It is Tuesday, and you enter the history classroom, prepared to write an essay – all set, notes polished, brain of a scholar. You receive your essay question, and you write, write, write until you finally finish. A week later, you get your essay back, and a dark and sorrowful mood takes away your sunshine – although equipped with plenty of examples, analysis, and interpretations, your essay did not receive a high mark as you did not answer the question fully. According to your teacher, that is because you used the wrong definition of a command term.
And yes, you may think – these are so small, tiny, minuscule words that hold such a similar meaning, and yet they are so significant. In the IB curriculum, a command term (such as analyze, identify, outline, etc.) is considered to be a key element of an essay question or a task, which serves the purpose of directing a student to some sort of understanding of how the question should be approached. They may seem daunting to tackle at first, but thankfully, it is not rocket science and this article will provide you with a detailed explanation of 6 command terms: analyze, discuss, evaluate, examine, to what extent, compare and contrast – often used in IB History essay questions.
Analyze
“To break down in order to bring out the essential elements or structure.” (IBO, 2017)
Although commonly used in many social sciences subjects, this word carries a puzzling definition. To analyze means to process and evaluate material, in opposition to only providing or describing facts. In essay writing, to analyze means to come up with insights and conclusions through a certain structure of weighing and comparison; In other words, students should find “thematic points” and group information according to their understanding. In other words, this command term encourages the student to ask questions starting with “why” and “how” instead of “what”, thus, breaking down and exploring the core elements of the given situation.
For example, in the essay “Analyze the short-term causes of modern war”, one could analyze the short-term causes of the Chinese civil war by first finding the thematic points (categorizing short-term causes into ideological, social, and economic) and finding relationships between them before prioritizing them in relation to their individual roles in the conflict (e.g. one can state that the most important aspect of Chinese civil war causality was an ideological clash, as it later on lead to the political and economic implications).
Discuss
“To offer a considered and balanced review that includes a range of arguments, factors or hypotheses. Opinions or conclusions should be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.” (IBO, 2017)
It may help if one associates this with the definition of the word discussion since it is the medium in which different opinions collide and conceptual compromises take place. Similarly, this command term implies that a student must offer a balanced analysis that would consider a variety of arguments and perspectives based on applicable evidence. The counterfactual evidence to proposed arguments (for instance, in the form of contrasting perspectives, or identification of advantages and disadvantages) is at the heart of this command term, and should never be overlooked. This command term is complex, but it is all about maintaining equilibrium in one’s essay: (1) introducing contrasting perspectives, (2) supporting them with evidence, and (3) establishing a balanced conclusion.
As an example, to answer the essay question “Discuss the impact of limited mobilization on the outcome of two wars”, one may focus on conveying the perceptions of two different points of view. Let us take the Falklands/Malvinas and the First Gulf wars. On one hand, a student can state that the limited mobilization of these wars led to a similar outcome as it caused the defeat of Argentina and Iraq while enabling Great Britain and Allied forces to achieve their war objectives more effectively. On the other hand, one can claim that the impact of mobilization intensity in both conflicts differed as it inflicted large-scale civilian casualties in the First Gulf War, whereas the casualties were relatively small in the Falklands/Malvinas War. At the end of this essay, students should be able to deduce that given both perspectives, different conclusions can be made.
Evaluate
“To make an appraisal by weighing up the strengths and limitations.” (IBO, 2017)
Just like a film critic evaluates a movie, a student, in their essay, must come across straightforward and constructive conclusions. A student should not only provide historical evidence, names, dates, and events to base one’s decision on but also weigh the arguments based on the arguments’ strengths and limitations in supporting the overarching point. As with any other judgment, your evaluation should be based on certain criteria that you can identify on your own. For example, at the beginning of your essay you may mention that in order to come to a certain conclusion, a certain burden of proof must be proven.
For instance, to answer the question “Evaluate the success of the Conference of Berlin (1878) in terms of peace dynamics of European international relations afterward”, as a student I can claim that to conclude whether the Conference of Berlin was successful, one must prove that it built the foundation for the long-term peace in Europe. If in my essay I find that this event had more significant limitations than strengths on peacebuilding of Europe in the long run, I should conclude that it did not fulfill this criteria and thus this conference was not successful.
Examine
“To consider an argument or concept in a way that uncovers the assumptions and interrelationships of the issue.” (IBO, 2017)
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, to examine means to check or study something carefully, especially to prove an idea, learn new information, or discover possible problems. It perfectly resonates with the requirements of this command term, as this, first and foremost, should be associated with the interrelation and correlation of factors. This command term is especially prominent in essays that investigate causality or the effects of particular events. To illustrate, you may consider yourself a detective, pathologist, and doctor all at once while writing the essay: you must look at all elements and see how they are connected.
Say, in the essay “Examine the role of territorial factors as a cause for war in two case studies”, I analyzed the case studies of the Falklands/Malvinas and the First Gulf War and thus deduced that in the scenario of Falklands/Malvinas dispute, the claims for territories where fatal for the outbreak of the war, while in the case of the First Gulf war, political and economic causes were of the higher importance.
To what extent
“To consider the merits or otherwise of an argument or concept. Opinions and conclusions should be presented clearly and supported with appropriate evidence and sound argument.” (IBO, 2017)
Used to initiate discussions and debates in various subjects, this common term may become the symbolic phrase of an IB student. “To what extent” indicates that the essay will be a debatable one, meaning that both proposing and opposing arguments should be present. In the simplest terms, “to what extent” questions usually ask you to provide argumentation for both agreeing and disagreeing with the statement. However, notice that in order to disagree, you must compare proposed arguments with alternative ones.
For instance, in the essay “To what extent was ideology the cause of two 20th-century wars?”, one may claim that in the Spanish Civil War, the ideological clash was only a result provoked by economic and political intricacies whereas the Chinese Civil War was purely ideology-driven, since the dispute between the leading political figures was rooted in their contrasting perceptions of how a country should be governed.
Compare and contrast
“To give an account of similarities and differences between two (or more) items or situations, referring to both (all) of them throughout.” (IBO, 2017)
The confusion may arise from the fact that in many of the historical essays, a student has to weigh and compare historical events without the word “compare” being present in the question. However, two things must be noted. First, in such essays similarities and differences must be identified and analyzed, concerning both of the case studies. Second, once again, one must find core points of weighing and comparison.
Let’s take a look at “Compare and contrast the effects of two 20th-century wars, each chosen from a different region.” We may compare the wars of the Falklands/Malvinas and the Algerian civil war. For example, one can claim that the similarity would be an economic effect, as both Argentina and Algeria suffered huge economic damages after the war, while the difference would be political, as Argentina managed to elect a democratic government afterward, whereas Algeria had struggled with the establishment of democracy for a long time.
Comparison of command terms
Examine vs. Evaluate
Notice how these two terms differ in their purpose: while evaluating means to analyze and come to certain conclusions (identify limitations and successes), examining focuses purely on the process of investigating and finding connections (focusing on interrelations of factors).
To what extent vs. Examine
To clarify, “to what extent” focuses on prioritization by shifting focus to one particular factor, while examining breaks down, and scrutinizing connections of various aspects, in the end concluding which role (and how important) each of them were in the particular event.
Discuss vs. Evaluate
Although both command terms require consideration of different perspectives, discussing means focusing more on providing a range of opinions, thus signifying that the problem can be approached from many directions. Evaluating, on the other hand, forces one to come to clear conclusions, which means that a student should not only provide a balanced analysis but also engage with it and conclude which of the perspectives was the most valid.
Last but not least, tips .
- You should not use another command term in your thesis statement besides the one mentioned in your essay question. This can help you focus your argument while not going beyond the bounds of the question.
- Try to mention the command term regularly in your essay to demonstrate focus.
You may also like…
- Heidy’s tips on including histography is essays.
- Joseph’s guide to prepare for the IB Business Management case study.