and costly) mistake to ignore what the question is asking and simply write down everything you know about the topic. The exam board penalise this heavily! You will get far more credit if you are seen to be attempting to answer the set question rather than writing down lots of information, especially if it isn’t relevant!
WATCH YOUR TIMING!
You only have 40 minutes to write each essay but don’t panic! This simply means you must get to the point of the essay quickly, write concisely and make sure you are relevant to the question.
It should be possible to write at least 3 sides of A4 in the given time for each essay, but only if you have prepared properly and are confident in what you are writing about.
It is essential to have a clear plan and structure to help you answer the question in the time available. Many people like to spend a minute or so writing a very quick plan of what they want to include in their answer at the side of the page. This keeps you on the right track in case you forget something once you start writing up.
It is a common mistake to spend far too long on the introduction and first part of your essay – inevitably this means you will run out of time later on! Whatever you do, ensure you leave time for a conclusion.
It is vital that you spend equal amounts of time on both essays. For example, don’t spend an hour on essay 1 and 20 minutes on essay 2!
The exam board make it very clear that candidates who spend longer on one essay at the expense of the other almost always perform poorly!
PLANNING AND STRUCTURING YOUR ESSAY
An essay has 3 main components:
the introduction
Addresses the question, puts the essay in context briefly introduces the issues to be discussed and demonstrates a solid line of argument.
the development (main body)
demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the key issues and clearly sets out the argument on why factors are relevant to the question asked.
the conclusion
Summarises the key points of the essay and comes to a definitive answer on the question. It does not bring in any new points!
Each of these is vital to the overall quality of your essay. As mentioned previously, one of the best ways to prepare for writing a higher essay is to have a clear plan in mind for each potential question.
Plans do not have to be especially detailed to be effective. For example:
‘How important was women’s contribution to the war effort in gaining the vote in 1918?’
· Introduction (context, introduce relevant factors, set out line of argument)
Development
· Argument of why women’s war effort gained the vote
· Evidence to back up this argument
· Argument on why War effort may not have gained women the vote
· Evidence to back up this argument
· Argument of why Suffragettes actions gained women the vote.
· Evidence to back up this argument
· Argument of why Suffragists actions gained women the vote.
· Evidence to back up this argument
· Etc, etc, etc
· Conclusion (answer the question!)
THE INTRODUCTION
Your introduction should be reasonably short and to the point. Read the question carefully and be sure that you know what you are being asked to write about.
The purpose of a good introduction is to show that you understand clearly what the question is asking, you can put the essay in context and indicate to the examiner what issues will be considered.
Your introduction should:
· put the essay in context. In other words, give brief, relevant background details to set the scene (refer to dates / time period).
· Signpost the relevant factors that will be focused on in the main body of your essay (purpose of the essay). Some people like to number these signposts and follow that order throughout their essay
· Explain any important words from the question if relevant.
· Set out your line of argument. Was it the Suffragettes who gained women the vote? Was Hitler’s ability as a speaker the reason for the Nazis coming to power? Did the Liberals pass their reforms due to the reports of Booth and Rowntree? Etc, etc, etc.
Example of a good introduction:
How effective were the Liberal Social Welfare Reforms of 1906-1914 in tackling the problems of poverty?
At the beginning of the 20th Century, evidence from the work of Booth and Rowntree, recruitment for the Boer War and a number of small scale social studies indicated that Britain had a number of serious social problems needing urgent action. During the period 1906-1914, the Liberal Government brought in a series of new laws directed towards ‘the Young’ and ‘the Old’ . They also insured many of those in work against sickness and unemployment and improved conditions for millions of vulnerable workers . It could certainly be said that although many of their reforms were successful in tackling poverty, many problems still remained as the reforms weren’t completely successful.
THE DEVELOPMENT (MAIN BODY)
You now have to develop the relevant factors that you ‘signposted’ in your introduction. You should structure the main body of your essay into several paragraphs, each relating to one of the factors you introduced. It helps the structure of your essay if these come in the same order as in your introduction – this is where the numbering can help some people.
Remember – the purpose of the main body of your essay is not to write down everything you know about the topic. It is to present a well-balanced, clearly structured argument where you evaluate the issues and show awareness of historical debate where appropriate.
In the main body of your essay, you should aim to:
· introduce the relevant factor and its significance to the question.
· set out the argument of why this factor is relevant to the question.
· back up your argument with examples of historical knowledge.
· although it is not compulsory in exam essays, showing an awareness of historical debate makes an essay stronger and is required to gain top argument marks. NOTE: in the Ext Essay this is expected!
The contribution of women towards the war effort played an important role in granting votes for women. Certainly it can be argued that their efforts during WWI highlighted to the politicians that women were an essential part of society and therefore deserved the franchise as well as better rights. Significantly, women filled the jobs left vacant by men recruited into the military. By 1918, 4 million were employed in war-related industries such as engineering and construction as well as filling public sector jobs such as postal service and transport workers. In 1915, a Women’s Police Service (WPS) was founded. It was not only on the Home Front that women proved their worth. Many joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) and were willing to serve behind the lines in dangerous conditions. Other women joined the military services and performed invaluable tasks as drivers, engineers, telephone operators and code breakers. Historians such as AJP Taylor suggest that women were rewarded for their war effort by being given the vote in 1918. However, it could also be argued that women’s war effort has been exaggerated as a reason for them gaining the vote as their work was not as important as sometimes portrayed and those who helped in the war were not necessarily those who were rewarded with the franchise. The majority of women that helped in the factories manufacturing weapons and as the women’s land army were young and working class yet it was women over 30 who were given the franchise in 1918. Also, although the Women’s Land Army was good propaganda for the government, the number of women involved was actually quite low – approximately 16,000.
THE CONCLUSION
The conclusion is an often neglected part of the essay but it is vitally important. No matter how good your Content and Argument marks are, you will struggle to gain good structure marks if you have weak conclusion or worse, no conclusion at all!
If you know the topic, you should really have a good idea of what you want to say in your conclusion before you start the essay. It is all too easy to have a poorly thought-out conclusion that doesn’t relate to the points you have already made – or perhaps even contradicts them!
A common failing in the conclusion is to ignore or pay very little attention to answering the question, or starting to introduce new points not already covered in the essay.
The main requirement of a conclusion is to:
· Address the question – this is just good writing style.
· Summarise the main arguments from the relevant factors.
· Clearly answer the question with an overall judgement of what you were asked.
Example of a good conclusion to:
How effective were the Liberal Social Welfare Reforms of 1906-1914 in tackling the problems of poverty?
In conclusion, the Liberals had a degree of success in tackling the problems of poverty with their Social Welfare Reforms though problems certainly remained. Their reforms to help ‘the Young’ and ‘the Old’ certainly helped the weakest in society by providing key support when it was required, yet did not go far enough to remove all of the problems of the time. They also insured many of those in work against sickness and unemployment though again this did not eradicate the problems. They also passed a raft of reforms to improve conditions for millions of vulnerable workers . Though they were not completely effective with these reforms, it is fair to say that they considerably improved the lives of many people across Britain. It is also worth remembering that the Liberals did not set out to create a full Welfare State as Labour did in 1945 but they certainly laid the foundations for it.
WRITING IN AN APPROPRIATE STYLE
For a Higher History essay, you are expected to demonstrate a mature style of writing. Never use informal language and avoid slang words, abbreviations and contractions such as ‘eg’ and ‘etc’. Also, avoid using the first person: ‘I think that…’; ‘In my opinion…’; ‘In this essay I will discuss…’.
You should also avoid too much narrative. While you obviously need to demonstrate to the examiner that you have a good knowledge of the topic, this must be done in the context of a relevant discussion. Simply ‘telling the story’ of what happened – no matter how detailed – will score poorly.
So how can you avoid being too narrative?
· Try to write in a discursive rather than narrative style of writing.
· Make sure you set your argument out clearly and use points of knowledge to back up your argument.