Part of the ActiveHistory 20th Century Research Project.
Essay Writing Phase: Was the 20th Century a Period of Progress?
Students are now in a position to write their essay on the key question “Was the 20th Century a Period of Progress?”. In the simplest way, they can write the essay in two main sections: positives and negatives. A more sophisticated approach could arrange ideas in a table like this before writing up the findings.
| Theme | Ideas | Evidence of things getting better | Evidence of things getting worse |
| Where? | Which particular countries / continents / places? | ||
| When? | Which particular decades? | ||
| Who? | Which type of people? (e.g. by race, sex, class) | ||
| What? | Which area of life (e.g. science/technology, culture/arts; politics, economy)? |
The detailed ActiveHistory rubric / markscheme for History Projects is very useful at this stage; also available is a custom-made markscheme for this project.
