How do I get an A* in my History Coursework?

Hey guys, I just finished my English Lit Coursework (2000 Words) and I found it really straight forward and I got full marks on the first draft, but now I'm a little rattled with my History Coursework (4000 Words), because the mark scheme isn't exactly very clear in pointing out where marks are achieved. With my English Lit it was a case of going through the mark scheme and just ticking off every technique I had used, but this method doesn't seem to work very well for History. Here are the techniques that I'm doing already:

My question is To what extent were individual Civil Rights Leaders responsible for the improvement of African American's lives in Ameica, between the years 1900-2011.

- Providing a balanced argument with my own clear personal opinion and a conclusion summarizing my overall view.
- A range of historical events mentioned, with critics/contemporaries opinions from books on the subject. Used in a way to back up my points.
- Mention some critics/contemporaries who disagree with my overall opinion and then explain why I disagree.
- I have defined the term "improvement" in my introduction.
- No spelling/grammatical errors throughout.

Is this enough for an A*? Anyone else here who has achieved an A* in the past do you think this is enough? Is there any technique were I might gain more marks? Thanks

(edited 4 months ago)

Reply 1

Like a BAWS

1

Discuss sources in terms of their historiographical context :smile:

Reply 2

Rascacielos

19

Sounds good if you execute it correctly. You also need to look at sources in terms of their context (i.e. when they were written/who they were written by and how this might influence the opinion that the sources give).

Reply 3

Keckers

15

The key to this question is in interrogating the ' individual Civil Rights Leaders' parts of the question. To get an A* you need to discern between the importance of the individual activists and the acts of civil rights organisations and groups. This adds another dimension to the question, you are both questioning the extent of improvement and also the importance of the roles of individuals as compared to group efforts, the bulk of your essay should be comprised of the individual vs collective acts.

Of course you may have done this but you aren't very clear how you approached the question in the OP, so if you have done this I apologise.

Reply 4

TSR George

OP

17

Sounds good if you execute it correctly. You also need to look at sources in terms of their context (i.e. when they were written/who they were written by and how this might influence the opinion that the sources give).

Thanks I completely forgot about doing that. Shouldn't be too hard to just go back through my essay and include a few extra sentences for each quote. (:

The key to this question is in interrogating the ' individual Civil Rights Leaders' parts of the question. To get an A* you need to discern between the importance of the individual activists and the acts of civil rights organisations and groups. This adds another dimension to the question, you are both questioning the extent of improvement and also the importance of the roles of individuals as compared to group efforts, the bulk of your essay should be comprised of the individual vs collective acts.

Of course you may have done this but you aren't very clear how you approached the question in the OP, so if you have done this I apologise.

I apologize for my lack of clarity. You raise a good point and the answer is no, I haven't compared individual Civil Rights Leaders to group efforts. What I have done is provided another dimension to my argument in a different sense by comparing violent Civil Rights Leaders (Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael) with nonviolent Civil Rights Leaders (Martin Luther King, W.E.B Du Bois) and assessing that violent protest was ineffective in achieving a culturally integrated society. Do you think that is appropriate? Also I've assessed the environmental factors such as the Cold War and Vietnam in terms of it's effect on the Civil Rights Movement.

Reply 5

Keckers

15

It is definitely worth assessing the impact of individuals versus groups, since this addresses the question directly and therefore more relevant, your response would be more appropriate if the question was geared towards violent vs non-violent protest.

Reply 6

TSR George

OP

17

It is definitely worth assessing the impact of individuals versus groups, since this addresses the question directly and therefore more relevant, your response would be more appropriate if the question was geared towards violent vs non-violent protest.

I kind of disagree, because the point I'm making by comparing violent to nonviolent is that Civil Rights Leaders shouldn't be judged as one collective factor, and that some harmed integration and some helped it. In relation to my argument, this is important because in my conclusion I have evaluated that some Civil Rights Leaders (such as MLK) had monumental impact in improving African American lives, but their differing methods and lack of unification slowed the process down significantly.

Reply 7

love being ageek

You know what? Just from the information that is given to you, I just got helped. And by the way: really well done for your English! :smile:

I think that history is really vague but in here I guess that all that you really have to do is to ensure that you are not saying 'I' ebcause I think that it makes you lose marks and you must ensure that you be balanced in your argument so that you mention the two sides fo the argument and ensure that you quote as well as reference your whole essay. You must mention a few of teh events that occurred and yo must then refer that to the question (i.e. link it back) . I guess that's al but if there's any more improvements that you get please can you reply to me with the improvements.

I really hope that I helped and I hope that you get the A* that you want! :smile:

thank you...

Reply 8

superflykksks

5

Original post by Rascacielos

Sounds good if you execute it correctly. You also need to look at sources in terms of their context (i.e. when they were written/who they were written by and how this might influence the opinion that the sources give).

Hi, do we mention how reliable the sources are and where they came from in the essay or the appendix?

Reply 9

jmjosephina

1

Original post by superflykksks

Hi, do we mention how reliable the sources are and where they came from in the essay or the appendix?

In the essay, it's like paper 2 source analysis but just within coursework - provenance and context etc. hope this helps.

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 10

jmjosephina

1

Original post by superflykksks

Hi, do we mention how reliable the sources are and where they came from in the essay or the appendix?

In the essay, it's like paper 2 source analysis but just within coursework - provenance and context etc.

How do I get an A* in my History Coursework?

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