Parts Of An Essay

Parts Of An Essay Read your essay aloud, either to yourself or another person. Seek feedback and advice from a good writer or someone you trust . A history essay is only likely to succeed if it is appropriately referenced. Your essay should support its information, ideas and arguments with citations or references to reliable sources. Many consider the introduction to be the most important part of an essay. It is the reader’s first experience of your essay. Avoiding these mistakes will improve your essay writing, so you can achieve higher quality and confidence in your academic writing. The essay is supposed to reflect your understanding of the topic and the research you've done to back up your argument. Overuse of quotes either from the work you're analyzing or from the research you've done undermines your authority on the topic. An obvious tip for a history essay is to write in the past tense. Watch out for mixed tenses when proofreading your work. Never refer to yourself personally, using phrases like “I think…” or “It is my contention…”. Good history essays should adopt the perspective of an informed and objective third party. They should sound rational and factual â€" not like an individual expressing their opinion. It is where you first address the question and express your contention. It is also where you lay out or ‘signpost’ the direction your essay will take. Every essay must have an introduction, a body of several paragraphs and a conclusion. Your paragraphs should be well organised and follow a logical sequence. At some point in your research, you should begin thinking about a contention for your essay. For example, “all the peasants were outraged”, “women rallied to oppose conscription” or “Germans supported the Nazi Party”. History and human society are never this clear cut or simple. Try to avoid generalisation and look out for generalised statements when proofreading. Generalisation occurs when you form general conclusions from one or more examples. In history, it most commonly occurs when students study a particular group then assume their experiences applied to a much larger group. When in doubt, stick to writing about something you’re passionate about, as you’ll find it easier to stay motivated. If you’re bored to tears writing your essay, anyone reading it will be too. Cari Bennette is an avid blogger and writer at Jet Writers â€" provider of custom writing solutions. She covers different aspects of writing and blogging in her articles and plans to try her hand in fiction writing. The longer a sentence becomes, the greater the risk of it becoming long-winded or confusing. Long sentences can easily become disjointed, confused or rambling. Try not to overuse long sentences and pay close attention to sentence length when proofreading. This is a problem in all essays but particularly in history essays. Remember, you should be able to express it briefly as if addressing the essay question in a single sentence, or summing up in a debate. What happens if you have a completely open topic? On the one hand you’re lucky to have some creative freedom. But on the other â€" you’re faced with unlimited choice. They’re about getting you in touch with the most authentic and vibrant version of yourself. Alpha History is an Australian-based site with writers and editors around the world. We produce free history content for teachers and students worldwide. Our website contains thousands of articles and resources on 11 different periods and events - from the American Revolution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Good writers vary their sentence length but as a rule of thumb, most of your sentences should be short and punchy.