Tag: assessment

Some further explanation:

• A clear first sentence should convey what the key point (thesis) is of this paragraph. Also, a thematic approach is far stronger than a simple narrative account. Categorising events in themes like political, military, economic, social, long term, short term, strengths, weaknesses, causes, effects, ideology etc etc will produce a much more sophisticated and analytic essay than just telling the story.

• Evidence and explanation should contain stats, quotes, years, events, people. Great sentence starters are: An example of this is, it can be seen that, this is illustrated by, as shown by, for example, as historian XYZ stated etc. This is where you show you know your stuff.

• Analysis and assessment. Every IB History essay will require you to make a judgement. Just spitting out everything you know is not enough (avoid simple narratives), you have to place your knowledge into context and analyse why it was significant, what was more or less important, assess its effect or reasons why. Go to the Google doc for good sentence starters and conjunctions.

• Conclusion: Always stay on track in addressing the essay statement. Conclude each paragraph with something that links to either your topic sentence or the essay statement itself. You can reuse some of the key words from the essay statement (but not verbatim, that is too simplistic). Also, take note of the command term of the question; do what you are “commanded” to do.

• Signpost, signpost, signpost your argument. Great list here. Print it off.
• Go to the Google Drive for a “How to write a history essay” handout. This document also contains an extensive list of sign post words.
• General essay writing resources here
• Monash University has a very clear and informative website about academic writing. This page is about how to analyse an historical argument: http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/academic/5.xml
• Here is a page about how to structure a paragraph etc: http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/academic/4.1.xml
• Info from Monash on a printable document here

Here’s a good question for you: Why can’t I just use Google for my research? The pros and cons can be found here. 

 

Agreement / Addition / Similarity	Opposition / Limitation / Contradiction	Examples / Support / Emphasis	Conclusion / Summary / Restatement
in the first place not only … but also in addition coupled with first, second, third equally important by the same token equally moreover comparatively correspondingly similarly furthermore additionally	although this may be true in contrast different from of course …, but on the other hand on the contrary at the same time in spite of even so / though be that as it may then again above all in reality after all but (and) still unlike or (and) yet while albeit besides although instead whereas despite conversely otherwise however rather nevertheless regardless notwithstanding	in other words for one thing as an illustration in this case for this reason that is to say important to realize another key point first thing to remember most compelling evidence must be remembered point often overlooked to point out on the positive / negative side with this in mind notably, including, like, namely, chiefly, truly, indeed, certainly, surely, markedly, especially, specifically, expressively, surprisingly, frequently, significantly, such as, in fact in general in particular in detail for example for instance to demonstrate to emphasize to repeat to clarify to explain to enumerate	as can be seen generally speaking in the final analysis all things considered as shown above in the long run given these points as has been noted in a word for the most part after all in fact in summary in conclusion in short in brief in essence to summarize on balance altogether overall ordinarily usually by and large to sum up on the whole in any event in either case all in all