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Help with A level History essay structure? TUDORS

I did not take GCSE history so I am feeling a little out of my depth when it comes to the structure regarding writing an essay.

The question I have been given is “To what extent were the pretenders the main threat to the establishment of the Tudor dynasty during the period 1485 – 1509?”

I have narrowed the main threats down to pretenders/foreign policy/finance/nobility however I have no idea how to express this in an essay!

Should I do a paragraph on the extent to which each threat affected the dynasty to compare the significance of the pretenders?

The advice my lecturer gave me was to make links between the threats so any advice on how to do this would be greatly appreciated. Won't I just be repeating what I mentioned in earlier paragraphs if I link each topic?

Sincerely thanks!
Reply 1
Avatar for Trillo
Trillo
15
I'm not doing the same topic but the structure will carry over. Focus on around four factors (you have already done this), and then do a paragraph on each. Ideally begin with the most significant factor and end on the least significant factor. Then of course sum up in a conclusion - but don't introduce new evidence in the conclusion. The conclusion shouldn't come as a surprise to the reader having read your essay.

If you can compare two factors within a paragraph, that will help your grades - this is a lot more simple than you would think, it doesn't have to be a complex comparison. I don't know about Tudors but I could give an example from my Stuart England course. For example if one factor was religious policy, and another was foreign policy, I'd argue that religious policy was more important because religious policy was significant in James I's foreign policy, for example his support of the Protestant Huguenots.
Reply 2
Avatar for seesey
seesey
OP
9
Original post by Trillo
I'm not doing the same topic but the structure will carry over. Focus on around four factors (you have already done this), and then do a paragraph on each. Ideally begin with the most significant factor and end on the least significant factor. Then of course sum up in a conclusion - but don't introduce new evidence in the conclusion. The conclusion shouldn't come as a surprise to the reader having read your essay.

If you can compare two factors within a paragraph, that will help your grades - this is a lot more simple than you would think, it doesn't have to be a complex comparison. I don't know about Tudors but I could give an example from my Stuart England course. For example if one factor was religious policy, and another was foreign policy, I'd argue that religious policy was more important because religious policy was significant in James I's foreign policy, for example his support of the Protestant Huguenots.

Thanks so much! This was extremely helpful.
Reply 3
Avatar for Trillo
Trillo
15
Original post by seesey
Thanks so much! This was extremely helpful.


No worries. It ends up being a pretty formulaic subject so once you get the hang of what the structure should be, the only problem is learning content.
If you agree say they were and ‘why’ including your own knowledge (names, dates, places)

On all of your following points say (eg) ‘however, the foreign policy was also an influential factor contributing to the threat to the Tudor dynasty ‘dates’ BECAUSE own knowledge... but the main reason was still the ***** because of this (limitations of the foreign policy where the main reason does not)



Don’t know if this will help, maybe have it on while you’re writing to have it make sense but I’m not sure because I’ve only just started A level and this is what I’ve learnt so far

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