Following on from my earlier history GCSE thread - more urgent advice sought please

[mamhaf]

Earlier thread is here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/724615-Any-GCSE-history-teachers-examiners-out-there-please-Urgent-ad vice

DD and I are struggling to edit down her GCSE coursework.

Any history graduates (northernlurker are you still there)? able to advise whether an essay putting a for and against argument should have the same number of sources for and against?

She currently has 4 for, 4 against, but one of the for ones seems imho to be slightly weaker and would help get the wordcount down if she removed it altogether - but would this count against the final mark?

This is so stressful! Worse than my own exams years ago, thanks in advance

I'm a history graduate and from what I remember as long as your argument is sound for and against do not have to be the same number of sources.

What's the subject of the essay?

The title is: "Are we correct in believing today that the people of Wales were overwhelmingly in favour of the investiture of Prince Charles in 1969?"

• That is a rough translation from the Welsh.

I didn't do welsh histoy so haven't got a clue on that one i'm afraid!

*history

Will ask DH (history lecturer) when he gets off the phone.

And if I never hear of Prince Charles and his ruddy Investiture again, it'll be too soon.

Thanks again for the advice, she's taking out one of the sources now.

Ah. DH says they spend ages at Uni trying to get this habit of sticking precisely to exam/coursework rubrics out of students, so was no help at all! I suspect that from his POV not insisting on an equal balance would be a Good Thing.

Mamhaf, try to cut out little unnecessary words if you can. If you really look at each sentence, it's surprising how many single words you can lop out. For example: "In my opinion" becomes "I think/feel/believe". "People of Wales" becomes "Welsh people". Etc. The little words mount up. I have every sympathy.

Thanks - radical surgery is taking place.

The essay is in Welsh, and there are shortcuts of the kind you suggest Flo, so she's now going through to take those out...her Welsh is much better than mine though so I'm of limited use there.

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