Foreword

One of the most important skills you will develop in your schooling career is the ability to communicate your ideas in writing clearly and effectively. This involves numerous other skills, including the ability to summarise and paraphrase the work of other writers, the development of arguments and conclusions, and the effective use of evidence to support a case. The primary responsibility of essay writing in history is to progressively develop your skills in research, analysing different forms of source material, using different kinds of evidence, and writing strong, critical and clear arguments.

History essays provide you with an opportunity to explore a particular issue or theme in more depth. In general, the functions of an essay are:

• to introduce an argument, or contention, based upon the question or problem you choose to tackle;
• to develop and defend that argument or contention by discussing and analysing a range of appropriate evidence, and by critically assessing the
• interpretations of other historians; and
• to propose conclusions.

Seems fairly black and white, doesn’t it? Maybe not so much in practice, as essays are peculiar things and I am sure you would have noticed. Ever written a response to a question that you were incredibly proud of only to have it slammed by a marker? So have I. There is a reasonable chance that no two people will ever completely agree what constitutes a good history essay, if only for the simple fact that the readers reaction to it is totally subjective. What I have discovered whilst compiling this assortment of thoughts and borrowings from dozens of style guides is that there is no ‘right way’ that enjoys preeminence over all history essay writing. In fact, there is considerable disagreement in academic circles over how best to practice many elements of historical writing. Within this guide, where there is debate over an element – such as the use of rhetoric – I will endeavour to present the case for both sides, offer my own observation, then, as always, it is the readers choice once informed over whether they want to risk their entire schooling life over the trifling use of a question mark in a history essay.

Whilst stylistic interpretations differ between institutions, there are ways in which you can complement your writing that will enable you to fully explore an argument, writing with sophistication and detail, and hopefully satisfying your marker in the process. Ultimately that is what this site sets out to do – offer guidance on steps that can be taken to increase the capacity for students to express themselves in essays in a clear and coherent manner. It is not a definitive site ordering you to “do this” or “do that” otherwise “you’ll never get good marks”. On the contrary, it is a place to come and augment your knowledge, test the information offered and maybe disagree with some of the findings – but you won’t disagree with it, until you have understood it, and an informed difference of opinion is always welcome.

Enjoy this site, take it for what it is – a helpful guide that can assist you with some of the most magical and fundamental skills you will ever take part in: reading, writing and analysing. The moment you start engaging with writing in a fashion where it is an exciting exploration that you are leading, the sooner you will begin to benefit from the skills that flow from it.

……………. and always keep in mind: