Historical Investigation: From Question to Finished Essay

Setting the question

A good question is debatable, answerable with sources you can reach, and covers a period of roughly 100 years, so you can show change and continuity over time.

• Use forms like 'How far…', 'To what extent…', 'How significant was…'.
• Avoid questions with a simple factual answer ('When did…?').
• Name the dates: e.g. 'To what extent did the role of women in Indian politics change, 1885–1985?'

Agree the question with your teacher early; a narrow, clear question is easier to answer well than a huge one.

Primary sources and historians' views

Primary sources were made during the period: letters, diaries, speeches, newspapers, photographs, laws, statistics, memoirs. Secondary sources are later works that interpret the past, mostly by historians.

Evaluating a source

• Provenance: who made it, when and where?
• Purpose and audience: why was it made, and for whom?
• Content: what does it say, and does it match what you know from other sources?
• Tone and emphasis: what is stressed or left out?

Then judge its value for your question and its limits. A biased source can still be very useful — for showing what one group believed.

Keep notes

For every source record the author, title, date, page and a short note. This saves hours when you write footnotes.

Differing interpretations

Historians reach different views about the same events. That is not because one is lying; it is because:

• Time of writing: new archives open, and each generation asks new questions.
• Evidence used: official statistics give one picture, letters of ordinary people another.
• Approach: political, economic, social, cultural, 'history from below', gender history.
• Context and beliefs of the historian.

In your essay, name historians, sum up their argument in a sentence, explain why they differ and say which view your evidence supports. This study of how history is written is called historiography.

Writing the 3000–3500 word essay

Structure

1. Introduction: explain the question, define key terms, give your line of argument.
2. Themed sections (usually 3–4), each moving across the whole period: point → evidence with evaluation → historians' views → mini-judgement.
3. Conclusion: a clear, supported judgement that answers 'how far'.
4. Footnotes and bibliography.

Good habits

• Write analytically, not as a story. Every paragraph should help answer the question.
• Show change and continuity over the 100 years, and turning points.
• Stay inside the word range; quote briefly and explain.
• All words must be your own. Copying without reference is plagiarism.

Try it

Pick a family object or photo at least 30 years old. Write who made it, when, why and for whom, then one thing it shows and one thing it cannot tell you. In the 3D, put all six pieces of evidence on the scale and write a one-sentence judgement.

Key formulas and definitions

• Primary source: made at the time being studied
• Secondary source: a later interpretation, usually by a historian
• Provenance: who made a source, when, where
• Historiography: the study of how historians have interpreted the past
• Continuity and change: what stayed the same and what changed over time
• Judgement: your supported answer to 'how far' or 'to what extent'

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Telling the story in date order instead of arguing an answer to the question.
• Calling a source 'biased, so useless'. A biased source can be very useful for showing attitudes.
• Listing historians' names without explaining their argument or why they differ.
• Copying sentences from books or websites without referencing — this is plagiarism.