How to Write a Good History Essay

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How To Write a Good History Essay

By Robert Pearce | Published in History Review 2012

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The former editor of History Review,Robert Pearce gives his personal view.

First of all we ought to ask, What constitutes a good history essay? Probably no two people will

completely agree, if only for the very good reason that quality is in the eye – and reflects the

intellectual state – of the reader. What follows, therefore, skips philosophical issues and insteadoffers practical advice on how to write an essay that will get top marks.

Relevance

Witnesses in court promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. All history

students should swear a similar oath: to answer the question, the whole question and nothing butthe question. This is the number one rule. You can write brilliantly and argue a case with a

wealth of convincing evidence, but if you are not being relevant then you might as well be

tinkling a cymbal. In other words, you have to think very carefully about the question you areasked to answer. Be certain to avoid the besetting sin of those weaker students who, fatally,

answer the question the examiners should have set – but unfortunately didn‟t. Take your time,

look carefully at the wording of the question, and be certain in your own mind that you have

thoroughly understood all its terms.

If, for instance, you are asked why Hitler came to power, you must define what this process of coming to power consisted of. Is there any specific event that marks his achievement of power?

If you immediately seize on his appointment as Chancellor, think carefully and ask yourself what

actual powers this position conferred on him. Was the passing of the Enabling Act more

important? And when did the rise to power actually start? Will you need to mention Hitler‟s birthand childhood or the hyperinflation of the early 1920s? If you can establish which years are

relevant – and consequently which are irrelevant – you will have made a very good start. Then

you can decide on the different factors that explain his rise.

Or if you are asked to explain the successes of a particular individual, again avoid writing the

first thing that comes into your head. Think about possible successes. In so doing, you will

automatically be presented with the problem of defining „success‟. What does it really mean? Isit the achievement of one‟s aims? Is it objective (a matter of fact) or subjective (a matter of

opinion)? Do we have to consider short-term and long-term successes? If the person benefits

from extraordinary good luck, is that still a success? This grappling with the problem of definition will help you compile an annotated list of successes, and you can then proceed to

explain them, tracing their origins and pinpointing how and why they occurred. Is there a key

common factor in the successes? If so, this could constitute the central thrust of your answer.

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The key word in the above paragraphs is think . This should be distinguished from remembering,

daydreaming and idly speculating. Thinking is rarely a pleasant undertaking, and most of us

contrive to avoid it most of the time. But unfortunately there‟s no substitute if you want to getthe top grade. So think as hard as you can about the meaning of the question, about the issues it

raises and the ways you can answer it. You have to think and think hard – and then you should

think again, trying to find loopholes in your reasoning. Eventually you will almost certainly become confused. Don‟t worry: confusion is often a necessary stage in the achievement of clarity. If you get totally confused, take a break. When you return to the question, it may be that

the problems have resolved themselves. If not, give yourself more time. You may well find that

decent ideas simply pop into your conscious mind at unexpected times.

You need to think for yourself and come up with a „bright idea‟ to write a good history essay.

You can of course follow the herd and repeat the interpretation given in your textbook. But thereare problems here. First, what is to distinguish your work from that of everybody else? Second,

it‟s very unlikely that your school text has grappled with the precise question you have been set.

The advice above is relevant to coursework essays. It‟s different in exams, where time is limited.But even here, you should take time out to do some thinking. Examiners look for quality rather

than quantity, and brevity makes relevance doubly important. If you get into the habit of thinkingabout the key issues in your course, rather than just absorbing whatever you are told or read, you

will probably find you‟ve already considered whatever issues examiners pinpoint in exams.

The Vital First Paragraph

Every part of an essay is important, but the first paragraph is vital. This is the first chance youhave to impress – or depress – an examiner, and first impressions are often decisive. You might

therefore try to write an eye-catching first sentence. („Start with an earthquake and wor k up to a

climax,‟ counselled the film-maker Cecil B. De Mille.) More important is that you demonstrateyour understanding of the question set. Here you give your carefully thought out definitions of the key terms, and here you establish the relevant time-frame and issues – in other words, the

parameters of the question. Also, you divide the overall question into more manageable sub-

divisions, or smaller questions, on each of which you will subsequently write a paragraph. Youformulate an argument, or perhaps voice alternative lines of argument, that you will substantiate

later in the essay. Hence the first paragraph – or perhaps you might spread this opening section

over two paragraphs – is the key to a good essay.

On reading a good first paragraph, examiners will be profoundly reassured that its author is on

the right lines, being relevant, analytical and rigorous. They will probably breathe a sigh of relief that here is one student at least who is avoiding the two common pitfalls. The first is to ignore

the question altogether. The second is to write a narrative of events – often beginning with the

birth of an individual – with a half-hearted attempt at answering the question in the final

paragraph.

Middle Paragraphs



Philip Larkin once said that the modern novel consists of a beginning, a muddle and an end. The

same is, alas, all too true of many history essays. But if you‟ve written a good opening section, in

which you‟ve divided the overall question into separate and manageable areas, your essay willnot be muddled; it will be coherent.

It should be obvious, from your middle paragraphs, what question you are answering. Indeed it‟sa good test of an essay that the reader should be able to guess the question even if the title is

covered up. So consider starting each middle paragraph with a generalization relevant to the

question. Then you can develop this idea and substantiate it with evidence. You must give a judicious selection of evidence (i.e. facts and quotations) to support the argument you are

making. You only have a limited amount of space or time, so think about how much detail to

give. Relatively unimportant background issues can be summarized with a broad brush; your

most important areas need greater embellishment. (Do not be one of those misguided candidateswho, unaccountably, „go to town‟ on peripheral areas and gloss over crucial ones.)

The regulations often specify that, in the A2 year, students should be familiar with the main

interpretations of historians. Do not ignore this advice. On the other hand, do not takehistoriography to extremes, so that the past itself is virtually ignored. In particular, never fall into

the trap of thinking that all you need are sets of historians‟ opinions. Quite often in essaysstudents give a generalization and back it up with the opinion of an historian – and since they

have formulated the generalization from the opinion, the argument is entirely circular, and

therefore meaningless and unconvincing. It also fatuously presupposes that historians are

infallible and omniscient gods. Unless you give real evidence to back up your view – ashistorians do – a generalisation is simply an assertion. Middle paragraphs are the place for the

real substance of an essay, and you neglect this at your peril.

Final Paragraph

If you‟ve been arguing a case in the body of an essay, you should hammer home that case in thefinal paragraph. If you‟ve been examining several alternative propositions, now is the time to say

which one is correct. In the middle paragraph you are akin to a barrister arguing a case. Now, in

the final paragraph, you are the judge summing up and pronouncing the verdict.

It‟s as well to keep in mind what you should not be doing. Do not introduce lots of freshevidence at this stage, though you can certainly introduce the odd extra fact that clinches your

case. Nor should you go on to the „next‟ issue. If your question is about Hitler coming to power,

you should not end by giving a summary of what he did once in power. Such an irrelevant

ending will fail to win marks. Remember the point about answering „nothing but the question‟?On the other hand, it may be that some of the things Hitler did after coming to power shed

valuable light on why he came to power in the first place. If you can argue this convincingly, all

well and good; but don‟t expect the examiner to puzzle out relevance. Examiners are not

expected to think; you must make your material explicitly relevant.

Final Thoughts



A good essay, especially one that seems to have been effortlessly composed, has often been

revised several times; and the best students are those who are most self-critical. Get into the habit

of criticizing your own first drafts, and never be satisfied with second-best efforts. Also, takeaccount of the feedback you get from teachers. Don‟t just look at the mark your essay gets; read

the comments carefully. If teachers don‟t advise how to do even better next time, they are not

doing their job properly.

Relevance is vital in a good essay, and so is evidence marshalled in such a way that it produces a

convincing argument. But nothing else really matters. The paragraph structure recommendedabove is just a guide, nothing more, and you can write a fine essay using a very different

arrangement of material. Similarly, though it would be excellent if you wrote in expressive, witty

and sparklingly provocative prose, you can still get top marks even if your essay is serious,

ponderous and even downright dull.

There are an infinite number of ways to write an essay because any form of writing is a means of

self-expression. Your essay will be unique because you are unique: it‟s up to you to ensure that

it‟s uniquely good, not uniquely mediocre.

Essay Starter

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Essay starters decide the fate of your essay

A loose and clumsy essay starter can bring down your chances of getting into a good college or a scholarship essay contest. The way you begin your essay decides the fate of your essay to alarge extent. Since admission committee has very little time for evaluating student‟s essay for

admission to their institutes, the primary task of any student writing an essay thus should be to

concentrate on catchy essay starters that hook readers from the very first line.

The task therefore is much more complex than it may seem at first. When every student is tryingthe best to make their essays attention catching, coming up with an innovative idea might be just

as challenging. This is where we can help you with your essay writing assignments.

Urgentessays.co.uk is a custom essay writing firm that offers students of all academic levels with

unique and insightful essays that make them stand out from the rest. Our team of professionalwriters have years of experience in their field of expertise and writing which makes them fully

aware of the instructors‟ and students‟ requirements.

Let us provide you with some tips on essay starters that will help you make your essay

captivating and enriching.

Tip 1



Use quotations: quotation is indisputably the most common and yet the most effective essay

starter. Quotations from books, journals, interviews or news make an essay enriching and

grabbing. When using quotations appropriate references must be made next to the quotation. Theadditional information regarding the source and page numbers can either mentioned in

parenthesis or as a footnote. The reference must be cited in bibliography of the essay. Use of

references helps a writer avoid unintended plagiarism.

Tip 2

Striking statistical figure: use of figures that either support or defeat your thesis statement can be

a productive way of grabbing attention. The more striking the statistics or data, the more catchy

your essay becomes. However, make sure that the data is based on evidence. Cite the referencefrom where the data is collected.

Tip 3

Rhetorical questions: “„what is truth?‟ asked Justin Pilate but did not wait for an answer”.Francis bacon, the famous essayist uses rhetorical question effectively to bring the element of paradox in one of his essays. Rhetorical question is the one which is not meant to be answered. It

is one of the efficient ploys used as essay starters by essay writers.

Tip 4

Inverted or fragmented narration: inverted narration works best in descriptive and narrative

essays that bring about your perception of an issue or event. While a simple narrative technique

has a definite beginning, middle and end; the „once upon a time‟ beginning can take over a more

thrilling action oriented beginning where the plot unfolds itself with time and reading.

Tip 5

Open answers: catch your readers head on. The essay openings which make the reader give a

second thought, ask questions and look for answers in your essay, can prove quite effective essay

starters.

How to Write a Catchy Introduction

« How to Use Quotes in Your Application Essay

Helpful Tips

Avoid Eternal Student Syndrome »

Writing an introduction is probably the hardest part of any writing assignment. Just coming upwith that first sentence... Or making a smooth transition into the body of the essay... It can takeup hours of your time without actually getting anything done. Writers often wonder how to get

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the reader's attention and make their essay stand out. In this blog post, I will help you catch the

reader's attention in all the right ways.

An introduction should consist of at least three and at most, say, ten sentences. About one or two

of these sentences should be your "attention grabber." An attention grabber can be anything, as

long as it speaks to your audience. This means that you have to be conscious of who is going toread your work.

Take this blog post as an example. The first sentence is my attention grabber. Okay, it may not be the most inspired sentence in the world, but I've certainly taken my audience into account. I

imagine you are a person who is struggling to write an introduction; that's why you're here, right?

Also, I'm assuming that you're not struggling as much with the other parts of the writingassignment. Otherwise you would have googled "writing a catchy conclusion," or something of

the sort.

Now let's do the same with YOUR audience. If you are writing an essay for a business school or

college application, your essay will be read by an admissions board. This board consists of individuals who do this for a living as well as one or more student members. They read essay

after essay, hour after hour, day after day. They may be bored. They probably read all your essays in one sitting so that they get a complete mental picture of you. They are looking for the

best applicants so that they get kudos from their boss and keep their job.

You need to make their life easy and pleasant. A sentence like "have you ever seen someone's

leg being ripped off and eaten by a rabid dog?" will certainly catch the board's attention, but not

in a pleasant way. You'll stand out... like a sore thumb. So don't sacrifice being pleasant for thesake of effect.

Instead, think of what you're trying to tell your readers in the rest of your essay. Are you writingabout leadership? Grab their attention with a sentence (or two) about leadership. A quote plus

your own interpretation of that quote is a great option. Don't just throw a quote at them and let

them figure it out. Tell them WHY you feel this is the perfect quote to grab their attention for this topic. You can also repeat something inspired someone (a boss, a colleague, your four-year-

old niece) has told you and again explain why this is significant or meaningful to you. Another

option is to give your own view of leadership, like: "the real trick of leadership is to enableothers to take initiative." Of course, your essay will then need to provide a description of a time

when your leadership enabled others to take initiative.

Grabbing your audience's attention should be a gentle, pleasantly surprising event, not a jarringexperience. Your attention grabber needs to relate to the topic of your essay and indicate to the

audience what your focus within that topic will be. Just one or two sentences of your

introduction can peak the reader's attention and let you make a great impression.

For more information on writing a good introduction, read my previous blog entry "Writing a

Great Introduction."

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Writing a Great Introduction

« Want to Become a Successful MBA Student? Start Today!

Helpful Tips

It's All About Speed »

Are you wondering how to get started with your MBA application essay? Having trouble comingup with a catchy introduction? Don't worry, just skip it! The best introductions are written after you've written everything else.

Just think of it this way: if you were introducing a celebrity to a crowd of people, but no one toldyou who the celebrity was, would you do a great job of introducing them? No way! All you

could say would be something like "well, here he or she is! He or she is really famous, I think!"

However, if you knew that you were introducing Conan O'Brien, you could tell the audience how

funny he is, that he has a late-night show, that he has red hair, or whatever you want to tell them.

It's the same with application essays. Once you've written a powerful story about yourself, you

can then decide how to introduce that story.

Okay, so you've written your story and you're ready to write an introduction. Here are a few rules

of thumb:

- Use three to five sentences.

- Don't be mysterious: immediately tell your reader what you're going to tell them.

- Include something (anything!) entertaining or eye-catching in your introduction, such as a greatquote, a joke, or an interesting fact about yourself.

There you go! You're now in good shape to write an excellent introduction to your MBAapplication essay.

Ten Essay Tips

By Robert Pearce | Published in History Review 1999

Education

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Essays are no longer the be-all and end-all of history assessment; but the ability to write a goodessay is still vital. Robert Pearce gives some advice.

Writing a good essay involves the sort of verbal craftsmanship which can only come from long

periods of hard practice. There is no short-cut to success and no foolproof formula to follow.

Hence what follow are tips not commandments. Nevertheless they are worth thinking about.

1. Answer the question, the whole question and nothing but the question. You can only score

marks if you are being relevant, so take your time, before plunging into the writing, to think

clearly about the meaning of the essay title and to make an essay plan. Many teachers advise

students to look for the 'key words and phrases' in a title – but it is as well to remember that

every word serves some function and therefore is important.

2. Be direct and explicit: don't leave it for the marker to puzzle out the relevance of what you are

writing. That means giving a relevant argument: if you're not arguing a case, you're not

answering the question.

3. The first paragraph is vital if you are to avoid the two commonest pitfalls, being irrelevant and

writing a narrative. Try to do three things: a) analyse the question, defining its meaning and

establishing its parameters; b) sub-divide the question into smaller areas (on each of which you

will subsequently have a paragraph); and c) outline an argument or, perhaps, several alternative

interpretations. By all means have a dramatic first sentence – to shock the reader from the

stupor that prolonged marking invariably induces – but do not merely 'set the scene' or begin to

'tell a story'. There's no time for this.

4. The final paragraph is also vital. Do not bring in fresh factual material, and do not address the

'next' topic (for instance, what Hitler did after 1933 once you've answered the question by

explaining why he came to power). Instead, return to the actual wording of the question and

answer it as directly and succinctly as possible – and make sure it's consistent with what you've

written earlier. It may seem perverse, but it's worth experimenting by writing the conclusion to

an essay first: then you'll know exactly where you are heading.

5. In the middle paragraphs, deal with one relevant issue per paragraph. Each middle paragraphshould have an argument (or interpretation or generalisation) supported by evidence. You must

always give both. Try to give the argument in the first sentence(s) and then to 'prove' it with the

best possible selection of details. (Philip Larkin once wrote that modern novels consist of a

beginning, a muddle and an end. So do many student essays, so beware of the pitfalls.)

6. Give real facts and evidence, not just historians' opinions. Quote the evidence the historians

quote, not the historians themselves (unless, that is, they have expressed themselves with real

flair or unless you find it necessary to discuss their particular interpretations). Remember that

history is the reconstruction of the past on the basis of the surviving evidence: it is not a just a

collection of opinions. Also, give the evidence in the essay proper: don't hide it away in

footnotes or appendices in a foolhardy attempt to make your essay seem 'academic'.

7. The correct balance is vital. Give most space to the most important issues – importance being

assessed in relation to the question set. Remember that it is all too easy to spend a

disproportionate amount of time/space on the first issue you deal with, so that others have to

be dealt with hurriedly. For this reason, it is probably best not to leave your most important

ideas to the end of an essay, especially in an exam, when you may run out of time.

8. If you are required to do so, give references to your quotations, and don't forget the all-

important page number. Never try to pass off other people's work as your own: plagiarism, even

of phrases, is generally easily spotted and heavily penalised.



9. For term-time essays, presentation is important. If you word-process, use double-spacing and a

decent sized font; if using a pen, try to make your handwriting legible. Spread you work out, in

order to leave room for comments, and number the pages. Check spelling and grammar, and

strive - and strive again - for clarity of expression. If you fail to express yourself clearly you will

inevitably penalise yourself. In exams, your work will be all the better for the trouble you've

taken in essays beforehand. Good habits are almost as easy to acquire as bad, so work hard to

express yourself well and don't be satisfied with your second-best.

10. Write several versions of your essay. Kipling used to write a short story and then put it away for

a minimum of two years: when he went back to it, he was able to spot imperfections very easily

and make improvements. You can't follow his example, but you should be able to spread your

work out over several weeks. You'll only get the best out of yourself if you give yourself time to

do so. So revise your work, strike out that irrelevant passage, rewrite that ambiguous sentence,

reorder the material to better advantage. If you're easily pleased, it's virtually certain that your

examiners will not be.

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How to Write a Good History Essay