Essay Writing Tutorial

1.1 Introduction

“The formation of NATO was the most provocative action by the West in their pursuit of Containment before 1950” How accurate is this statement?

All introductions of an essay must contain the following:

Components	Purpose of this component	Begin the sentence with:
Rephrase the question	These components answer the essay requirement of interpreting the essay. It tells the examiner you know what the question wants. Also, it helps to set the tone for the essay. For instance, not everyone agrees on the meaning of containment. As a marker, I may feel that “containment” is primarily a military policy rather than anything else. If you do not define it, you risk having the marker despise your essay simply because he is unable to understand that your focus was a balanced view – that containment is everything from P.I.E.S.	“This question is asking if”
Parties involved		“The parties involved were”
Clarifying the time frame		“The time frame of this essay is”
Clarifying or defining key words		____________ “is defined as” ____________
Question the assumption	This section is where you tell the examiner what the core argument is, by questioning the assumption It is not a necessity for you to use the exact words used on the right. BUT the words in this section are designed for you to clearly express your point in the most idiot-proof way. Note: Not all questions can be phrased as a debate, but MOST questions can.	“This question assumes that”
Debatable words		“The debate in this question is between the idea that… vs the idea that…”
Why is it debatable?		“However, it is too simplistic to assume that, because”
Thesis statement	The thesis: a clear statement of intent. What will you do to examine the question? At A levels, most questions are debates disguised as an essay question. Hence, where possible, try to express your thesis as a debate, UNLESS you really are unable to. Secondly, if you have not actually done so, you need to tell me what criteria you are going to use to judge the question. E.g. The criteria for success? Failure? Fault? Etc…	For debate essays: - “To help examine this debate, this essay will examine the reasons why (fill in the support side) and why (fill in the challenge side)… - “based on the criteria…” If you really cannot see how this question could be a debate: “To help examine this question, this essay will examine…”…

Sample Intro:

Interpreting the question:

Rephrase the question:

- This question is asking if NATO was the most provoking policy taken by the American-led West to contain the USSR politically, ideologically, economically and in terms of security during the early phase of the Cold War, which lasted from around 1944 to 1950.

Parties involved:

- The parties involved were the US, the USSR, and Europe.

Time frame:

- (If it is covered in the rephrasing section, you do not need to repeat it. Otherwise, explain it here)

- Example: The time frame of this essay is from around 1944 to 1950.

Definition:

- (If it is covered in the rephrasing section, you do not need to repeat it. Otherwise, explain it here)

- Containment is defined as a policy for containing communist expansion that includes political, ideological, economical and security aspects.

Questioning the assumption:

Debate:

- The debate in this question is between the idea that NATO was the most provoking action by the West against Communism, and the idea that other actions were more important.

Assumption:

- The question assumes that NATO was the most provoking action by the West against the USSR.

Challenge the assumption:

- However it is too simplistic to assume that this is so because other actions by the US such as the Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine and the termination of the lend-lease agreement were also extremely provoking to the USSR.

Thesis:

- To help examine the debate this essay will examine the reasons why NATO could be seen as the most provoking action against the USSR, and the reasons why other actions could be as provoking, or even more provoking to the USSR. The criteria used to judge if an action was provoking to the USSR is by how sharp the counter-reaction was from the USSR, and by how comprehensively the action threatened the USSR.

1.2 Body: Paragraphs within the body of an essay must contain the following:

Component	Purpose	Helping words:
GA	The GA is a short and sweet summary of your point. It must end on the first full stop.	First link the GA to the debate: - “A possible reason which why (fill in the support point or the challenge point)” - “might be…” / “can be seen as…” Then give a general argument: - “… is that” / “is because” (fill in your argument)
Elaboration	The elaboration must be fully explained. In a layman’s way, this means that your first sentence of your elaboration must explain your GA, the second sentence must explain your first sentence in the elaboration, and so on. When you cannot explain further, proceed on to tying it up and link it back to your question.	Explain your GA: - “This is because” - “This is important because” - “Furthermore…” Then link back to your question - “Hence, because of this… because…” - “Hence, because of the above argument… because”
Evidence	The purpose of the evidence is to support your elaboration and GA. For most questions, this means that you should give the evidence which proves that a certain development / consequence, really happened. Hence, if your elaboration is too short, or out of point, your evidence will also be utterly narrative, even out of point.	First, tell me the evidence: - “Evidence supporting this argument is… Then convince me that you did not pick a useless random fact, but that your evidence was thoughtfully chosen: - “This evidence is chosen because (fill in reason)
Evaluation	The purpose of the evaluation is to evaluate just how convincing an argument is. To do that, you either support it further (which is a little more challenging), or weaken it by intelligently criticizing it (which every student should be able to do)	Tell me if you feel this argument is convincing or otherwise: “This argument is very relevant to the question because…(give a witty, well considered reason, with a short evidence, if possible”” Upon evaluation, this argument is actually weaker than it seems because… (give a witty, well considered reason, or contrast the evidence given to support the argument with another evidence which could challenge the argument”

Note:

- The body of the essay must contain at least 2 paragraphs arguing the weaker side.

- 2 support – 2 challenge is ok. 2-3 is ok. 3-2 is ok. 3-1 is NOT OKAY, 1-3 is awful!

Sample Body:

General Argument:

- A reason why NATO was a provocative action by the West against the Communists is because it could be seen as a means to encircle and corner and trap the USSR.

Elaboration:

- This was provocative because the USSR saw the alliance as a possible excuse to threaten the USSR greatly because it now placed the Western European troops under a single coherent structure, and negated the biggest advantage the USSR had – its unified command structure. (Then explain what you meant in the previous sentence) Furthermore, the inclusion of the USA into NATO means that a two pronged attack into USSR was now possible, by Western European troops and American troops stationed in Japan, making it difficult for the USSR, which barely survived WWII, to counter. (Tie it back to the question) This caused the USSR to be very afraid of the USA and forced them to respond accordingly.

Evidence:

- (Prove that NATO did cause provocation) Evidence which supports this argument that the USSR felt threatened by the NATO is the fact that the USSR decided to form the Warsaw Pact in 1955, less than a week after West Germany joined NATO. (Again, explain the importance of this evidence, so I know what exactly made you feel it is relevant) This is significant because it shows that NATO was such a credible military threat that the USSR immediately responded when it became clear that West Germany was no longer demilitarized. Also, it demonstrated that the threat of NATO caused the Soviets to no longer content only to have Eastern Europe merely as a buffer zone, but now feel that they have to extend their defensive measures and intervene in the defense policies of Eastern Europe itself.

Evaluation

- However, because the Warsaw Pact also contained much economic provisions and aid to her members, it is therefore too simplistic to claim that it was created only as a response to NATO, but was more likely the response against other existing provoking factors as well. Also, the evidence for this argument appears even weaker upon evaluation, because the Warsaw Pact was only set up not in 1944, but in 1955, after Germany was remilitarized. Hence the connection between NATO and the formation of the Warsaw Pact appears to be indirect. Thus this argument itself appears weak.

1.3 Conclusion

Components	Purpose	Begin the sentence with:
Revise the debate	Have you seen a court drama, or a debate before? Before making a final judgment, the judge always makes it clear what the issues were, and then allows both sides to make a final stand. In same way, you are doing the very same thing here.	“In conclusion, this essay sought to decide if” (Fill in the debate here)
Why was the weaker side good?	In here, you are making a comparison between the strengths of the weaker side but then explain why you feel that the other side made a stronger case. To do that, you need to explain clearly why stronger side was truly stronger, and why the weaker side was weaker.	The (supporting / challenging) side had a few strong arguments, such as ___________________, which were compelling because _________________________
Why was the stronger side better?		However, the (challenging / supporting) side also had compelling arguments such as __________________________. The (challenge / support) is stronger because __________________________.
Your stand	Give a neat ending to round off the question. It could help tilt the marker’s mind toward giving you a slightly higher score.	Hence, this essay concludes that the (supporting / challenging) side is stronger.

Sample Conclusion

Summary of the argument:

- In conclusion, this essay sought to decide if the formation of NATO was the most provoking action by the West, led by the USA, took to contain Communist expansion.

- While the supporting side had a few strong arguments, such as NATO was the most provoking thing the West did because it caused the USSR to perceive an increased military threat against it, which was compelling because it showed the strength of Soviet anger and immediate response to it.

- However, the challenge side also had compelling arguments such as other actions such as the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan and the introduction of the Deutschmark into West Berlin also caused a hostile reaction from the USSR as well.

- The challenge side is stronger because it showed that policies such as the Marshall Plan posed a far more insidious and long-reaching threat to the survival of the USSR in a Cold War that was more than a military conflict between the superpowers but a comprehensive and complicated competition between the warring blocs. Furthermore, the Soviet reaction to the other provoking actions was in many instances met by a more rapid, and an even more aggressive response than NATO ever encountered – in the form of the Berlin Blockade, which was effectively a siege against a Western held territory.

Stand:

- Hence this essay concludes that the challenge side has provided stronger points and is more convincing. NATO was not the most provoking action against the USSR in the West’s pursuit of Containment.

1.4 Tips

Tip 1: Keep to the template’s spirit, and not always according to its letter.

Tip 2: A good history essay expresses complicated topics with simple & direct language.

1.5 Summary of changes to the template so far

- Added an additional column, explaining the purpose of the particular component in an essay

- Edited the question, because I realized that it was misleading

- Changed the example given in the sample paragraph in the body

- Tweaked the arrangement

- Corrected wrong facts - Warsaw Pact was formed only in 1955 after the remilitarization of West Germany made direct attacks by NATO into Eastern Europe and USSR feasible.

- Explained how to elaborate even more clearly – each sentence should explain the previous sentence.