ALEVEL HISTORY Essay Help!!!

Hi,
I'm a bit confused about how to structure a history Essay. Let's say I was answering the question "Henry VII's foreign policy was a complete success" assess the validity of this view.
How would I structure the question? Would it be better to do a paragraph for each of his aims of his foreign policy and then evaluate whether he was successful in achieving them, or to do a paragraph for each country and then evaluate whether he was successful or not?
not sure if this makes any sense but any help would be massively appreciated

Reply 1

flora87

9

What exam board are you doing? If you're doing edexcel, all your essays need to be based around criteria, so you need to think of the criteria for a successful foreign policy (long-lasting, achieved its aims, etc) and then apply them to each of his foreign policy aims. Structure-wise, it would probably be best to identify 2-4 of his main foreign policy aims, then do a paragraph on each one evaluating how well the aims were achieved in each country according to your criteria, and then your final judgement will be an evaluation of whether his foreign policy was a complete success or partial, again based on your criteria

Reply 2

annonymous432

OP

5

Original post by flora87

What exam board are you doing? If you're doing edexcel, all your essays need to be based around criteria, so you need to think of the criteria for a successful foreign policy (long-lasting, achieved its aims, etc) and then apply them to each of his foreign policy aims. Structure-wise, it would probably be best to identify 2-4 of his main foreign policy aims, then do a paragraph on each one evaluating how well the aims were achieved in each country according to your criteria, and then your final judgement will be an evaluation of whether his foreign policy was a complete success or partial, again based on your criteria

Thank you! I am doing AQA and my teacher has left without really teaching us the technique leaving us with a cover teacher. I have never heard about the criteria point before but that sounds helpful.

Reply 3

flora87

9

Original post by annonymous432

Thank you! I am doing AQA and my teacher has left without really teaching us the technique leaving us with a cover teacher. I have never heard about the criteria point before but that sounds helpful.

I'm not too sure about the AQA specification but criteria doesn't matter nearly as much for AQA than Edexcel - if you struggle with it then just forget it, but if you find it a useful way to structure your essays then keep using it. The best thing is really to look at the AQA specification and examiner's reports to see how people structure their own essays and to see what features the exam board is looking for

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/history/specifications/AQA-7041-7042-SP-2015.PDF (this is the specification and you can find examiners' reports on the aqa website as well)

Reply 4

frauschlange

11

Edexel student here, thought I could just expand on the ''criteria'' discussion, as I'm sure at least some of it will still be relevant.
At least how I see it, basically every question they can ask you revolves around a few key concepts, which can take the form of...
- Similarity/Difference (e.g., the extent to which one aspect of a policy/event is similar or different to another. Were the similarities/differences fundemental or superficial?)
- Success/Failure (Was a certain policy/action successful in achieving its aims? Identify the aims of a policy/event and make sure to always discuss using an assessment as to the extent the aims of the policy/event were achieved. How many people did it affect? What kinds of people did it affect? Was it a long or short-term success?)
- Change/Continuity (A bit like similarity and differences, but this time you compare how much one changed to another that did not change to as much extent, and reach an overall judgement as to the extent of change over time. If you're discussing a policy, discuss whether it was consistent over time or not.)
- Causation (Examines the motivations for a policy/historical event, such as whether it was a long-term, short-term, triggered a change, etc.)
- Significance (Which reason was the key facor why an event/policy occured? Was it the only reason, or were there multiple reasons? If so, is one more important than the rest?)

ALEVEL HISTORY Essay Help!!!

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