Is there a technique to writing good essays for Paper 2 and Paper 3?

Though everyone's writing is different, and many different kinds of essays can get a good mark, the mark scheme shows several things that make for a good essay, and that can easily be implemented. By following these steps, it avoids having to improvise for each new essay in the exam!Argument: Even if the question you are answering does not seem to ask for an argument, e.g. "Evaluate Hitler's domestic policies", you have to create one in order to have an essay that is argumentative and not just descriptive. For every essay, you have to be measuring something, i.e. answering "to what extent" something is true. An easy way to make sure you do this is to rephrase questions for yourself before you answer them, adding "to what extent" and something to measure. e.g. for the question above, you could change the question to: “To what extent were Hitler's domestic policies successful in achieving their aims?" Make clear in the introduction that this is what you will be measuring throughout the essay.Structure: Your essay needs to have an introduction, followed up 2-4 distinct paragraphs (ideally 3 to get the content-time balance right, but this depends on the question), followed by a conclusion. Though each question is different, most can be answered using one of the following structures – either, by going through several events related to the question (chronologically), or by going through different factors (social, political, military and economic are 4 useful ones to keep in mind), or going through different arguments (2 paragraphs saying yes and one saying no, for example). Announce this structure in the introduction (“This essay will look at the social, political and economic domestic policies Hitler pursued”), and at the beginning of each new paragraph, tell the examiner which factor you will be looking at. The clearer the structure, the better. Linking back to point 1., at the end of each paragraph, you need to make sure you come to a “mini conclusion” in which you measure how far what you have just said shows whether, for example, Hitler’s political domestic policies were successful in achieving their aims.Content/Facts: Finally, in order to make your argument and each mini conclusion convincing, you need to add lots of facts to back you up. The IB loves anything that makes your answer more specific – dates, names, stats, historiography etc. Ideally, you present a balanced argument, showing some reasons why, say, Hitler’s social domestic policies were successful in achieving their aims, and some why they weren’t, and then you come to your mini conclusion. By making sure your essay has these three things – content, structure and an argument – you are already ticking lots of the IB’s history boxes, for every essay you write!