A Guide to Writing Assessment Essays

OBJECTIVE This webinar is designed to help you locate information, put this information together, write your history essay, and correctly cite your sources.

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The Easy Part About History The great part about history essays is that people have already done the research for you. The necessary information comes directly from your textbook…no need to spend time searching the Internet.

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Step One: Reading the Question

While this may sound simple, reading the question correctly is very important. Picking out key words in the question will save you a tremendous amount of time. Instead of reading the chapter over again searching for answers, you may check the index for specific page numbers.

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Reading the Question

cont.

Sample question: Using Oregon as a model, identify and thoroughly detail the three usual stages of frontier development. The key words in this question would be Oregon and frontier development. Checking the index in the textbook, we find Oregon listed with frontier development as a subheading. This directs us to pages 360-361 in the textbook.

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Researching the Information Read each paragraph and write down any information in your own words that you feel is important.

As you make notes, put the page numbers beside them in case you need to come back and check your information. Highlighting important facts will also help when you begin assembling information.

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Three Main Parts of an Essay Introduction Body

Conclusion

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Introduction The introductory paragraph gives the purpose of the essay, gets the reader’s attention, and provides your thesis statement. The thesis is the main reason for your essay. It makes a statement or argument that you intend to prove in the essay. This is important because the whole essay revolves around your thesis.

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Introduction cont. Sample thesis statement: Derived from the rhythm and blues music of black artists in the South, rock ‘n’ roll music transcended racial barriers and changed the scope of popular music in America. Body paragraphs in this paper could cover the roots of rhythm and blues, white musicians and radio stations covering black music, and record sales of rock ‘n’ roll music.

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Writing the Body Paragraphs The body paragraphs in the essay contain the main points of your argument. In a history essay the body paragraphs explain why something happened or the importance of a particular event.

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Body Paragraph Components All body paragraphs should start with a topic sentence. The topic sentence states what the paragraph is about and supports the thesis statement. Sample topic sentence: Legendary rock ‘n’ roll musician J-Byrd Norman achieved success through recording blues tunes originally cut in the 1930s.

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Body Paragraph Components cont. Following the topic sentence will be sentences that contain the supporting evidence. Each one of these will back up your topic sentence and build upon the information. Supporting sentence examples: Originally raised in the small town of Perdido, Alabama, Norman was exposed to blues music at church revivals. Upon moving to Memphis, Tennessee, Norman signed with agent Markee Gotschall. Gotschall realized that having a young white singer record blues tunes allowed them to be played across America, therefore, increasing record sales (Troup, 2000).

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Body Paragraph Components cont. Transition sentences wrap up the topic and help to smoothly link this with your next paragraph. Sample transition sentence: Norman’s first album broke sales records nationwide and opened the door for new artists in this genre (Howard & Stanton, 2007).

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Conclusion Paragraph The conclusion paragraph wraps up the main points of your essay and restates your argument. In wrapping these up, be sure to tie them into your thesis statement to strengthen your essay. Avoid introducing any new information in your conclusion.

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The Reference List Following the conclusion paragraph will be your references. Most essays in history courses can be answered by using your textbook. A great place to find the proper reference listing for your textbook is in your course syllabus. Several APA citation and reference resources are available in the Student Portal by clicking on the Success Center tab. Sample Reference listing: Millett, A., & Maslowski, P. (1994). For the common defense: A military history of the United States of America. New York, NY: The Free Press.

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Proofreading There are several necessary elements to proofreading. Run Spell Check. Read your paper aloud. This will catch many issues that spell/grammar check may miss. Check your citations. Did you properly acknowledge your outside sources? Did you include them with paraphrased material? Do direct quotes have citations with page numbers?

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Proofreading cont. Check the introduction, body, and conclusion to make sure that they flow and that they revolve around the question you are trying to answer. Historical essays should be objective. Unless the professor asks for your opinion, any bias should be left out of the essay. Another great way to check your essay is to have someone else read it. The Success Center is available to proofread papers, checking for things like sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and APA format.

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Additional Resources In addition to proofreading papers, the Success Center has resources for APA format, essay writing, grammar, punctuation, sample essays, and avoiding plagiarism. Contact the Success Center either by phone at ext. 6538 or email at [email protected].

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