How to get full marks on a history essay?

0mega

Hey, I'm just wondering what it would entail to get 100/100 on a history essay. What kind of detail is required and what can you do to bump up your OE mark?

I can never seem to get over 90/100 on my essays and it's usually the OE that brings me down, but my history teacher has never really explained how we can improve on our essays.

Also, roughly how many words/pages do you think you'd need for a 100 mark essay. I generally keep mine to about 1000 words (3.5 - 4 pages).

Thanks!

Canard

I've gotten 97-100/100 a few times on essays but I dont think it takes anything spectacular. Of course spectacular essays are always nice but its not necessary. :P

One of them was the fall of stormont and the collapse of the power sharing executive - it was around 5 pages, but yeah, like you said 3.5 - 4 is optimal. What I did was go into a bit too much detail at the start maybe, and I had marks to spare (I got 72/60 on the CM or something, but obviously only 60 counted). You should go for as much info as possible to ensure full marks on the CM, and I think the OE goes for key points. What I mean is if you wrote about Stalin's terror regime you can get 60/60 without the show trials, but it was crucial to his terror so you'd probably be down a bit on the OE because of that.

I think you also have to analyse while you tell the story. Telling the story gets the CM but the OE goes up if you relate it to the bigger picture - I did an essay involving O'Neill earlier and mentioned his mishandling of the social policy in NI, so you'd mention that things like that caused NICRA to emerge.

Maybe someone else can give some more advice, I'm not really that sure, that just seems to be what gets good marks :P My revision book said that its definitely 60 marks for information and 40 marks for how you deliver it, so it's a bit like English I guess.

Speedy199

I just did my leaving last year and i also did history. To get full marks youd have to just structure out good enough for the topic and details you wrote tie together. Say if its about hitlers time in power, youd bascially have to give all the information about hitlers goals and how he set out out about them but be very detailed!. Its very hard to accomplish to be fair but can be done if done properly

13spanner

Our teacher says it's your evaluation that gets you the high B to A grade answer. Like what effects the person/event had on history in a broader context.

0mega

Patchy~ wrote: »

I've gotten 97-100/100 a few times on essays but I dont think it takes anything spectacular. Of course spectacular essays are always nice but its not necessary. :P

One of them was the fall of stormont and the collapse of the power sharing executive - it was around 5 pages, but yeah, like you said 3.5 - 4 is optimal. What I did was go into a bit too much detail at the start maybe, and I had marks to spare (I got 72/60 on the CM or something, but obviously only 60 counted). You should go for as much info as possible to ensure full marks on the CM, and I think the OE goes for key points. What I mean is if you wrote about Stalin's terror regime you can get 60/60 without the show trials, but it was crucial to his terror so you'd probably be down a bit on the OE because of that.

I think you also have to analyse while you tell the story. Telling the story gets the CM but the OE goes up if you relate it to the bigger picture - I did an essay involving O'Neill earlier and mentioned his mishandling of the social policy in NI, so you'd mention that things like that caused NICRA to emerge.

Maybe someone else can give some more advice, I'm not really that sure, that just seems to be what gets good marks :P My revision book said that its definitely 60 marks for information and 40 marks for how you deliver it, so it's a bit like English I guess.

What exactly do you mean by this?

What are some things you could do to get marks for "delivery"?

Canard

Basically just make it readable and coherent - e.g no run on sentences, no "Hitler did this. Then he did that. Oh but before that he did this" and things like that
Sorry if thats not very clear, I'm not 100% sure myself, thats just what seems to be the trend with my history class

NSNO

I was an A1 history student last year so here's a bit of advice.

• Know what you're talking about.
• Show an interest in history beyond the course, especially stuff that can put course topics into a proper context.
• Don't list facts. The people marking your essays will always be history teachers. They're not idiots, they know the course. If they wanted 4 pages of facts from the book then they'd read the book.
• Argue a point of view. History is a fluid discipline, the facts are rarely the whole truth and can be interpretated every which way and commonly are. Avoid determinism and righteousness. It is not your place to judge people on their actions, only to put their actions into a context. Have a read over what Historiography is and stuff like revisionism etc. is and be aware of it.
• Contextualise, contextualise, contextualise.
• Extrapolate but don't over reach.
• Don't tell, show. The golden rule of writing fiction stands true when writing academic essays.
• An extension of the above: If you can't show, then you shouldn't hold that opinion. History is an academic discipline, if there is no evidence for an opinion whether it is yours or even what society says about a historical figure, then don't assert it. Indeed, if someone else has asserted it in a document, then examine it critically.
• Learn a bit of political and economic theory. Knowing even the basics of what theories and ideologies the various key people of your course followed and being able to bring that in to your essay as causality or impact will look very good. People think they can get by just knowing what National Socialism and Communism were: you can't.
• Know the history of the British Liberal, Conservative and Labour parties, the American Democrats and Republicans and the Irish parties. Know their leaders, their political positions and the development of their positions.
• Link your topics (ie. Contextualise!!). Link them to other areas of study within the topic, perhaps the social aspect of a topic if you're doing a political essay. Even link them to a different topic book if the timeframes overlap and they are both indicative of a trend.
• Structure coherently and properly. Slowly build up your argument.
• Don't waste a page and a half on your introduction. If it takes you that long to outline your argument then you have a problem. If you're just spouting facts then you have a problem.
• Think critically. Don't be afraid to expose bias or prejudice and especially romanticism. Be aware of social conditioning, depending on how you were raised you may have certain inbuilt prejudices and biases towards things to do with Northern Ireland, Britain, the WW2 Allies etc. Don't allow them to cloud your writing.
• Most importantly, be confident. Don't be afraid of yourself when writing. by the time you're sitting in the exam you'll have studied history for 2 years. You'll know the material well enough, now use it.

tl;dr: Assert nothing without evidence, an essay is not an opportunity for you to dump the contents of your brain onto the page, learning things off by heart will get you nowhere. Enjoy it, it's an opportunity to show off!

DreamingAgain

I think to be honest your conclusion is really important(well that's what my teacher always says and he's brilliant)also you have to be able to add in different quotes and facts etc.Has to be a bit unique but stay on the point too!

wnolan1992

OP, it may be that your history teacher is one that doesn't give high A's. As in, he/she may just set your OE to ensure you don't get over 90 and become complacent.

I got a B1 in history 2 years ago, was only about 10 marks off the A2, and my history teacher said, had he been marking it I'd have gotten the A.

So some advice on essays.

Structure is key. You need to have coherency in your essay. Don't put 1916 Rising in Paragraph 3 and Roger Casement in Paragraph 4. A quick plan before an essay helps.

Then, when writing the essay, it's your analysis that gets you high marks. Simply saying something like "De Valera used the Eucharistic Congress to boost public opinion in his favour." and moving on, will likely get you a mark. Saying something like "Dev used the EC to boost public opinion, [insert list of stuff he did such as photos with Cardinal Legate, etc]. It was a major help to Dev's political career, and a lucky break, considering the bulk of the ground work for the EC had been done by the previous Cumann na nGaedhael government." will get you 3-4 marks and help your OE.

Do not treat it as an English essay. The language you use isn't as important as the information you convey. Try and make a point, explain it, consequence s of it, stuff like that. Try and be as detailed as possible, but don't get bogged down in details of minor events. For example writing a page on Hitler's rise to power in an essay titled: "Discuss Hitler's Regime 1932-45" is a huge common mistake, and ends up hurting your OE.

Can't stress how important outside reading is for a high grade. You need to be able to show that you offer something different than is in the text book. This'll set you apart from everyone else in the bundle of 100 papers the corrector is marking. This is where your RSR can work to your advantage. If you've chosen a topic that can link in with an essay you're sorted.
For example, my RSR was on The Battle of Iwo Jima, so when I was writing an essay on WWII, I would always throw in a paragraph on the war in the pacific, which isn't really dealt with in much detail.

loopylocky

I did history last year and got A2 after recheck, for the essays i done in the exam , i wrote 6 1/2 pages on jarrow march and 5 1/2 pages on 1st program for economic expansion (in normal sized writing to) , they were exactly as i had learned them word for word, my teacher said 'yeah write those and you have full marks. when i looked at my script after results bot essays had above 60/60 but each had 25/40 on OE , and my third essay ( my worst waffles half of it) had only 42/60 but some how had 27/40 on OE . It really depends on the person who gets your script one could see it as gold and the other as rubbish. Just hope you all get good markers

Canard

How did you manage to write a learned-off essay? Would the small twists not have eliminated the chance of that?

wnolan1992

Patchy~ wrote: »

How did you manage to write a learned-off essay? Would the small twists not have eliminated the chance of that?

Not really. It's fairly easy to predict what's coming up in history. Our teacher made 4 predictions the year I did it, he got all four right.

Plus, most teachers worth their salary will have prepared you for the small twists.

Example:

Title 1: Discuss the importance of cultural identity in the Free State from 1923-39.

Title 2: Discuss the importance of cultural identity in the North and South of Ireland 1923-39.

These two are basically the same essay, you just need to have a paragraph ready for cultural identity in the North and slot it in to your prepared essay for Title 1. Add in a sentence or two in your conclusion and boom!

LostBoy101

My teacher showed us a A1 essay and the marks it got for each paragraph. He/she got around 9 out of 10 marks each in each paragraph but the conclusion was the lowest mark out. (think it was 6-7)

I'm a 5th year student so didn't sit the L.C and that surprised me quite a lot.

Canard

I dont understand when that happens - surely if you're getting 10/12 for each paragraph you're only going to end up with 6 paragraphs and a very short essay?

Also, wnolan1992, your teacher sounds amazing - I'd love predictions that accurate

wnolan1992

Patchy~ wrote: »

I dont understand when that happens - surely if you're getting 10/12 for each paragraph you're only going to end up with 6 paragraphs and a very short essay?

Also, wnolan1992, your teacher sounds amazing - I'd love predictions that accurate

He was the biggest legend ever. On the night of viewing scripts, he was sitting next to me, and when he saw the marker had taken 2 marks from my RSR for "Research Skills", he went "Ah the miserable bollox!" :pac:

10-12 for a paragraph is really hard to get. You usually will only get that with some fairly hefty outside reading or really insightful analysis. In the main, you're far better off to aim for 8 paragraphs at 8 marks each, give or take.

It's a cliche, but it's not about how much you write, it's about the quality of what you write. As an example, I usually was lucky to get over 4 pages for an essay in class tests, and a girl in my class could easily write 6+pages in 40 minutes. But when the marks came out, our marks would be pretty similar (high B usually), so all that extra content gained her very little.