Any essay question demands a thesis and requires an introduction, several evidence paragraphs, and a conclusion. The basic model for such a response is the Five Paragraph essay, which includes those components listed above. Most importantly an essay response must establish an argument based upon a sound thesis that results in a judgment being rendered in the conclusion.
Deconstruction of the prompt for an essay question is very important. Make sure that you have read the question carefully and that you know exactly what you are being asked to do. Highlight the four main parts of the essay: the instruction, the given factor, the focus, and the time period. Each part must be addressed: the instruction is the command word or the question stem which tells you ‘how’ you are to answer the question (basically – describe, analyze or evaluate); the given factor is the topic or event you are to write about and it is from the given factor that you are to derive the evidence necessary to substantiate your response; the focus guides your own knowledge toward analyzing the evidence within the given topic in support of your thesis statement; the time period establishes the chronological parameters so that you may establish causation and discuss consequences within a given time frame in order to satisfy the requirements of the question. It is necessary for an essay response to sketch out some sort of plan while you are deconstructing the sentence. In so doing, you are fundamentally structuring your thesis ensuring that it syncs with each of the four components of the prompt. While this may take time, it is time well spent.
Elements of the five-paragraph essay are discussed throughout this handbook. However you should consider writing your introduction and thesis statement last. If for no other reason than to ensure that you actually introduce what you have actually written. Further, since the thesis statement is the single most important component of your response you will want to ensure that it is as well formulated as possible to coordinate with your evidence and analysis. The purpose of the introduction is to set your response within the context of the question, thus you may begin with an appropriate quote or begin with a general background to the time period you will be writing about trying to capture the essence of that time period in a sentence or two. After you have established the background then move toward addressing the given factor and the focus. By presenting a basic multi-causal framework in presenting several reason as to why an event occurred you are better able to deploy your thesis (based upon the most important reason) which is the singular driving force of your essay response.
Evidence paragraphs should be ordered from least important to most important and the topics of each evidence paragraph should be introduced in the introduction. As stated above paragraphs are mini-essays and should be developed as such. The first line of the evidence paragraph not only presents the topic but also declares the main reason why it is important. This will act as an element of transition since it will work toward reinforcing your thesis as well as establishing a clear line of argument. The argument is established progressively by present ever more relevant evidence paragraphs. One evidence paragraph after another establishes a tempo of analysis working up toward the conclusion.
The conclusion is also a mini-essay, but here you will develop a summative paragraph whereby you respond to the prompt with your compiled and synthesized analysis. While you do not replicate, exactly your analysis of the evidence presented above, you do merge or synthesize the essence of your argument. The first sentence is a thesis statement (remember: you are to write your introduction last) that will directly establish, in one sentence, the most important reason that answers the question.
After you have developed three or more substantial evidence paragraphs, written a preliminary thesis statement and concluded, then you can write your introduction and deploy what will be the best possible thesis statement for your essay. As you can clearly understand responses to essay questions are rarely done well without a great deal of preparation.
Working on essay techniques
You will encounter several question stems, but they all have the same basic requirement. They all require you to analyze and reach a conclusion (judgment), based on the evidence you provide. For example:
- ‘Assess the validity [of a quotation]’
- ‘To what extent…’
- ‘How successful…’
- ‘How far…’
Most question will reflect, directly or indirectly, one of the breadth issues in your course of study. The questions will have a fairly broad focus. Over the following chapters, you will practice these types of questions, but the first stage is to consider basic essay technique and to develop your awareness of the historical concepts involved – the concepts of causation and change. Because you cannot really begin to address change until you have covered a long enough period for changes to take effect, this section will focus on the concept of causation.
You should also be aware that this section is not intended to provide examination practice – that will come later. The main purpose here is to introduce essay planning and show you how to explain the causes of an event, i.e. a basic causal explanation.
How to plan your essays
You will already have experience of writing essays from previous study. Some of this will be really useful to build on.
Effective essays are planned essays and, on timed assessment conditions, planned quickly. To achieve this you need to develop and practice a method of planning, so that it comes quickly and easily when you need it. The suggestions below offer you a method that can be adapted to suit different individuals and circumstances, and you will find out what suits you best by practicing it over a period of time.
Basic method: a good essay will have an introduction (no more than a paragraph long) that sets out the issues to be discussed in context; a series of evidence paragraphs which works through points in order to set out an explanation and a conclusion that summarizes the explanation as well as synthesizes your analysis as an answer to the question.
Before you start writing it you need to plan all these aspects together. Let’s take, for example, a ‘breadth’ causation question concerning the reign of the Stuarts and the causes of the English Civil War:
“Why did tensions develop between King and Parliament to the point where they were in open conflict by 1629?” (6 points/marks)
This is the kind of question that you will meet on a test or an examination; it is a good one to consider how to plan a causal explanation. Once you know how to do that, you will be able to adapt it to a range of more complex questions.
Taking the following steps will help you to write an effective answer to this question.
Step 1: Deconstruct the question
Deconstruct (break down) the question to decide what it is asking you to do – Highlight the four main parts of the essay: the instruction, the given factor, the focus, the time period. What are the key issues that is raises? A summary of these issues, in the context of the time period, will often make good introduction, which enables you to focus on the question from the start and sets out where your explanation is going.
Each part must be addressed: the instruction is the command word or the question stem which tells you ‘how’ you are to answer the question (basically – describe, analyze or evaluate); the given factor is the topic or event you are to write about and it is from the given factor that you are to derive the evidence necessary to substantiate your response; the focus guides your own knowledge toward analyzing the evidence within the given topic in support of your thesis statement; the time period establishes the chronological parameters so that you may establish causation and discuss consequences within a given time frame in order to satisfy the requirements of the question. It is necessary for an essay response to sketch out some sort of plan while you are deconstructing the sentence. In so doing, you are fundamentally structuring your thesis ensuring that it syncs with each of the four components of the prompt.
This is a question about causes, so you will need to start by looking into what happened to identify the causal factors that created and built up the tension.
Notice:
* The given factor of the question refers to ‘King and Parliament’ rather than individual kings and parliaments. You know that the king in 1629 was Charles I, but until 1625 the king was his father, James, so the question requires you to consider events involving both.
* In addition it refers to tensions ‘developing’ to ‘a point where’, implying a process by which they built up and gradually got worse. Both these things indicate that this is a ‘breadth’ question. To answer it, you will need to take a broad view and look for causes across the whole period that you have covered in this unit of study. Throughout the essay it is important to remember that you are not discussing the causes of tension generally, but specifically (focus) why they affected the relationship between king and Parliament to the point of an open conflict. This open conflict is your main focus. What you are looking for across the period are the long-term and short-term factors that brought it about.
Step 2: List your main points
A clear structure makes for an effective essay and is crucial in achieving the highest level of credit in an exam. Write down the main points of your explanation in the order you intend to make them. Since this is a causation essay, these points you will elaborate upon in your evidence paragraphs should be ordered chronologically.
Step 3: Write your conclusion
Write out a paragraph that answers the question by synthesizing your analysis and reaching a judgment, to serve as your conclusion. You may well find that you adapt it slightly when you come to use it at the end of the essay, but it will serve as a guide while you are getting there.
Some people find that they prefer to reverse the order of steps 2 and 3. Once they have analyzed the question they write their answer in a paragraph, then underline the main points. Once you have tried it a few times you will know what works best for you.
EXAMPLE
In an essay dealing with causation, you must break down ‘what happened’ into causal factors. In this case you will find them by looking at what the kings and parliaments quarreled about, to see if there were similar issues that appeared over the period. This would give you three key factors:
- The powers of the monarch and claims to ‘Divine Right’.
- Religious conflicts and fear.
- Finance, extravagance and the impact of war. These factors apply right across the period, but given that it involves two kings, it makes sense to divide the period into two, and see if the individuals made a difference. This would give you five factors to cover.
- The exercise of powers by Charles I, 1625–28
- Religious conflicts and fears, the impact of Arminianism, 1625–29
At this point you could write these out as a numbered list, in the order that you intend to deal with them. However, you need to think about the links between them if you are going to turn them into an answer to the question. A better way may therefore be to write out a paragraph that links them together into an answer – in other words, a potential conclusion.
Student Response earning 6 out of 6 possible points/marks:
“When James became King of England he found that the monarchy was facing problems caused by religious conflicts, a lack of money, and an expensive war with Spain. James ended the war, and eventually created a fairly tolerant Church, which helped to calm religious conflicts, but his high-flown claims to Divine Right and his financial extravagance caused a number of arguments with Parliaments. The situation became much worse after the Thirty Years War broke out, because it heightened religious fears and raised issues in Parliament about the costs of a war and what kind of war to fight. However, it was not until Charles I became King that relations began to break down. His reliance on Buckingham, his attempts to raise money without parliament and his promotion of Arminians in the Church created fears that he intended to establish an absolute monarchy, and possibly a Catholic one. It was the combination of these underlying fears and problems with the particular personality of Charles I that brought open conflict in 1629.”
How to use detail effectively
As well as focus and structure your essay will be judged on the extent to which it includes relevant and accurate detail. Detailed essays are more likely to do well than essays which are vague or generalized.
What is detail?
There are several different kinds of evidence you could use that might be described as detailed. This includes correct dates, names of relevant people, statistics and events. If you look back through your textbook, assigned readings, and your Cornell Notes you will find profiles and names, key dates and definitions to help. Many of the events have particular titles, like the Great Contract, the Addled Parliament, the Petition of Right and the Three Resolutions, which provide specific points of reference. You can also make your essays more detailed by using the correct technical vocabulary. Your Cornell Notes from class and assigned readings should always record these terms. In your daily review and as part of the revision process you should work towards a mastery of these important terms.
How to use detail
You should use detailed evidence to support the points that you are making. For example, the first sentence refers to ‘religious conflicts’. To develop this you could refer to anti-Catholic feeling, the war with Spain (and memories of the Armada), the Puritan demand for further reform, the Hampton Court conference and the appointment of Archbishop Bancroft. Later, when the second sentence mentions James’s successes, you can use his support for a preaching ministry and his appointment of Archbishop Abbot in 1611. The purpose of detail is to show that the claims made in the sentence are accurate and to give examples to illustrate them.
How to stay focused
Throughout your answer it is the specific links that you make to the question that maintain the focus of your essay and show why you have included that material in it. The advantage of writing a ‘conclusion’ as part of your planning lies in establishing such links in your own mind. In a similar way, a focused introduction helps to set out where your essay is going and how it will answer the question. It should not be the same as a conclusion, but it should set out the direction of your argument within the context of timer period identified during your deconstruction of the prompt.
How to write a focused introduction
One way to do this is to use the wording of the question to help write your argument. The first sentence of the answer to the question ‘Why did tensions develop between King and Parliament to the point where they were in open conflict by 1629?’ could read, for example and Parliament in 1629 arose from a series of clashes that had begun when Charles I succeeded to the throne in 1625, but its roots lay much deeper, in tensions that had existed since 1603. This focused context could be followed by reference to long- and short-term problems, and the need to explain why they built up over the period. Ideally, you will write this introduction and your thesis last since it gives you more power and control over the essay.
Throughout the essay
You can then move into the main body of your essay, using the structure that you have set out in your list of factors and your brief conclusion. To maintain this throughout the essay you can again use the wording of the question, by ensuring that you refer to it at both the beginning and end of each paragraph. Thus each paragraph will explicitly show how a particular factor helped to develop tension, either directly or in combination with other factors, until you can pull it all together in your final conclusion. Each evidence paragraph should establish a tempo of argument from weaker point to strongest point with the last sentence of each paragraph being explicitly in support of your thesis.