Lo Wai Kwan, Dawn
Methodist College
S4 History
Writing an evaluation essay

Experiences in teaching essay writing in S4 -5
Early years: Explained question words & the approaches to different types of essay questions
A few years later:
Had to teach the structure of an essay & the use of topic sentences
Recent years: Demonstrate & analyze essay plans & model essays for almost every assignment & test

Why can’t they do what I could do at their age, when I wasn’t explicitly taught how to write an essay?
I don’t know what else I can do to help them!

“What is predictable can be taught.”
The teaching-learning cycle:
1.Setting the context
2.Teacher modeling & text deconstruction
3.Joint construction of teacher & students
4.
Students’ independent construction

Example :
Writing an evaluation essay (S4)
Question:
To what extent was the Second World War a continuation of the First World War?

To what extent did the appeasement policies of Britain and France bring about the Second World War?
What is the question about?
• The causal relation between the appeasement policies & the Second
World War
• What are the question words?
• To what extent = 在什麼程度上 / how important
• = How far

Read the sample essay carefully
1.
Underline the sentence that tells the view of the writer directly responding to the question- in which paragraph?
2.
Mark the paragraph that explains the appeasement policies with a star;
3.
Bracket the paragraphs about how the appeasement policies brought about the WWII .
4.
Mark the paragraphs that explain other causes of the
WWII with #
5.
Circle the connectives that are used in arguments.
Note that the arguments ( 論據 ) are supported by examples ( 相關史實 ).

• The appeasement policies contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War. First, the policies encouraged Hitler’s aggression. When Germany remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936, Britain and
France did not take action to stop her. Britain even believed that the Germans had a right to remilitarize the Rhineland as they were only getting back their own back garden. The remilitarization of Rhineland not only encouraged Hitler’s aggression but also ensured the safety of Germany’s western frontier, so that Hitler could concentrate on expanding eastward.
Hitler might not have an overall plan to expand but he was encouraged by the appeasement policies of
Britain and France to be more aggressive.

Organization of this type of essay:
1. View point : to a large / small extent e.g. To a small extent the appeasement policies caused the WWII.
2. Arguments (reasons) to justify (support) the view point. e.g. Why the appeasement policies caused the
WWII only to a small extent
3. Causes other than that specified in the question e.g. Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy was the main cause of the WWII.

(1) Discuss in groups: Are these questions the same or different in meaning?
(a) Was the Second World War a continuation of the First World War?
Yes / No – in what ways yes / no
(b) To what extent was the Second World
War a continuation of the First World
War?
To a large / small extent – discuss the importance of WWI in causing the WWII compared with other causes.

Group work
(2) Make a mind map of the causes of the Second World
War.
(3) Discuss which of the causes were rooted in the First World
War.

(4) Students report on the causes of the
Second World War .
Teacher writes them on the blackboard.
(5) Students report on the causes related to the WWI and give justification.
Teacher makes blackboard notes based on their responses.

(6) Students discuss in group :
• How important were these causes in bringing about the Second World
War?
• To what extent the WWII was a continuation of the WWI.

( 7) Teacher and students
• discuss what should be written in the introduction,
• write an introduction for the essay together .

( 8) Teacher and students
• discuss what should be written in the middle paragraphs,
• write topic sentences (main arguments) for each paragraph together .