How has daily life changed since the period described by Blainey (1500-1800)? To answer this question, compare Blainey’s account of life before 1800 with your observations of how people live today.
Suggested Structure:
This is a guide to how you might organise your essay. However, remember it is not a report, so you should NOT use these subheadings in your essay. You need to ensure that the various sections ‘flow’ through use of appropriate linking or lead sentences for each paragraph.
Introduction:
In your introduction, you need to introduce the topic to the reader, and say what you will do in the rest of your essay, highlighting three or four themes for discussion.
Summary of life in 1500-1800:
In this section you need to clearly summarise the most relevant parts of the Blainey chapter. This section should be cited properly using the Harvard system. You will need to acknowledge the source of your information through expressions such as ‘Blainey describes…’ or ‘Blainey explains…’
Discussion of how your experience differs from people’s experience in that period:
In this section you need to describe and reflect on what for you are the most significant differences between life in the earlier period and life today. You can use the additional reference(s) to help you identify key differences between life then and now, or contrast the differences that seem most important to you with those identified in these references. It is suggested that you structure your comparison around key themes, for example housing, work, food, standard of living etc.
Conclusion:
In your conclusion, you should refer back to the topic, and recap on the main points that have been covered in your essay. As a way of bringing your essay to a close, you might like to reflect on what you believe to be the most important differences between life then and now. You might like to reflect on your general impression of the changes that you have described – do you think they show that society is getting better, or worse? Or both?