Tips to write History 40 mark essays-

1) Underline the key words in the question that is asked. For example in the question “How
significant were Rohm and the SA in the development of the Nazi Party until 1934?’, the
key words/names that should be underlined in this case should be Rohm and the SA.
2) Plan your essay at the beginning for five minutes-these five minutes should be used lay
out the central arguments of your essay and write the evidences to support each
claim(evidences as in historical evidences, facts statistics etc(you can find these in the
authoritarian states textbooks found on the drive as well as the white textbook the school
has given(which other than collecting some statistical figures is of little use))). The
evidences are usually what is given in the mark schemes for igcse Paper 4 history
examinations and these evidences can be used to support the central arguments.
3) In the introductory paragraph give a brief background as to who/what the key
names/words that were underlined in the question were. In this case give a brief one-two
line explanation on who Rohm was and who the SA were. Do not go into too much detail
as you only have 55 minutes left for writing after planning and trust me that isn’t a lot of
time and there is a lot to write. Following this you should also mention what are your
arguments(for and against). It is preferable to use three supporting arguments and three
counter arguments(3 supporting arguments and 2 counter arguments can also be used
or vice versa if you can write enough for the 2 counter arguments but I would strongly
suggest you stick to 3 and 3). For example in the question above, there should be three
supporting arguments as to why Rohm and the SA were responsible for the development
of the Nazi party and three counter arguments as to why Rohm and the SA weren’t
responsible for the development of the Nazi Party(that other factors were like the Great
Depression, other Nazi leaders or direct argument could be used to show why the SA
weren’t responsible for the development of the Nazi Party). Then after this is done write
the thesis statement. An example of a thesis statement is the following “This essay
attempts to explore the extent to which Rohm and the SA were responsible for the rise of
the Nazi Party”. Although it isn’t necessary for a paper 4 answer, it makes the essay look
better in the eyes of the examiner.
4) In the body, there should be one paragraph per argument. THe argument should be
stated in the opening lines of the paragraph following which two-three pieces of evidence
must be given per argument. Following this the evidence should be analysed and should
be connected back to the question. (For example in the case of the question “to what
extent was the great depression responsible for Hitler’s rise to power”, it is simply not
enough to say it caused unemployment and give stats and show that as unemployment
increased Hitler gained more seats and point out the correlation between unemployment
and the number of seats the Nazis gained. It should instead be said that as the
unemployment increased people lost faith in the Weimar system and therefore voted for
the Nazis instead. That is the type of analysis required for Paper 4). Also note that a
paper 4 answer isn’t similar to a Literature answer and that the structure of a literature
answer shouldn’t be copied here. Also never ever explain evidence always analyse the
evidence. An explanation would simply mean giving a list of what happened while
analysis in history involves why it happened.
5) In the conclusion you state which side you agree with and give the reasons why you
choose this side rather than the other side. Note although you are agreeing with one
side the amount that you are writing for each side should roughly be the same. Also
Historiography is not needed in the board exams although in the prelims if you want to
do well write about two three quotes but note that this is not needed in the board exams.