Essay Writing CHC2DB

Transcription

1 Essay Writing CHC2DB

2 1: Understanding the Question -Deconstruct what the question means- topic, dates, concepts, commands -For this essay, I can do this for you: -To what extent is the government responsible for the Regina Riot? Topic: The Depression in Canada Dates: Concepts/Factors: Government Legislation, Labour concerns, Leadership, Use of authority etc... Command words: To what extent...

3 -To what extent Understanding the Question This command term requires you to examine the merits of a particular view or argument and weigh this against an alternative view, finally reaching a conclusion For this question likely you will start your essay by identifying in what ways the Government was responsible for the riot and then indicate in what way(s) that the government was justified in doing so or that the Relief Camp workers may have been equally as responsible You will need to reach a judgement as to which side you agree with most based on the evidence you have found and presented (conclusion)

4 We will not: sit on the fence...painful What We Won t Do We will not: use personal pronouns- it is not based on opinion but on your careful interpretation of the primary and secondary evidence We will not: start our essay with our thesis, we must provide context before we get right into the essay We will not: have less than 3 body paragraphs We will not: forget to edit our work

5 (2) Collecting Evidence You SHOULD NOT have a thesis before you collect evidence- think about why that is You will have a variety of sources- primary accounts and secondary- for this formative attempt at essay writing you have 10 primary sources and 4 secondary sources Begin by reading widely around the topic- start general (we ve already done this) then move to specific- the secondary sources What do the secondary sources say? Which do you find more credible? Which do you want to argue or support?

6 (2) Collecting Evidence This is real history work- we have a significant moment in history and we are deciding to look at what happened and prepare a conclusion on how it should be remembered *Classic example of the government abusing its power in the face of an unjustifiable fear of revolution *Example of a large and powerful movement of workers against the government that resulted in a clash against the standards of the time

7 3 Reaching a Conclusion Every source has values to you as well as limitations. Just because the source says the workers started the riot you must be critical of the origin and its purpose- that is why we learn to do OPCVL The notes you make for each source should be in the form of an OPCVL What can your conclusion be since you are a historian studying the causes of the Regina Riot? What seems like the more supported and credible answer? You can choose to use all or some of the sources, it is up to you

8 4 Formatting Chicago Style Format See handout on how to cite in a history essay English style- quote- explain-elaborate...doesn t jive with history. Input quotes or sources whenever you feel it is important. An essay should be in your own words more than any others See example