Below are the tips, hints and knowledge that I want you to have for writing essays in History. This information also largely applies to essays you will write in other Humanities subjects, like Economics, Global Politics, Philosophy, Geography as well as later on in University, and ... it will help you to write well, argue coherently and present your views effectively for the rest of your life.

Headings:

1. How do I write a History essay?
2. The difference between description and analysis
3. Writing a paragraph
4. Using evidence
5. The 7 key skills for writing a successful History essay
6. Suggestions for signposting your argument
7. Essay writing with TEAC

How do I write a History essay?

There is no simple answer to this question ... essay writing is a skill and like all skills it must be learned and practiced. It is also vital that you reflect on your completed essays, thinking carefully about how well they 'work' and paying close attention to feedback you've received. This is a lifelong process ... all academics, authors and writers regularly revisit their work in an attempt to find new and better ways of expressing themselves.

What are the signs of a good History essay?

• It has a clear and firmly expressed argument in the introduction and conclusion
• It expands upon, justifies and defends that argument throughout the essay body
• It has good structure, ie. logical and effective organisation of ideas and topics, that suggests thinking and planning
• It supports its arguments and statements with evidence (ie. quotations, historians' ideas, statistics, reference to documents)
• It uses clear language that conveys meaning ... it doesn't try to 'sound too clever', becoming unclear or vague in the process
• It analyses by considering the significance of certain events and why they occurred, rather than just describing them
• It references its evidence and includes a bibliography of all sources used in research

I once heard a History lecturer explain the process of essay writing thus:

"Writing a History essay is like building a house. Before you build a house you need all the tools and ingredients, so collect them all first. Every house needs a blueprint; this is your essay plan, which you will devise first. The framework of the house is the structure of the essay ... the paragraphs, the topic sentences. All houses need a solid base and the base of your essay is your research; make sure it is solid and you can build upon it. The bricks give the house strength, the strength of your essay will come from evidence. Houses aren't built in five minutes, and neither should essays. Build an essay, don't just sit down and start writing it while hoping for the best."

The information presented on the pages below will hopefully allow you to develop a closer understanding of the mechanics of writing good History essays. It is sometimes long and quite detailed, but that reflects the complexity involved in writing History essays. The skills you might acquire will be useful not only for History, but also for other VCE and tertiary subjects.

Writing a paragraph

The trap many students fall into is thinking that the paragraphs in their History essays should be like the paragraphs in novels, magazines or (worse) newspapers, i.e. short snippets of information. This is not the case... in a History essay paragraphs are, in essence, mini-essays themselves: they introduce a point, they expand and explain the point, discuss its significance, support their ideas with evidence, then link back to the question and their main argument. A paragraph is almost like a self-contained mini-essay.

The difference between description and analysis

This skill is the main difference between poor or average History students, and good or great History students. Generally speaking, it is the difference between explaining what happened and the higher-order skill of explaining why it happened and evaluating its significance.

In most cases, it is easy to read a book or watch a documentary and explain what happened at a particular event: the Boston Tea Party, the storming of the Bastille or the 'Bloody Sunday' shootings in St Petersburg. Similarly, it's easy to write about the vagaries or quirks of individuals (eg. Thomas Jefferson and his 'affection' for female slaves, Marat's skin diseases or Rasputin's personal hygiene). And it's often more 'fun' to write about these things as though they are a story we are re-telling (particularly if they involve the violent, the ghastly or the just plain weird, as some do).

At this level of History, however, we are less interested in the what and the how and more in the why. The study of cause, effect and outcome are what concern us. We want to know why things happened, what caused them, what consequences came from them, what their significance or importance was, what links they had to other key events, ideas or leaders. We are in the business of critical evaluation, not story-telling.

So, consider the following points when striving for analysis and evaluation over description:

• When describing or explaining an event, person or policy (eg. the Reinsurance Treaty, fall of the Bastille or Rasputin) use one sentence.
• Then, consider what caused or motivated this event, person or policy
• Then, consider what effects or outcomes did this event, person or policy stimulate
• Now, what links did it have to other events, people, groups or policies? Look for connections.
• Then look for perspectives on and different interpretations of this event. Explain them, investigate their merit.
• Finally, can we explain its significance or 'meaning'? How important was it, by comparison to other factors?

Above all else, your paragraph should have clarity and must make sense. If it does not, the impact and effectiveness of your information and evidence will be diminished. Re-read your paragraph slowly after you finish writing it, and again after finishing your whole essay. Good luck!

Using evidence

I'm always being told to "use evidence"... but what is evidence?

Evidence is, generally speaking, factual information from another source that is presented in your own essay writing. It may be a direct quote from a document or text, indirect quotations of ideas, arguments or theories proposed by historians, statistics or figures given in support of a statement or argument … anything that supports a statement, theory or argument you have provided in response to a topic.

I understand the material I'm writing about... why should I have to use evidence?

There are many reasons behind the requirement to include evidence in your coursework and assessment tasks:

• without it, your work will almost certainly lack complexity, depth, detail, substance and validity
• it demonstrates that you have read and researched the topic, and have sound historical skills
• it supports your arguments and helps them appear solid, convincing and justifiable
• it distinguishes a solid piece of research from ideas that are just plagiarized or paraphrased from elsewhere
• use of evidence is a vital skill for studies at tertiary level, in almost all disciplines, and many professions and vocations

From a teacher's perspective, there is nothing worse than reading an essay that shows strong knowledge of events but fails to support or justify that knowledge with evidence.

OK then, so when should I use evidence?

There are no guidelines on the best time to use evidence in an essay (although you should never introduce new material into an essay conclusion). The views of other historians' may be incorporated in intros and conclusions when they correspond or clash with your own, so you can contradict them or offer them as an alternative (this can often be an effective technique).

So how do I incorporate evidence into my essays?

The first step is to prepare to use evidence by having a range of facts, events, quotes, examples, figures etc. Taking notes, highlighting phrases in texts and hand-outs, and collecting and collating these quotes is an important part of the process before essays and exams. You should go into these tasks with a range of evidence you can draw upon and use in your writing. Organising evidence into themes or sub-topics will make them easier to access. (For instance: Social, Political, Cultural, Minorities, Economic etc etc)

Signpost your evidence and analysis. It is very useful for both you and the reader to use phrases like: An example of this is… this was evident in…. as was seen when/in…..however… another key point... etc etc. See more signposting words here. These signposts signal to the reader that an important point is coming up. Examiners and teachers like signposts because they provide structure to an argument.

Direct quotations should be slotted into your work as neatly and unobtrusively as possible.

• Try to avoid clumsy segues like "In a quote from the Fundamental Laws…" Perhaps the easiest way of slotting in quotes is to start the sentence with the writer and/or the document, then an explanatory statement, then the quote, eg. "Nicholas' Fundamental Laws of 1906 reflect his desire to maintain total sovereignty, stating that he "possesses the supreme autocratic power"
• You don't have to use whole sentences, and in fact it is usually preferable that you don't (see the above example). Use only a pertinent or useful phrase, sometimes this may only be three or four words
• Never use a quote unless it supports your point or you are going to examine its meaning … padding your essay with random or irrelevant quotes won't meet evidence criteria and will just ruin the 'flow' of your essay (generally speaking, no evidence is better than the wrong evidence!)
• Direct quotations must ALWAYS be written word-for-word, in quotation marks, and must be footnoted! (If you are typing the essay anyway)
• Just mentioning a document or text is not enough; it is 'listing' evidence but not utilizing it. You must demonstrate your knowledge of its context, content, meaning and function. You must 'embed' your quote. It must be part of your argument. Always add you own context to it, your evaluation, your analysis, your interpretation. It must be clear why you have used that quote, don't just let it dangle without some context.

(Source unknown, possibly written by Lucy Ryan. Original was found here http://lycrussianrevolution.wikispaces.com/file/view/How+do+I+write+a+History+essay.doc, and was then edited and further adapted by Ilja van Weringh)

The 7 key skills for writing a successful History essay

1. Understanding the wording of a question
2. Planning the essay
3. Writing a strong introduction
4. Avoiding irrelevance
5. Avoiding a narrative based answer
6. Using your own knowledge analytically and combining it with awareness of historical debate.
7. Writing a strong conclusion

(Source: “History for the IB Diploma: Imperial Russia, Revolutions and the Emergence of the Soviet State 1853-1924”, by Sally Waller)

Always RTBQ and ATBQ. (Read the question and Answer the question)

Here are some ways to think about your question:

1. What is the problem it suggests?
2. What is the ‘angle’, the issue, which makes it interesting?
3. What is my first reaction to the question: yes, no, maybe?
4. Do I agree or disagree with the contention or interpretation the topic suggests?
5. What ideas and issues can I explore by answering this question?
6. Is there a simple answer, or might it be more complex than it looks?
7. What kinds of information is the question asking me to use?
8. What themes can I explore?

(from: http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/history-studies/history-department-essay-writing-guide/ )

Suggestions for signposting your argument

There are many essay writing frameworks out there. I am sure you know the old hamburger image and the TEEL structure, but I find that these models do not convey the sophistication and analytical depth that is needed for a good paragraph / essay for IB History. So I came up with my own. I am calling it TEAC:

• Topic sentence, Theme, Thesis
• Evidence, Evaluation and Explanation &
• Analysis and Assessment
• Conclusion

Some further explanation:

• A clear first sentence should convey what the key point (thesis) is of this paragraph. Also, a thematic approach is far stronger than a simple narrative account. Categorising events in themes like political, military, economic, social, long term, short term, strengths, weaknesses, causes, effects, ideology etc etc will produce a much more sophisticated and analytic essay than just telling the story.
• Evidence, Evaluation and Explanation should contain stats, quotes, years, events, people. Great sentence starters are: An example of this is, it can be seen that, this is illustrated by, as shown by, for example, as historian XYZ stated etc. This is where you show you know your stuff.
• Analysis and Assessment. Every IB History essay will require you to make a judgement. Just spitting out everything you know is not enough (avoid simple narratives), you have to place your knowledge into context and analyse why it was significant, what was more or less important, assess its effect or reasons why.
• Note that E and A are intertwined.
• Conclusion: Always stay on track in addressing the essay statement. Conclude each paragraph with something that links to either your topic sentence or the essay statement itself. You can reuse some of the key words from the essay statement (but not verbatim, that is too simplistic). Also, take note of the command term of the question; do what you are "commanded" to do.

Some good links

• Signpost, signpost, signpost your argument. Great list here. Print it off.
• General essay writing resources here
• Monash University has a very clear and informative website about academic writing. This page is about how to analyse an historical argument: http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/academic/5.xml
• Here is a page about how to structure a paragraph etc: http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/academic/4.1.xml
• Info from Monash on a printable document here

These resources were developed and gathered together by Ilja van Weringh, Melbourne 2013 - 2020