How to Do Well on Professor Cantrell’s Essay Exams

 

 

            My essay questions tend to be broad, interpretive questions, requiring you to draw information from more than one lecture and (when pertinent) from your outside readings.  They require you to state a thesis, and then defend that thesis using evidence (specific facts that you have learned).  Here is an example of a typical Cantrell essay question:

 

            Evaluate the following statement:  “The stock market crash of 1929 caused the

            Great Depression, and the failed policies of Herbert Hoover are to blame.”

 

This question requires you to tell whether you agree or disagree with the statement, and why you agree or disagree.  Note that there are two separate facts that you are actually being asked to evaluate:  (1) Did the stock market crash cause the Depression?; and (2) Were the policies of Hoover to blame for the crash (and thus for the Depression)?   There are several possible theses for this question.  You may agree with both parts:  The crash caused the Depression and Hoover’s policies brought on the crash.  OR, you may disagree with both:  The crash did not cause the Depression, and Hoover’s policies were not to blame.  OR, it is possible that you may agree with one part of the question and disagree with the other part:  The crash caused the Depression, but Hoover is not to blame.  OR, the crash did NOT cause the Depression (something else did), but Hoover is still to blame for bringing on the Depression.  You see, then, how critical it is that you read the question carefully and consider exactly what it is asking, before you start writing. 

 

Many good essay-writers will then sketch out a brief outline of their essay before actually writing it.  Feel free to do this.  Start with your thesis (which will be stated clearly in your introduction), then proceed to sketch out main points, with specific pieces of evidence to support each main point.  Let’s say that you have decided that both parts of the statement are wrong.  Here is what your outline might look like:

 

            I.  Thesis--crash didn’t cause depression; Hoover not to blame

            II. Arguments

                        A.  Crash didn’t cause Depression

                                    1.  between 1900 and 1920, business became oligopolized (major

                                                industries dominated by few big companies)  

                                                --collusion, price-fixing, cartels

                                                --War Industries Board during WWI guaranteed companies’ profits

                                                Result:

                                                    --profits rose 300%

                                                    --inflation rose 200%

                                    2.  fed. govt. retreated from enforcing antitrust laws

                                                Examples:

                                                    --1917: 121 car mfgrs.; 1929: 6 left. (due to mergers)

                                                    --by 1929: half of all business assets owned by 200 firms

                                    3.  These factors caused structural weaknesses in U.S. economy

                                                --inflation (65% in 1920s)

                                                --reduced competition (discouraging innovation)

                                                --unwise speculation in stocks (esp. buying on margin)

                                                --uneven distrib. of wealth (77% of stock dividends went to riches

                                                   1%; 5% of population owned 33% of national wealth)

                                                --lots of holding companies (only owning stock of other

                                                    companies)

                                                [note: no govt. regulation of stock mkt. in those days]

                                    4. structural weaknesses caused decline in consumer spending

                                                --house prices declined in 1927

                                                --car sales dived in 1928; then, fridges and washing machines

                                    5. Summer of 1929:  speculation came together with these structural

                                         weaknesses in the economy:  CRASH                                                                     

                        B.  Hoover’s policies not to blame

                                    1.  Hoover only took office in Jan. 1929, 9 months before crash

                                    2.  presidents had even less control over economy then than they do now

                                    3.  Hoover pursuing policies of   Harding & Coolidge

                                                --his tax cuts to corporations contributed to structural weaknesses

                                                   in the economy, but H. and C. did the same   

                                                --he did little to enforce antitrust laws, but so do H. and C.

                                                --any efforts to regulate stock market would’ve been terribly

                                                   unpopular

                                    4.  H’s RESPONSE could’ve been stronger and might’ve lessened

                                         severity of the Depression, but he didn’t CAUSE it.

III. Conclusion

            A.  Crash helped to TRIGGER the Depression, but structural weaknesses (made worse

                    by wrongheaded govt. policies) CAUSED it.

            B.  There was little Hoover could’ve done in the nine months prior to Oct. 1929 to

                    prevent the crash; however, he could’ve acted more decisively in responding to it.

 

So, it may seem like you spent an awful lot of time making your outline, but now that you’ve got it done, writing the essay is easy.  Here are keys to success in the writing of the essay:

 

1.  Write in complete, grammatically correct, sentences. 

2.  Organize your sentences into paragraphs, with one main idea per paragraph.

3.  Make sure your essay has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

4.  Your handwriting doesn’t need to be elegant, but it DOES have to be legible.  Don’t make

     your grader struggle just to read your essay; it puts him in a bad mood. . . .

5.  Budge your time carefully.  If you have three questions to answer, don’t spend two-thirds of

     your time on the first question.  If you need to pick up the pace, do it.

6.  Include as much specific evidence (names, dates, facts) as you possibly can to support

     generalizations.

 

Now, here are two sample essays, one good, one not-so-good:

 

 

 

            The stock market crash and the Depression were terrible events in our history.  Hoover was president when it happened.  Before the Depression the economy was booming.  Big business became very powerful and the government didn’t regulate it very much, and this made the economy weak.  Prices for things went up, but as long as everybody was making lots of money, nobody noticed.  Lots of people started buying stock, and the stock market soared.  A lot of people bought stock without even knowing what they were buying.  There were signs of trouble even before the crash, but people mostly ignored them.  Hoover ignored them too.  Hoover should have done more to prevent the stock market crash.

 

What’s wrong with this essay?  Almost everything.  First, it doesn’t clearly address the question that was asked by stating a clear thesis.  In fact, nowhere in the essay does it take a stand on the question of whether the stock market crash caused the Depression.  It is not organized into paragraphs, and it has no introduction or conclusion.  But worst of all, it contains almost no specific evidence to back up its generalizations.  There’s not a single date or statistic or name (other than Hoover’s) in the essay.  It is simply not possible to answer this question adequately in a few sentences.  It would receive a very low grade.

 

Now, compare it to the following essay:

 

                        The statement given on the exam is inaccurate.  The stock market crash of 1929 did not cause the Great Depression, and Hoover’s policies alone did not create the conditions that led to the crash or the Depression. 

                        The roots of the Depression can be traced back to the early 1900s.  Between 1900 and 1920, most of the major American industries became oligopolized (controlled by a few big firms).  These oligopolies often formed cartels and engaged in price-fixing and other forms of collusion.  This kept both prices and profits high.  In fact, during World War I, the federal government even contributed to the problem.  The War Industries Board actually guaranteed companies a profit by granting “cost-plus” contracts to keep vital wartime industries going.  During the war corporate profits rose by 300%.  Inflation was up 200%, and 42,000 new millionaires were created.

                        In the 1920s the economy boomed, and the oligopolization of American industry grew worse.  For example, in 1917 there were 191 auto manufacturers in the U.S.; by 1929 there were only 6 left.  In the 1920s 6,000 manufacturing firms and 4,000 banks were absorbed by their competitors. 

                        All of this helped to create structural weaknesses in the American economy.  The inflation rate for the 1920s was 65%.  The reduced competition in oligopolized industries discouraged the development of new products and processes.  Wealth became much more unevenly distributed, with 77% of stock dividends going to the richest 1% of Americans.  Five percent of the population now owned 33% of the national wealth.  These structural weaknesses caused a decline in consumer spending, which further weakened the economy.  House prices declined in 1927, followed by sharp declines in car sales and durable goods such as refrigerators and washing machines in 1928.

                        The boom in corporate profits in the 1920s led to widespread speculation in stocks.  For the first time in our history, many middle-class Americans began in investing their savings in the stock market, thinking they could get rich quickly.  Corporations called holding companies were created, which were companies that only existed to own the stock of other companies.  Much of the stock-buying frenzy was done “on margin,” which means that people borrowed the money to buy stock, betting that the price would rise fast enough that they could pay off the loan in time and still make a nice profit.  All of this led stock prices to rise far above the actual value of the companies.

                        In the summer of 1929, the structural weakness of the economy came together with the speculation in the stock market to cause the Great Crash.  Stock prices plunged, bankrupting thousands who had put all their savings into stocks.  However, it took another four years for the market to bottom-out.  The crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression, but it was more a symptom of the underlying weaknesses in the economy than it was a cause.

                        It is common to blame the crash and the Depression on Herbert Hoover, but this is unfair.  Hoover only too office in January 1929, a mere nine months before the crash.  In those days, presidents had even less control over the economy than they do now.  Furthermore, Hoover was only continuing the policies of his two Republican predecessors from 1921 to 1929, Harding and Coolidge, both of whom had contributed to these developments by cutting taxes on corporations and refusing to enforce antitrust laws.  Hoover could have tried to regulate the stock market and enforce antitrust laws, but these would have been very unpopular measures with the general public as long as the stock market and (seemingly) the economy was booming. 

                        In conclusion, we can see that the stock market crash of 1929 helped to trigger the Depression, but it was not the sole cause of it.  Structural weaknesses in the economy--weaknesses that had been building for more than twenty years--were the cause.  Herbert Hoover could have done more to lessen the severity of the Depression once it started, but he did not cause the Depression.  Hoover could have responded to the crisis more forcefully (as Frankline Roosevelt later would do), but it is unfair to blame him a crisis that was not of his making.

 

See the difference?  This essay clearly states its thesis in the introduction, then it backs up its major points with lots of solid evidence.  The writer followed his outline, although he did a little rearranging of his points as he wrote.  Still, he was sure not to leave anything out, because he had all the information in his outline.  If he thought of something to add as he went along, he was able to do it.  He summarized his findings in a clear conclusion.  You may not be able to put as much factual information into your essay as this writer did, but the point is this:  The more specific, accurate, factual evidence you can include in your essay, the stronger it will be.