LC History Essay

DarraghFitz98

Just got my 1st History Essay in 5th Year. It is "What was the significance of the 1916 rising". Now I've my opinion on it but I really don't know how to structure it and how can you possibly stretch an essay like this into 8 paragraphs to stretch four pages!

Any help is greatly appreciated

PeterJC!

My Irish history course stops at 1914, however, the plan for a history essay is always the same. Always have an intro and conclusion, thus that leaves six paragraphs for the events of the topic of the essay and always conclude each paragraph with a statement relating back to the question, i.e. This is of significance because... etc.

Hope that helps!

Anonymagician

DarraghFitz98 wrote: »

Just got my 1st History Essay in 5th Year. It is "What was the significance of the 1916 rising". Now I've my opinion on it but I really don't know how to structure it and how can you possibly stretch an essay like this into 8 paragraphs to stretch four pages!

Any help is greatly appreciated

I never covered this topic but some general tips - do not put your own opinion into your history essays. The essays are supposed to be unbiased and written purely from a historical point of view.

Don't just narrate the events of the Rising, use words such as "however", "thus", "therefore", "consequently" and "as a result" to tie together your essay.

Don't stress about the length, it's honestly about quality and not content. Considering it's your first, you're allowed trial and error a bit. Hopefully you'll get back the corrections you need and build up your skills throughout the course.

randylonghorn

Anonymagician wrote: »

I never covered this topic but some general tips - do not put your own opinion into your history essays.

Actually, there's nothing wrong with advancing an opinion or viewpoint, provided it's an informed one which you can back up strongly with evidence.

The problems arise when someone lets their own preconceptions and bias warp their objective analysis of the evidence.

DarraghFitz98

Thanks to all three of you for your contributions!

Any other tips also welcome

marko747

I can't stress this enough, OL repeat the points, chronology, but a real HL candidate, analysis, analysis, analysis! Talk about the effects eg. Execution of leaders gave support to Sinn Fein etc

hotmail.com

Anonymagician wrote: »

I never covered this topic but some general tips - do not put your own opinion into your history essays. The essays are supposed to be unbiased and written purely from a historical point of view.

Don't just narrate the events of the Rising, use words such as "however", "thus", "therefore", "consequently" and "as a result" to tie together your essay.

Don't stress about the length, it's honestly about quality and not content. Considering it's your first, you're allowed trial and error a bit. Hopefully you'll get back the corrections you need and build up your skills throughout the course.

DO stress about length. You need at least 4 pages to ensure a high mark.

hotmail.com

Write a paragraph on each:

Background - the Rising itself
The executions - change in public opinion
Sinn Fein blamed - leads to increased support
By election victories - Home Rule on it's way out
Consciption Crisis - 1917
1918 Election - SF landslide
Dail Eireann set up, War of Independence begins
Conclusion

You could keep going after that as the question doesn't give a date restriction.

Anonymagician

hotmail.com wrote: »

DO stress about length. You need at least 4 pages to ensure a high mark.

I meant it as their first essay, it doesn't have to be A1 LC standard just yet. I think it takes a while to get into the history groove.

hotmail.com

Anonymagician wrote: »

I meant it as their first essay, it doesn't have to be A1 LC standard just yet. I think it takes a while to get into the history groove.

I disagree, the advice is for them to write 4 pages (about 9 or 10 paragraphs). They must start writing the essays in LC form from the beginning. They can then use those essays to learn off come next year.

Anonymagician

hotmail.com wrote: »

I disagree, the advice is for them to write 4 pages (about 9 or 10 paragraphs). They must start writing the essays in LC form from the beginning. They can then use those essays to learn off come next year.

I know what you're saying, I just doubt the first essay will be perfect and without corrections, extra stuff to be added in or things to be omitted.

I was simply suggesting they try it out this one time, get their corrections and build up their essay skills.

hotmail.com

Anonymagician wrote: »

I know what you're saying, I just doubt the first essay will be perfect and without corrections, extra stuff to be added in or things to be omitted.

I was simply suggesting they try it out this one time, get their corrections and build up their essay skills.

That's not the earlier advice you gave. 5th years want the LC advice, not your own personal perspective on the thing.

History essays don't need great essay writing skills for the LC. They are very structured and are essentially a bunch of paragraphs grouped together. They are not like an English essay.

The advice is for them to write 4 pages and that's it. A two and a half page essay, no matter how good it is, will only achieve about a low B or a high C.

Jolly Red Giant

hotmail.com wrote: »

That's not the earlier advice you gave. 5th years want the LC advice, not your own personal perspective on the thing.

History essays don't need great essay writing skills for the LC. They are very structured and are essentially a bunch of paragraphs grouped together. They are not like an English essay.

The advice is for them to write 4 pages and that's it. A two and a half page essay, no matter how good it is, will only achieve about a low B or a high C.

History essays do require essay writing skills (and different skills to writing English).

Darragh - the best advice on this thread comes in the second comment from Pater. History essays have a structure, both for the essay and for each paragraph. Learning the skills for a history essay does not happen overnight - you want to be writing your best essay the day of the exam. No one expects you to write an A1 essay off the bat. Use the essay as a learning process.

As for the length - remember that you will have 40 minutes to write an essay in the Exam. You can write an A1 essay in five paragraphs but it is a rarity. Again, Peter's suggestion is the most helpful - target 8 paragraphs including intro and conclusion (to receive more than 4 marks for the conclusion you must include new information - i.e. the long term consequences or long term developments). Each paragraph should discuss a separate topic.

As for what to write about - hotmail's list is more appropriate for an essay on the Rise of Sinn Fein rather than the essay title you outlined.

More appropriate topics to discuss in the essay would include
1. The role of the IRB
2. The idea of a blood sacrifice
3. The attitude of the population of Dublin
4. the Executions
5. Why public opinion changed after the executions
6. Internment after the Rising and its impact (the 'Sinn Fein University' at Frongoch)
7. Blaming Sinn Fein for the Rising and the consequences of this.
etc.

Again, as Peter outlined - tie each topic into the question of their 'significance' in relation to the Rising.

There are a number of LC history websites around that could be useful. This one is quite popular and has a lot of info on it -
http://leavingcerthistory.net/course-topics/ireland-1912-1949/easter-rising-1916/

Hope this helps -
JRG

DarraghFitz98

Jolly Red Giant wrote: »

History essays do require essay writing skills (and different skills to writing English).

Darragh - the best advice on this thread comes in the second comment from Pater. History essays have a structure, both for the essay and for each paragraph. Learning the skills for a history essay does not happen overnight - you want to be writing your best essay the day of the exam. No one expects you to write an A1 essay off the bat. Use the essay as a learning process.

As for the length - remember that you will have 40 minutes to write an essay in the Exam. You can write an A1 essay in five paragraphs but it is a rarity. Again, Peter's suggestion is the most helpful - target 8 paragraphs including intro and conclusion (to receive more than 4 marks for the conclusion you must include new information - i.e. the long term consequences or long term developments). Each paragraph should discuss a separate topic.

As for what to write about - hotmail's list is more appropriate for an essay on the Rise of Sinn Fein rather than the essay title you outlined.

More appropriate topics to discuss in the essay would include
1. The role of the IRB
2. The idea of a blood sacrifice
3. The attitude of the population of Dublin
4. the Executions
5. Why public opinion changed after the executions
6. Internment after the Rising and its impact (the 'Sinn Fein University' at Frongoch)
7. Blaming Sinn Fein for the Rising and the consequences of this.
etc.

Again, as Peter outlined - tie each topic into the question of their 'significance' in relation to the Rising.



Hope this helps -
JRG

Thanks very much to you and all the other contributions!

When I get it back I will let you know how I got on

hotmail.com

Jolly Red Giant wrote: »

History essays do require essay writing skills (and different skills to writing English).

Darragh - the best advice on this thread comes in the second comment from Pater. History essays have a structure, both for the essay and for each paragraph. Learning the skills for a history essay does not happen overnight - you want to be writing your best essay the day of the exam. No one expects you to write an A1 essay off the bat. Use the essay as a learning process.

As for the length - remember that you will have 40 minutes to write an essay in the Exam. You can write an A1 essay in five paragraphs but it is a rarity. Again, Peter's suggestion is the most helpful - target 8 paragraphs including intro and conclusion (to receive more than 4 marks for the conclusion you must include new information - i.e. the long term consequences or long term developments). Each paragraph should discuss a separate topic.

As for what to write about - hotmail's list is more appropriate for an essay on the Rise of Sinn Fein rather than the essay title you outlined.

More appropriate topics to discuss in the essay would include
1. The role of the IRB
2. The idea of a blood sacrifice
3. The attitude of the population of Dublin
4. the Executions
5. Why public opinion changed after the executions
6. Internment after the Rising and its impact (the 'Sinn Fein University' at Frongoch)
7. Blaming Sinn Fein for the Rising and the consequences of this.
etc.

Again, as Peter outlined - tie each topic into the question of their 'significance' in relation to the Rising.

There are a number of LC history websites around that could be useful. This one is quite popular and has a lot of info on it -
http://leavingcerthistory.net/course-topics/ireland-1912-1949/easter-rising-1916/

Hope this helps -
JRG

They do require essay writing skills, just not that many. Students should make a plan stating all the topics they plan to discuss and arrange them into 8 to 10 paragraphs. After that, they should include a good opening paragraph and a short but decent conclusion offering more than a mere summary. Once this is achieved, the student can get relatively high marks, even if the student simply offers a narrative of the topic. Avoiding writing narrative essays, whilst still mentioning the key events/facts in the topic is the primary essay writing skill in history and something that will take time to achieve IMO. Once that is achieved, an A1 beckons for the student. (This only applies to the LC by the way).

I won't disagree with your plan, but I would see point 1 and 2 as background detail. The 1918 election result would seem to be a critical consequence of the Rising and must be mentioned.

Jolly Red Giant

hotmail.com wrote: »

I won't disagree with your plan, but I would see point 1 and 2 as background detail. The 1918 election result would seem to be a critical consequence of the Rising and must be mentioned.

We can agree to disagree on point 1 and 2 - but I would argue that the election result was not a direct consequence of the Rising. Far more happened in 1917 and 1918 that impacted on the election than any direct consequence of the Rising.