Advice for writing a History essay

General Advice

• answer the question and provide a strong contention
• demonstrate a close understanding of relevant content (spell names of people and countries correctly, make sure that you fully understand the sequence of events)
• are clear, use appropriate language and terminology, and have effective structure

What are the signs of a good 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
• It uses clear language that conveys meaning 
• It analyses by considering the significance of certain events/policies/decisions, rather than just describing them

The difference between description and analysis
Analysis rather than description is generally what distinguishes between a poor or average essay and a good or great essay. It is the difference between explaining what happened and the higher-order skill of explaining why it happened and evaluating its significance.
So, consider the following points when striving for analysis and evaluation over description:

• When describing or explaining an event or policy use one sentence
• Then, consider what motivated (i.e. what was the aim) this event or policy
• Then, consider what effects or outcomes did this event or policy stimulate
• Now, what links did it have to other events or policies? Look for connections
• Finally, can we explain its significance or ‘meaning’? How important was it, by comparison to other factors?

Writing a paragraph
Essay paragraphs introduce a point, expand and explain the point, discuss its significance, support ideas with evidence, then link back to the question and their main argument.

Topic sentence
A short, punchy sentence that introduces the topic, theme, idea, event or leader of that paragraph

Explanation
A sentence or two explaining what it was, who they were, what it involved or what happened, ie. a summary

Evidence
Support your explanation with appropriate evidence (e.g. specific policies, decisions, events)

Link
Finally, link back to the question and the argument you have clearly articulated in your introduction