Essays
Essay Writing Checklist
Here are some of the things you need to think about in preparing an essay. Few of them are iron rules. Good essays come in many forms, and a good essay writer will sometimes ignore some of these guidelines. But to become a good essay writer you would probably do well to start by following them.
Please remember that writing an essay involves skills of discussion and argument which differ from those that might be used in the informal setting of a seminar. In the first place, argument and analysis in essays will usually have to be more carefully structured than the comments you might make in a seminar or tutorial discussion. In essays, you should demonstrate awareness of more than one argument, acknowledge differences in the views of historians, and adopt a critical appreciation of evidence and its sources. You should also provide the necessary scholarly underpinning for your analysis by showing the sources of your information and arguments in bibliographies and footnotes.
On questions of presentation, footnoting, etc. you should follow the advice given from the department.
The Essay Question
- Have you really answered the question?
- Have you thought what might lie behind the question, e.g. if it asks 'Was the First World War the main cause of the Russian Revolution?', have you thought about what alternative explanations might be suggested?
- Is each paragraph clearly related to the overall question, raising a new topic and moving the argument forward?
- The ultimate test is that if you left the title off the top of your essay, could a friend guess the question from your answer?
Your Analysis
- Have you made an argument or is the essay simply relating what happened?
- Is your argument logical, coherent and clear?
- Are you contradicting yourself?
- Are you using appropriate evidence to back up each part of your argument?
- Are you aware of counter-arguments?
- Have you combined evidence and ideas from several different sources at each stage of the argument, or are you merely summarising what your sources say one by one?
Your Research
- Have you done enough reading? Six books/article/chapters is suggested for a short essay; ten or more for a long one.
- Are you up to date on the historical debate? Do not rely only on the older texts.
- Have you listed in the bibliography all the sources you used, and only those sources?
Referencing
It is important that you reference your work correctly. Check out our departmental guide:
Formatting and Presentation
Departmental guidance on how to format and present your assessment, including what is and is not included in the word count.
Artificial Intelligence
It is important that you understand and follow the department's rules about use of artificial intelligence (AI) when writing your assessments.