Essay writing is an important skill to develop in history. Achievement standards in the external exams will require you to write essays.
The foundation to a good essay is joining sentences together as coherent paragraphs that tackle different parts of the essay question. A good essay must have good paragraphs.
Each key or new idea in your essay must be a new paragraph. A marker needs to be able to see quite clearly where each idea begins and ends. It is sometimes helpful to think of a paragraph as having a set layout:
- Begin with a sentence that outlines what the paragraph is about.
- Write sentences to support the topic of the paragraph.
- End with a sentence that concludes the paragraph.
A paragraph mirrors the structure of an essay. In marking it is common to skim read an essay first and look for signs that you have understood the question and that the material in front of the marker is relevant. Markers will look at your essay more closely after this initial reading, but anything you can do to create a positive first impression will help.
Developing good essay-writing skills involves developing good paragraph-writing skills. Think, ultimately, of your essay as being a collection of relevant paragraphs on a set topic.
1. Write a paragraph of several sentences in which you describe the main characteristics of contact between Maori and Europeans before 1835.
2. Write a paragraph outlining what opportunities were created for interaction between Maori and Pakeha before 1835.
