1. How to write an essay
You have done this in English but you
may not know how to write one for
social studies.

2. Step 1: Identify the Question.
• Do they want me to Identify, Explain, Comment, describe.
More or less when you see these key words you must talk about in detail what
your topic is about.
For example “Describe what a dictatorship is”
You will then have to tell me in detail…
• What it is
• How does it/did it work
• An give an example of a dictatorship.
• Do they want me talk about the affects, consequences, or impact.
This is talking about what happened/happens as a result.
• What was the result
• Who did it affect
• Give an example.

3. You have a go.
• Describe how different governments are organised.
How do they affect peoples lives
• You would talk about two different governments
(Dictatorship/Democracy) and how they work.
• You would then give examples of how these types of
governments affect peoples lives (Democracy affects us
in New Zealand) (Dictatorship affects Nazi Germany)

4. Step 2:
• Create a plan. All essays must have.
1. Introduction
2. Paragraphs that describe each topic
3. Conclusion.
The good thing is your introduction and
conclusion is almost the same thing accept
one is at the beginning and one is at the end.

5. Step 3
• Gather information you will need to talk about
in your essay.
Information on How does a democracy work.
How does a dictatorship work.
How does a democracy affects us.
How does a dictatorship affect us.

6. Step 4
• Start your introduction.
You are going to state what your essay is in your first
sentence.
Question:
This is a good one.
There are many different types of government in the
world and two of them are democracy and
dictatorship.
This is a not so good one.
Hello my name is Jimmy and I am going to talk to you
about Democracy and dictatorship.

7. Step 4 continued
• You are then going list your examples.
• Question :Describe how different governments are
organised. How do they affect peoples lives
Your introduction should look like this.
There are many different types of governments in the
world. Two very different types of government are
Democracy and Dictatorship. Democracy affects the
lives of people because they get a say in the
government. Dictatorship affects the lives of people
because they do not get a say in government.

8. Step 5
• The first thing you list is the first thing you will
talk about. I listed democracy so I am going to
write my first paragraph about democracy.
• You must use
Statement-What are you talking about.
Explain-How does it work
Example-Give an example from what you are talking
about.

9. Paragraph example.
• Democracy is a type of government that where
everybody gets a say. The way this works is that
everybody over the age of 18 in New Zealand can
vote for the government. When the votes are
counted the person with the most votes wins.
This is done every three years in New Zealand
and the government chooses a prime minister
that makes all the decisions. In 2011 the National
Party was chosen and John Key is New Zealand’s
prime minster

10. Step 6
• Conclusion.
Exactly the same as the introduction but you are going to
sum up what you said
Around the world there are many type of governments
and two of these are a dictatorship and a democracy.
The way that it affects peoples lives is that in
democracy countries like New Zealand can vote for
governments to run the country they way they want it
to be run. In a dictatorship the people have no choice
over their lives.