How to Write a Good History Essay: Guide for Students

All the students are sometimes assigned to write essays. But what makes up a good essay? There are a lot of criteria considered while evaluating such kind of writing. Below, a guide is presented on how to write a history essay.

Ensure You Understand the Question Correctly

The main rule is to provide an answer to the question asked, and avoid any excess details. Relevance is essential. You can have outstanding writing skills and argue the issue with plenty of persuading evidence, but if you are not being relevant then you fail the task. You must think carefully about the posted question to provide the relevant answer. So take some time, read the assignment carefully, and ensure you have a full understanding of it.

For example, if you need to write about the success of some person, do some kind of research and assess all types of success. This ensures that you will come to the problem of defining “success.” Answer to yourself the following questions: What does success actually mean? Is it the achievement of a person’s goals? Is it objective or subjective? Should you describe short-term or long-term success? Due to the thinking process, you will probably come up with a list of successes that you can then explain, and suppose why they occurred, presuming their reasons. If there is some important common point in all these successes, this could become the key of your answer.

The key word in the previous paragraph is think. You must distinguish this process from other similar ones, like dreaming and memorizing. Honestly, thinking might be not quite a pleasant process, and many of us often avoid it. But you have no other option if you want to produce a good history essay or any other piece of good writing. So do your best while thinking about the meaning of the questions, the issues it raises, and the ways to answer it.

Ultimately, you will likely become confused. However, it is not a reason to get worried: confusion is a necessary stage in the achievement of clarity. If you get totally confused, take some time to distract. Once you return to your assignment, it may be that the problem has resolved itself. If not, provide yourself with more time.

Come Up with the Essential Introduction

All parts of the essay about history are important, but the first paragraph is vital. The introductory part is your first chance to impress the reader, and first impressions are known to be often decisive. Therefore, you might want to write the first sentence that grabs the examiner’s attention.

However, much more important is that you show your understanding of the question set. In this section — which might be spread over two paragraphs if necessary — you must provide your accurately thought-out definitions of the key terms along with the relevant time-frame and issues. Also, if there is a need, you can divide the overall questions into several smaller questions, or more manageable sub-divisions, each of which you will further answer or describe in a separate paragraph.

Write the Body of Your Essay

If you have written a good introduction, where you have divided the overall topic into several manageable points, your paper will be coherent.

In the body part of your essay, you must clearly answer the set question. By the way, there is a great way to test any essay: if the reader is able to guess the question, even when the title is covered up, the essay is written perfectly. Try starting every body paragraph with a generalization relevant to the question. Further, develop this idea and support your argument with evidence. Think carefully about how detailed information you should provide. Relatively insignificant background information can be presented briefly, whilst the most important points have to be described in more details.

Conclude the Essay with a Comprehensive Closing Paragraph

You know better than anyone what is history essay written about. Now it is the time to provide a great conclusion for this piece of writing. If you have been arguing a case in it, you have to hammer home that case in the concluding paragraph. If you have been examining a couple of alternative propositions, in the last paragraph you should say which one is correct. Avoid introducing fresh evidence here, though you can provide some extra fact to clinch your case.

Final Thoughts

Any essay needs to be proofread and edited several times. Always criticize your first drafts and even second ones, too. Besides, it is important to consider the feedback from your teachers. Do not just look at the grade; read all the comments thoroughly and take them into account.

The paragraph structure recommended in this article is just a guide, and you can certainly come up with an excellent paper using a very different arrangement of material. There are multiple ways to write an essay as all forms of writing involve self-expression. Therefore, your essay will anyway be unique as you are unique.