Practice essays - Treaty of Waitangi, NCEA Level 3 history

3.4 Practice essay activity: examine a significant decision made by people in history, in an essay

Using the material available in NZHistory.net.nz about the Treaty of Waitangi and pre-1840 contact as well as your own knowledge and information, write one of the following practice essays for achievement standard 3.4: examine a significant decision made by people in history, in an essay.

Essay questions

1. What factors contributed to the British government's decision to offer Maori the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840? What were the consequences of this decision?

2. Why did many Maori chiefs decide to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840? What were the consequences of their decision to sign?

Remember structure is important

• A good essay must have good paragraphs.
• Each key or new idea in your essay must be a new paragraph.
• Think of a paragraph as having a set layout:
• a sentence that outlines what the paragraph is about
• sentences to support the topic of the paragraph
• a sentence to conclude the paragraph.
• Use the structure outlined below to help you write your answer.

Introduction - your opening paragraph should:

• identify the decision you have chosen to examine AND
• introduce your argument about the significance of this decision.

Body - write structured and sequenced paragraphs that:

• describe a significant decision made by people and the historical context in which that decision was made
• describe and explain factors that contributed to this decision being made
• evaluate the consequences of this decision
• describe and evaluate views of this decision by contemporary commentators and/or historians.

Conclusion - write a concluding paragraph that sums up your main ideas and argument and links them back to the focus of the essay.

You should aim to write about 800–1000 words.

For more detail on this achievement standard and criteria open this Word document from the NZQA site.