I have absolutely no idea how to write an essay on 'What is History?'

[CaitlinSavins]

My teacher gave us last term an extract by Morley with the question, "Reading through Morley's chapter on 'What is History' and with specific reference to the above extract, explain why he thinks the very word, concept or idea of history is a controversial one to define precisely."

The ideas I've extrapolated from the extract are:
 - the definition of history isn't concrete
 - it's swayed by popular opinion and 'professional' historians' ideas
 - it's limited by bias and human error

Please help... I have no idea where to start.

[sudodds]

My teacher gave us last term an extract by Morley with the question, "Reading through Morley's chapter on 'What is History' and with specific reference to the above extract, explain why he thinks the very word, concept or idea of history is a controversial one to define precisely."

The ideas I've extrapolated from the extract are:
 - the definition of history isn't concrete
 - it's swayed by popular opinion and 'professional' historians' ideas
 - it's limited by bias and human error

Please help... I have no idea where to start.

Hey hey Caitlin! That's looking pretty good so far! It's a little bit difficult to help without having a look at the source, is there any way you could link me to the extract if its online? (if its not do not post a picture for copyright reasons haha). But from what I can see so far, those ideas sound great! I'd defs have a look at the arguments made by these historians:

EH Carr - What is History (The first chapter should do you for now, but imo the whole book is a must for this course)
John Vincent - An Intelligent Person's Guide to History
Anything Hayden White or Keith Jenkins.

From what I can see with the ideas you have presented, other things you could touch on is history's purpose - is it the search for truth, or can it be a tool used for social change/social stagnation? You could also look at the multi-faceted nature of history and historiography, and how it is ever-changing (is it adaptable to the present needs of society? role of technology? discipline for the elite or for the people?) I feel like this question is also screaming for a mention of postmodernism and the postmodernist/linguistic interpretation of history. Not a must to include these, but just some more ideas.

What are you mainly struggling with in terms of starting your response, do you just mean organising your ideas or your intro?

[CaitlinSavins]

What are you mainly struggling with in terms of starting your response, do you just mean organising your ideas or your intro?

Like, everything... my teacher hasn't shown me how to write for Extension History... is it something I'm already supposed to know?

[sudodds]

Like, everything... my teacher hasn't shown me how to write for Extension History... is it something I'm already supposed to know?

Ah okay... well I have good news and bad news.

Bad news - there isn't really a particular "way" to write an extension essay.

Good news: there isn't really a particular "way" to write an extension essay, so your structure is up to you! As long as you don't write chronology (ie. don't do a paragraph on the ancient historians, paragraph on the enlightenment historians, paragraph on the empiricists etc etc.) then you're sweet!

The way that I wrote extension essays was I had an idea (similar to the ones that you have put down) for each paragraph. Within the paragraph I would justify my position, backing up my own arguments with the relevant arguments of historians (everyone seems to have a core group of historians they relied upon - for me that was Carr, Vincent, Hobsbawm and Jenkins) AND the source (integration of the source is SUPER important, it's how the markers make sure you're not just memorising a response and that it's on the spot your interpretation of the info you're presented). I'd usually have 2, big paragraphs (I'd break them up into smaller ones for flow, but you get the idea), so two big ideas that I would focus on. But this is by no means the only way to write an extension essay, the beauty of the subject is that everyone's approach is different! Another way is by the syllabus (ie. a paragraph on historians, paragraph on the aims and purposes, paragraph on construction etc. etc.), but I prefer the first one because it gave me more flexibility. Some of my essays are in the notes section if you want to see some examples.