Writing Good History Essays

8/3/2019 Writing Good History Essays

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F. How to Write a Good History Essay

Some Suggestions f or the Time-Conscious Student

The foll owin g outl ine is int ended as to prov ide one exampl e of how to wr it e an essay. Treat i t as food for t hought,

as pr ovi ding a set of suggesti ons some of w hic h y ou might i ncorporate i nto your own method for w ri ti ng essays.

1. Why do historians set essay s?

It is useful to begin by consideri ng why essay-wr it ing has long been the method of choice f or assessment i n

history . The chi ef r eason is that no other method pr ovi des as effec ti v e a means of t esting a student's

compr ehension of a topic. We want y ou to show u s that not onl y have y ou acqui red a knowl edge of the topi c but

also that you ful l y understand the topic and the i ssues raised by it . Essay s test understanding by aski ng you to

select and re-organise rel ev ant materi al i n order t o produce y our own answer t o the set questi on.

An undergr aduate essay need not be part ic ul arl y i nnovati v e in i ts appr oach and insights, but i t must be the

pr oduct of the student's own dial ogue w it h the subject. Essay s whi ch do not answer the question can only be

r egarded as demonstr ati ng some know l edge of the topi c, they cannot be said to show u nderstanding of the topi c.

Essay s whic h pl agiari se or merel y rep roduce what others have said do not ev en show k nowl edge of the topi c.

Plagiarism is thus not merely a matter of theft, i t inv olves an entirel y unacceptabl e subversion of the l earning

process.

2. Is there a right and a wrong answer?

History essays are l ess about fi nding the corr ect answer to the set question than they are about demonstr ating

that y ou understand the i ssues whi ch i t r aises (and the text s whi ch discuss these i ssues). Wi th most hi stori cal

pr oblems (cer tainl y the most inter esting ones) it i s seldom possibl e to arri v e at a defi nit iv e answer . The

ev idence almost al way s per mits a v ari ety of soluti ons, and dif fer ent approaches generate div ergent concl usions.

There are, howev er, li mits to the fi eld of possib le soluti ons, since they must fi t in wi th 'the evi dence'. Of course,

exact l y w hat consti tutes 'the evi dence' is almost inv ari abl y one of the i ssues under discussion among the

histori ans who are most deepl y engaged w it h the probl em, but i n general for each histori cal questi on ther e wi l l

be a body of evi dence whi ch is recognised as being rel evant to it. This body of evi dence wi ll ty pical ly compri se

what the pr imary sour ces tell us about the ev ents and phenomena under discussion. A good answer wi l l need to

harmonise wi th all of this evi dence, or exp lain why partic ular items have been dismissed as having no bearing

on the probl em.

It foll ows from all of this that there certainly are w rong ans w ers that is, answer s whic h fall outside the fiel d

of possib le soluti ons or whi ch fail to take account of rec eiv ed ev idence ev en though there is no 'absol utel y

ri ght' answer .

3. Analysing the Question

Essenti al step s: selec t a questi on; identi fy the subjec t of the questi on; w hat ar e y ou bei ng aske d to do - that i s,

what ki nd of information wi ll you need to answer the question, and how wi ll you have to treat it? Circl ing the


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key wor ds in the questi on is someti mes a helpf ul fi rst step in w orki ng out ex actl y wh at you need to do. It is

useful to note that there is usuall y a natural w ay of structur ing y our answer : that is, a way of organising an

answer whi ch foll ows naturall y from the format of the question and whi ch w il l put the few est obstacles in the

way of the reader:

'Explain' and 'why' questions demand a list of r easons or one bi g reason; each r eason wi ll have to be ex pl ained -

that i s, cl ari fi ed, expounded, and il lu strated.

'Assess', 'evaluate' and 'define-the-significance-of' questions requir e judgements supported by reasons,exp l anation and evi dence. You must show why y our assessment is the best by consideri ng its merit s vi s--v is

alter nativ e ev aluati ons. It might b e useful t o defi ne and defend the cri ter ia on whi ch y our judgement depends.

That is, to expl ain w hy t hey ar e the best cr iter ia for judging the historic al phenomenon at issue.

'What-role-did-X-play -in-Y' questions imply a functionalist approach - that is, they require t hat you i dentify

the f uncti on of some phenomenon, group or insti tuti on wi thi n some speci fi c system. Thus, the subject of the

question is the 'Y' rather than th e 'X' el ement. That i s, the questi on requi r es a di scussion of th e system as a whol e

and the considerati on of alt ernati v e expl anations of how 'X' w orked wit hin i t.

'To-what-extent' questions inv olv e a judgement of measur e. One way of answer ing the question woul d be set up

a seri es of 'tests', as it wer e, that can be i nv estigated in tur n.

This essay w i l l ex amine f iv e spheres whic h cast l i ght on the extent of Jewish inf l uence in highmediev al Fr ance: namely , their role i n the commerci al l i f e of the towns, the rol e of Jewish bankingin th e agrari an economy, thei r i nfl uence on Chri stian intel lec tual l i fe, .. [and so on].

The essay woul d need a conclusion in w hic h y ou pull ed together the r esults of y our test cases:

I t has been seen that the Jews exerted a profound inf l uence on the inte l l ectual l i fe of theuni v ersit ies but almost none on that of the establ ished monasti c orders..

'Quote-and-discuss' questions requir e y ou to identif y the i ssue at stake and to produce a reasoned response. You

may r espond, for ex ampl e, by agreeing w it h the quotation in whi ch case y ou wil l need to exp l ain why agreement

is the b est response, why it woul d be wr ong to disagree. You should consider t he meri ts of a v ari ety of responses.

If possibl e you shoul d alw ays examine the book or arti cl e fr om whi ch the quotati on has been taken i n order to

discover what it s author meant by it , to discover how the author has understood the issues.

'Compare-and-contrast' questions demand the identif i cation of simil ari tie s and dif fer ences. One method of

tackl ing such an essay w ould be to distin guish fi v e or six areas of simil ari ty and contrast, and to dev ote a secti on

of the essay t o each ar ea - a secti on in w hic h y ou would assess the degree of simil ari ty and reach a

sub-conclu sion. The concl usion w ould then requir e a summation of the v ari ous 'sub-conclu sions'.

It needs to be str essed that none of thes e types of ques tion calls for a narrative ap proach . You wi ll never be asked

to produce a narr ativ e of what happened. In rar e ci rc umstances, a few sentences of narr ativ e may f orm part of

the ev idence ci ted in support of a point, but the essay as a whole should be organised according to a logical

struc ture in w hich each paragraph functi ons as a premise in t he argument. The analy tical and expository voice

wi ll alway s prove more effecti ve than the narr ativ e mode of wr iti ng.

4. Preliminary Reading

The aim of your i nit ial reading should be to identif y an argument whi ch answer s the questi on - one wh ic h you

find plausible and can carr y through with conv icti on. For this purpose, it w il l be useful to read at l east tw o or

three it ems, incl uding a recent book cover ing the general area i n whi ch the topic fall s. Arti cl es in r eference

books such as an encyc lopaedia can prov ide an over v iew , but t hey r arel y p rov ide adequate cover age of the

issues. Citing such works wi ll undermine the credibil ity of y our essay .


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Do not for get to make notes as y ou go. Maki ng notes hel ps y ou to summari se arguments and ideas, to selec t poi nts

rel ev ant to your essay, to clari fy and adjust your understandin g of the essay questi on and of the topic it bears

upon. But your main pr iori ty shoul d be to discover an argument.

5. Drawing up a Plan

Once you have c ome up w it h a work ing ar gument, y ou need to draw up a pl an to guide the next stage of y our

research. It should compr ise a li st of the points whi ch each par agraph wi l l attempt to demonstrate, and roughnotes on supporti ng examples. It may be useful to begin by thi nki ng again w hat ty pe of question you have

chosen and by looking the natural way of answering i t. In order to draw up a plan y ou wil l need to evaluate its

merits:

What points wi ll I need to make i n order to sustain t his argument?

Are ther e alternativ e points of v iew whi ch w il l have to be considered and refuted in order t o make this

argument w ork?

Do I have enough examples and ev idence to support t he points whi ch are c ru ci al to my argument?

Do I need to know mor e about the ex ampl es I'm pl anni ng to use?

Perhaps there i s another way of looking at thi s piece of evi dence whi ch I'l l have to mention or even

refute?

6. Directe d Rese arch

Havi ng deci ded on the li ne of argument you i ntend to use, and identif ied areas where y ou need more materi al,

search the r eading l ist and bib li ographies of the tex ts you've been using for books and artic les whi ch w il l help

you to sol v e these pr obl ems. Go and coll ect t he i nfor mation, makin g notes and adding notes to y our p l an as y ou go

along.Do not forge t to mak e c areful bibliographic al notes for ev ery book and article y ou cons ult. You wi ll need this

inf ormati on when i t comes to footnoting y our essay.

7. Rev ising y our Argument

Inevi tabl y , the pr ev ious stage wil l t ur n up thi ngs y ou hadn't thought of and books wi th better thi ngs to say

about the t opic. Do not panic. Ask y ourself : can y our ar gument b e saved wi th a f ew adjustments? Does the

argument need to be r e-constr ucted fr om scratch? If so, how can I r ecy cl e the i nformation I'v e alr eady begun to

coll ect? Much w il l depend upon how confi dent y ou now f eel about y our argument. Foll ow your insti ncts: if t he

argument feels wr ong, look for a better one. It is better to start again th an to wr it e an essay that l acks

convi cti on. If compl ete r econstr ucti on is unavoidable, go back to '5. Drawi ng up a Plan'.

8. Writing the First Draft

Havi ng rev ised y ou argument (and pl an), it's time to wr ite y our essay. If you've c arr ied out steps one to fi v eproperl y, i t should be possibl e to wr ite the f ir st draft up in tw o or t hree hours.

(a) Writing an Introduction. An i ntr oducti on should show how y ou intend to answer the questi on, by (1)

indicati ng the li ne of argument you i ntend to take, by (2) giv in g an overv iew of the organisation of what foll ows,

and by (3) indicati ng the sort of materi al or ev idence you wi ll be using. It is an effec ti v e str ategy, especial l y

when wr iti ng a short essay, to begin w it h a bold, attenti on-grabbi ng, fi rst sentence whi ch shows the mark er t hat

you know w hat you are doing: that is, answ er t he question as br ief ly as possibl e wi th y our fi rst sentence. The

second sentence should then enlar ge upon the argument indicated by the fi rst.

(b) The body of the essay . Intel li gent use of par agraphing i s cruc ial to the success of an essay . Often, it is best


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to or ganise the par agraph s so that each makes and defends a point or p r emise essenti al th e argument of the essay.

(By 'premise' is meant a point whi ch i s part of and essential to the argument of the essay.) It must b e enti rel y

cl ear how y our points fit int o the argument: essays whi ch meander ar ound the topic l eavi ng the mark er to join

the dots to compr ise an answer are not acc eptabl e, since they fail to demonstrate understanding.

It i s a good idea to use 'topi c sentences' to signal the subject and make ex pl ic it the poin t of each par agraph. These

ought not to be too rep eti ti v e in f orm but shoul d show how t he paragraph fi ts into the argument of the essay as a

whole. The foll owin g topi c sentences (her e mark ed in r ed for cl ari ty ) woul d, for ex ampl e, be appr opri ate as a

way of int roduci ng paragraphs that compri sed a series of 'tests' in a 'to-what-extent' essay that cal l ed for anassessment of the ef fect s of t he Black Death on the dev elopment of mediev al Europe.

It is also possibl e to assess the extent of the catastrophe b y l ooki ng at the l ev el of demand for l andin t he major ur ban centres . In Genoa, for ex ample, land pr ic es fell sharpl y fr om a high i n 1310 of....[sever al sentences of ex amples] ....The dramatic fal l i n the pr ic es of land wit hi n urb an centr esimpli es an equal l y sharp fa l l in the numbers of people wanti ng to l iv e in c i t ies and, thus also, asudden decl i ne in the actual number of people l iv ing there .

The pictur e convey ed by these f inanci al r ecords i s scarce l y repr esentat ive , howev er, of thesituati on throughout Eur ope as a whol e. They bear wi tness to what happened in the more hi ghly ur bani sed regi ons of Eur ope that is , to what hap pened in norther n Italy and in th e Low Countri es and even i n these regions, merely to the ex peri ence of those w ho dwel t i n the towns themselv esbut not to that of r ur al p eople... [sever al sentences dev el oping thi s point ]

However , some of the gaps in the pict ure can be f i l l ed in , a lbei t somewhat sketchi ly , wi th the helpof the rur al par ish records. Such r ecords remain scarce for the fourteenth century , but th ose that

surv iv e all ow us to see that the pl ague could hav e dev astati ng consequences in th e country side aswe l l as in t he c i ti es.... [and so on.]

Notice how the point bri efly intr oduced in the topic sentence is devel oped natural ly by the second sentence of

the paragraph. It is better to avoid tr y ing the exp lai n ever y thi ng in a single sentence: cl usters of sentences that

fl ow fr om one to another ar e much more ef fecti v e!

Signposting your ev idence wi ll giv e the essay that all important sense of cri tical depth and originali ty :

Seapower was a cru cial to European expansion. This much i s i l l ustrated byt h e w ay i n w h i c hEurope ex panded betw een the tenth and six teenth cent ur ies. Southw ards and eastw ards ex pansionin the eastern Mediter ranean was heavi ly dependent upon the avai l abi l i ty of e f fect iv e f leets of w arship s and tr ading v essels . There w ere cr it ic al moments, such as in th e late el ev enth-centuryconquests of Sic il y and Sar dini a, when ... [and so on.]

Even in the f i f teenth century e f fect i ve gover nment depended on the personal i ty of the king. Forexample , the Engl i sh exchequer suf fer ed a grave f inancial cr i s is w hen King Henry VI , act ing on aper sonal w hi m, gave aw ay ...

For instance,...

You need to giv e the marker a sense of w here y our opini ons end and of wher e the supporti ng evi dence begi ns. But

remember to var y y our signposts: using the same phr ase over and over again w il l distr act and bore the reader. If

the supporting evi dence is not a wel l-known and ir refutabl e fact, i t w il l pr obably need to be giv en the

addit ional support of a footnote indicati ng wher e you have obtained your i nformation or w hic h histori an's

inter pretation of the piece of evi dence being deploy ed you have chosen to follow.

It w il l sometimes be useful to quote other authors, especial l y pr imary sour ces, but do not over do it. It i s often

better to put things in y our own w ords whil e sti ll clearl y signall ing the source of the idea and using a footnote

(e.g. 'Accor ding to May er t he fi r st cr usade.'), sinc e thi s helps to show t hat y ou have u nderstood w hat w as bei ng

said - pr ovi ding t hat y ou have i ndeed grasped what w as being said!

(c) The Conclusion. All essay s need a careful ly thought out conclusion which f ollows logically from the points

made and affi rmed in the cour se of y our essay. It need not r ehearse the points y ou have r ejected. Al way s check t o

see that the conclusion you have drawn i s the one whi ch foll ows logicall y from the points and evi dence y ou have

assembled.

(d) Footnoting. Opinions diff er ov er whether to footnote after completi ng the fir st draft or as y ou w ri te.

Sometimes, it is best t o go back and footnote the essay after y ou have fi nished, because i nserti ng footnotes can


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distur b the f low of your wr it ing. On the other hand, it i s useful to consider w hat wi ll need to be footnoted as y ou

wri te, since footnotes are part of the r hetori cal appar atus of a formal essay and giv e wei ght and power to an

argument. For the same r eason, it is best to put the notes at the bottom of t he page rather than at the end of th e

essay. It looks more i mpressiv e (especial l y i f y ou cite w ell and wi del y ), and sav es the mark er f li ck ing back and

forth. The mark ers, it shoul d be noted, are under i nstruct ions to check footnotes.

(e) Once y ou have f ini shed y ou should compi le y ourbibliography.

(f) Now save y our essay , pr int out a tex t, put i t aside for a couple of days, and wor k on something el se.

9. Revising y our Essa y

Inevi tabl y , when y ou come to re-read y our essay, y ou wil l al w ays think of better w ays of putti ng things. You

may ev en thi nk of supporti ng evi dence y ou could add to the tex t, but make sure t hat any addit ions do not spoil

the f low . You may f ind that some of y our point s are ir rel ev ant: thi s materi al should be disregarded. You should

also ask y ourself w hether the li nks betw een the paragraphs are cl ear and l ogic al? Perhaps the essay w ould be

more effectiv e if they wer e put i n a diff erent order? If the essay has been wr itten on a word processor it should

be easy enough to achi ev e thi s by cutt ing and pasti ng paragraphs. Your essay shoul d hav e a cl ear and consistent

struct ur e throughout, so that one paragraph fol l ows another l ogic all y and carri es the argument forw ard.

10. Editing your Essay

You wi l l need to edit : for gr ammar, spel li ng and punctu ation; to remove unnec essary v erb iage, coll oqui ali sms

and jargon; to ensure that the footnotes and bi bl iography conform wi th the requir ed sty l e sheet; and for t he

coherence and quali ty of your wr iti ng. You should alw ays check the pr inted text of y our essay b efore

submit ti ng it. The eye tends to ov erl ook er rors on the screen, and spell check ers almost inv ari ably all ow a

signifi cant number of mistakes to slip thr ough. 'Their ' and 'there', for ex ampl e, wi ll both be accepted as corr ect

by a word processor regardless of whi ch one you should actual ly have used in a giv en context.

11. F inal Thoughts

The abil it y to wr it e good essays does not come to many peopl e easil y . It is a ski l l w hic h requir es constant

attention and practi ce. It is, howev er, a skil l whi ch w il l serv e y ou well no matter w hat you choose to do when

you l eave uni ver sity. Effecti ve communication is a key to success in many w alks of li fe. There is, therefore,

ever y i ncentiv e to apply yourself to the devel opment of this art.

Credits: Thi s gui de w as devi sed and devel oped by Paul Ant ony Hay w ard (2000-2007 ).

Contact Details: Depart ment of History , Lancaster U ni v er sity , Lancaster LA1 4YG, UN ITED KINGDOM |

Email: [email protected]| Tel : +44-1 524-592554 | Fax : +44-1 524-84610 2.

Credits: This sit e is maintai ned by Dr Paul Hayw ard. Please report any p robl ems [email protected].

Copyright: Department of Hi story , Lancaster U niv ersit y|Disclaimer: as per univer si ty pol icy .

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Writing Good History Essays