ACJC H1 History Essay Writing Guide

H1 8838 History Essay Writing Guide ACJC/ History Department/2023 1 H1 8838 History Essay Writing Guide Contents A. H1 Syllabus requirements i. A-Level examination format 2 ii. A-Level essay mark scheme 4 B. General Principles of Essay Writing 7 C. Structure of Paragraphs 8 D. Essay question prompts 11 E. Paper 1 (IH): Recap Structure & Sample Paragraphs 14 Concluding remarks 17

H1 8838 History Essay Writing Guide ACJC/ History Department/2023 2 A. H1 History Syllabus Requirements (i) Examination Format Paper 1: The Cold War and the Modern World (1945 – 2000) Section Section Format Marks and weighting Time allocation A (Source-based question) (Theme I: The Development of the Cold War, 1945-1991) Candidates will answer the compulsory source -based case study set comprising two sub - questions. a) Compare 2 sources (10 marks; 10%) b) Test assertion usi ng all sources (30 marks; 30%) AO1 + AO3 40 marks (40%) 3 hours to complete both sections. B (Essay questions) Candidates will answer:  1 out of 2 essay questions set on Theme II (30 marks; 30%)  1 out of 2 essay questions set on Theme III (30 marks; 30%) AO1 + AO2 60 marks (60%)

H1 8838 History Essay Writing Guide ACJC/ History Department/2023 3 (ii) H1 History A-Level Essay Mark Scheme  Your essays are assigned grades according to whether they meet certain criteria, which are described in the marking bands.  It would be beneficial to examine the level des criptors and look at how you can achieve the higher bands (Bands 5 – 7, which constitutes a comfortable B grade and above).  The mark bands for a H1 essay are as follows: Level 0 (0 marks) Band descriptor: No evidence submitted or response does not address the question.  You will only ‘achieve’ this band if you submit a blank piece of paper or something entirely unrelated to A-Level H2 History. Level 1 (1 – 8 marks) Band descriptor: The essay will be characterised by significant irrelevance or argument that does not begin to make significant points. The essay may mention historical concepts but these will not be understood. The answers may be largely fragmentary and incoherent.  Your essay will be placed in this band if it demonstrates no clear focus o n the given question. There will only be the faintest semblance of a logical structure, and evaluation and analysis will be incomplete and simplistic.  Basically, you will get this if you don’t understand your content, don’t have any idea how to apply it to address the question, and have no clue how to organize a coherent argumentative essay. Level 2 (9 – 12 marks) Band descriptor: The essay will not be properly focused on the requirements of the question. There may be many unsupported assertions and comm entaries that lack sufficient factual support. The essay may include references to historical concepts but these may not be fully understood. Where appropriate, the essay may mention the existence of other historical interpretations but this may not be exp lained. The argument may be of limited relevance to the topic and there may be confusion about the implications of the question.  Your essay will be placed in this band if you do present one or two relevant lines of argument, but fail to support these with sufficient factual substantiation. Other lines of argument presented may show a misinterpretation of the question.  If you get this grade, it means you do have some understanding of your content knowledge and of how to structure an A -Level History essay, b ut this understanding is neither firm nor held in sufficient depth. You will not be able to explain vital content concepts nor show that you comprehend key historical concepts such as cause-and-effect.

H1 8838 History Essay Writing Guide ACJC/ History Department/2023 4 Level 3 (13 – 16 marks) Band descriptor: The essay will offer some appropriate factual material but there will be little attempt generally to link factual material to the requirements of the question. The approach will lack analysis. The essay will include some references to historical concepts but these m ay not be used to develop the analysis. Where appropriate, the essay may mention the existence of other historical interpretations, though this may be implicit. The quality of the description or narrative, although sufficiently accurate and relevant to the topic if not the particular question, will not be linked effectively to the argument. The structure will show weaknesses and the treatment of topics within the essay will be unbalanced. The writing may show some accuracy but there will also be frequent errors.  This band is for essays that demonstrate a better grasp of content knowledge than those in Level 2. However, the key weakness of failing to fully understand question requirements will still be present.  So if you know your content, but you are not ab le to effectively use this content to construct and support strong and nuanced lines of argument that clearly address the question, your essay will be placed here. One mistake that might get you placed in this band or in Level 4 is that you show accurate c ontent knowledge, but present this as a narrative instead of using the content to construct an argument.1  Balance is also important, in that if you fail to show – as already mentioned – a nuanced consideration of the various factors that contributed to a g iven process, for instance, you will also be placed within this band. Level 4 (17 – 21 marks) Band descriptor: The essay will indicate attempts to argue relevantly, although often implicitly. The approach will depend more on some heavily descriptive or narrative passages than on analysis or explanation , which may be limited to introductions and conclusions. The essay will show evidence of knowledge of historical concepts and attempts may be made to use historical concepts to aid analysis. Where appropriate, the essay may mention the existence of other historical interpretations but the nature of these interpretations may not be fully understood. Factual material, sometimes very full, will be used to impart information or describe events rather than to address directly the requirements of the question. The structure of the argument could be organised more effectively. The writing will usually be accurate.  Essays in this band will show a better understanding of the question requirements than those in Band 3. However, while there will be relevant lines of argument, these will not be adequately fleshed out with strong analysis and evaluation.  Therefore, the essay will still primarily be a description or narration of events rather than being evaluative in natur e. There may even be an impressive 1 We’ll examine this issue in more detail in the next section.

H1 8838 History Essay Writing Guide ACJC/ History Department/2023 5 demonstration of factual knowledge! Unfortunately – and as will be emphasized in the next section – this is not sufficient. Your own stance on the question needs to be evident, and this stance needs to be fully explained and supported by relevant content details. Level 5 (22 – 25 marks) Level descriptor: The essay will reflect a clear understanding of the question and a fair attempt to provide an argument and factual knowledge to answer it. The approach will contain a nalysis or explanation but there may be some heavily descriptive or narrative passages. The essay will show evidence of understanding of relevant historical concepts, and some use of historical concepts will be made in analysis. Where appropriate, the essa y mentions the existence of other historical interpretations and offers some relevant knowledge of, or evidence fo