ANALYTICAL ESSAYS
What is the purpose of an essay?
An essay is an extended argument in support of a thesis. Essays in history
classes are assigned to provide you an opportunity to demonstrate your
knowledge of the primary and secondary source literature on a particular
topic and to assess your writing proficiency and your analytical skills.
What is a thesis?
Consider your thesis as a proposition that you are going to prove, and
imagine that your essay contains paragraphs that are building blocks in your
argument. Be sure to begin with an introduction and end with a conclusion.
Do not merely assert that such and such a problem or issue is important.
Instead, make an explicit assertion about the nature of the subject and
indicate how you will approach the subject.
Your thesis should be suited to the goal of your essay, the amount of
time you have to research the subject and write the essay, and the word/page
limits of the project.
How should facts and concepts be used in a history essay?
Begin your essay with a statement of purpose and an explicit thesis
statement. Stick to the point and do not fill up your essay with information
and evidence that while factually correct does not carry forward your
thesis. Keep in mind that history is the study of human behavior in the
past. Historical analysis essays require an appreciation of concepts such as
culture, class, race, ethnicity, and gender, as well as a chronological
recounting of names, dates, battles, congressional laws, presidential
executive orders, and Supreme Court decisions. In the case of historiography essays, your primary sources will be the books and
articles written by historians and perhaps secondary sources regarding the
various contexts in which historians worked. Such specific factual
information is absolutely indispensable, but it comprises only the building
blocks out of which you, the historian, construct history. Factual
material - historical evidence - must be used in connection with a thematic
design (a thesis to be developed) and your evidence must be used effectively
(to support and fill out an argument or thesis) in order for your essay to
be successful.
Can you give me an example of how this approach might be used?
Sure, let's say you want to write an essay about the impact of
Reconstruction.
You could construct a thesis such as "Reconstruction created many important
changes and problems, as well as disappointments." While the statement is
factually correct, it is also vacuous. A much better thesis would be "The
story of Reconstruction contains a sobering realization of the difficulty of
imposing social change by government policy in the United States. Reconstruction began with high
expectations on the part of the Radical
Republicans and freed slaves. However, political opposition from conservative members of congress, President Johnson, the Supreme Court, and
former supporters of the Confederacy in the South, along with lukewarm
support for African American rights on the part of white Americans
throughout the nation, severely limited the opportunities for significant
improvements in the lives of African Americans."
Notice that the thesis contains several substantive propositions that would
then be argued in the body of the essay, with appropriate evidence provided
in support of each proposition.
Students who would like a more extensive guide to
writing essays in history can consult the Hamilton College History
Department's online booklet:
http://www.hamilton.edu/academics/resource/wc/WritingGoodHistoryPaper.pdf
or the even more extensive Bowdoin College online guide:
http://academic.bowdoin.edu/WritingGuides/
What method of citation should I use in my essays?
I prefer the Chicago method. Here is the
Williams College online guide for notes and bibliography in the Chicago style:
http://library.williams.edu/citing/styles/chicago1.php