WRITING AN ESSAY

   

From your planning you should have come up with 4 or 5 points you wish to make – e.g. 5 reasons if you are answering the question: ‘Why did the League of Nations fail’.

   

!!!   REMEMBER  !!!

 

Each Point gets a paragraph

Then you must remember to 

PEE every paragraph

(i.e. within each paragraph, you will always have a Point, Evidence and an Explanation):

  

Point

 

State the point clearly, bluntly and briefly.

‘The first reason the League failed was that its organisation was chaotic.’

 

Evidence

 

Put a fact (or facts) to prove what you are saying

‘The League’s Secretariat was tiny, yet it had to co-ordinate the work of the Assembly, the Council, and all the Committees and Commissions.’

 

Explanation

 

Then explain how what you are saying answers the question you have been asked.

You get extra credit if you can:

bullet

offer a number of ideas,

bullet

give an assessment of how important this point is,

bullet

link this point to other paragraphs.

 

NOTE, it is this bit of the paragraph that gets you your marks.

‘This was very important because it harmed the League in a number of ways.   Decisions sometimes took months.   Important minutes and notes were lost.   This links to the paragraph on the League's failures, because failure caused more failure.   Most importantly, the Conference of Ambassadors (a small group of the most powerful countries) found it easier to meet together and make a quick decision, so it often overturned decisions the League had made (e.g. over Corfu, 1923) - which links to the fact that the League's main members let it down.'

REMEMBER!

PEE is the VERY MOST BASIC form of a paragraph.   Better essays will also develop (by including/explaining further factual aspects) and link (to the next paragraph and other points).