new zealand essay conclusion

How to structure an essay

It is important to present your ideas in the correct essay structure which consists of: Essay topic (or title or question), introduction, body, conclusion, references.

• Basic structure of an academic essay (PDF)
• Example of an essay outline (PDF) “Discuss the effects of the unemployment benefit system on the New Zealand economy.”
• Essay title
• Introduction
• Body paragraphs

A good introduction paragraph:

• Provides background or scope context to your essay.
• Introduces the essay topic.
• States the main point of your essay in a thesis statement in one or two sentences.
• Shows in the last one or two sentences what you plan to cover in the body paragraphs.

A – Broad statement(s) consisting of general information relating to the topic. B – Narrower, specific statement(s), closing in on the main focus of the topic (includes thesis). C – Even narrower, statement(s), identifying key issues.

Learn more about writing essay introductions in the Essay writing resource website. The body paragraphs address each of the main points (or sub-topics) of your essay in the same order they were mentioned in your essay introduction. Each paragraph will be related to your essay’s central focus and thesis.

• Before you start to write, draw a map of your ideas for the different paragraphs which support the thesis statement.
• After you have made your map, write each body paragraph with a clear structure to describe, discuss and develop your topic.

Learn more about writing good essay body paragraphs from the Essay writing resource website. The conclusion paragraph is your last chance to impress your reader. You can either:

• Start your conclusion with a phrase such as “In conclusion” or “To sum up” as this will indicate to your reader that you are finishing your essay.
• Immediately begin with a summary of the main points, and then write an end statement. In this statement you can restate the thesis, make final comments that could be evaluative, or refer to the larger issues related to the larger context or background.

Learn more about writing good essay conclusions from the Essay writing resource website. You will need to provide a full list of references at the end of your essay. These will demonstrate that the opinions you expressed in your essay were informed from your reading. Make sure you acknowledge your sources using the correct referencing style.

What are common essay types?

At university you have to demonstrate the ability to write different types of essays. While all academic essays have the same basic structure (introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion), the purpose, style of delivery, and organisation of the ideas may vary.

Examples of common essay types

“A discussion essay discusses a range of evidence, views, theories, findings or approaches on a topic to develop a position through the essay. The conclusion usually states this position”  Academic Writing at Auckland (AWA) .

See the discussion essay examples on the AWA site.

“An Analysis Essay critically analyses an object of study (a book extract, artwork, film, article, cultural artefact, event, example, situation…) through the lens of broader concepts (theories, themes, values, systems, processes…). It builds and supports a position and argument through this critical analysis and demonstrates understanding of both the object and the broader concepts” Academic Writing at Auckland  (AWA) .

See the analysis essay examples on the AWA site.

Additional resources

The following resources provide you further information about essay writing and examples of essays in different disciplines:

• write@uni: Examples of student writing
• Academic Writing at Auckland

Related topics

• Critical thinking
• Finding information
• Understanding assessments
• Note-taking
• Time management
• Paraphrasing and quoting
• Referencing and avoiding plagiarism

See all available workshops .

Short on time? Watch a video on:

• Essay writing – 6:28
• Paraphrasing and quoting – 22:22
• Using active and passive voice – 9:58
• Editing your work – 5:12

Have any questions? 

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6 Step Guide to Writing a Killer Essay

Written by studytimenz

At high school, particularly here in new zealand, ideas are always assessed in the form of essays..

With so many rules surrounding ‘proper’ essay form, it’s easy for ideas to get lost to the format, or for you to lose sight of what they’re arguing for in the first place.

Sadly, this means that students often can’t get their thoughts across effectively, and are marked down for things that have no bearing on their ideas or intelligence.

However frustrating they might be, research has shown that learning how to compile an argument in written form is a skill that does great things for your grades, employability and general life-confidence.

As a soon-to-be graduate of high school – whatever you choose to do – the importance of strong communication skills cannot be understated.

If you choose to head straight into the workforce, you’ll be expected to demonstrate this skill in your cover letters and CV’s during job applications, and at University, essays are pretty much the stock standard assignment in most courses (otherwise there are always reports, reviews and reflections).

Writing skills will even get you further in your travels: Visas can involve lengthy letters and application processes, and administrators are always impressed by a well-written application.

Considering all the evidence, it’s a smart move to get a good feel for essay writing now – the seeds you plant now will help you out big-time in the long run.

How can I write a good essay then?

Contrary to popular opinion, anyone can write a good essay. It’s a skill, not a trait, and like any other skill, it only improves with practice. The tricky thing is getting your head around all the niggly bits, like structure, and themes, and ideas, and topic sentences, and punctuation, and clarity, blah blah blah, etc. That’s what we’re here for.

This guide will help you to break through the sludge of essay writing and help you to get to the heart of their purpose:  communicating an idea.  We’ll decipher the intimidating jargon and wordy standards for you, and give you solid, smooth steps to follow so you can smash an essay for every topic, any time. The guide will cover:

Deciding on an “idea”

Planning your argument

Essay structure

Introduction

Body paragraphs

Proofreading

THE BIG “IDEA” AND WHY IT MATTERS

The term ‘idea’ in the context of essay-writing causes a lot of confusion – and rightly so – it’s unfairly vague!

Simply put, an idea is the argument you’re making in your essay. While definitions may vary across standards and subjects (“hypothesis”; “argument”; “thesis statement”; “theme” etc.)  your idea is your overarching  claim  that the rest of your essay will  prove  or  justify .

An idea could be anything from “ Romeo and Juliet’s relationship demonstrates the difficulty of defying familial expectations ” to “ The use of guerilla warfare helped the Viet Cong to defeat America in the in the Vietnam war .”

Ideas can be universal, personal, fundamental, controversial or challenging. They don’t necessarily have to be ‘good’ or ‘moral.’ Writing an essay isn’t about agreeing with the message of the text, or the topic you’ve been asked to engage with. Teachers are more concerned with your ability to look at a topic or text critically, interpret it, and relate that interpretation to the outside world in one way or another.

The idea is the spine of your essay. The rest of it will work towards demonstrating  how  and  why  you’re arguing for this claim. So before you start writing an essay, it’s smart to get a firm grip on your idea first.

Brainstorming is a good start. On a piece of paper, jot down all the observations you’ve made about your essay topic. You’ll usually have a question or a demand in the guidelines to narrow things down.  If you can’t think of any ideas, do some extra revision!

Once you’ve done this, try to think of one connection to bind your ideas about the text/topic/event together. Then make it into a statement – e.g: “ In  Bend it Like Beckham , Jesminder’s character explores the tension between cultural expectations and social belonging .” Make sure you’ve got a good amount of supporting points to bolster whatever your claim says.

Pro tips: Don’t overcomplicate it! Fancy wording doesn’t matter. It’s more about the insight of your claim, and showing that you can develop a perceptive opinion on something.

Don’t fall into the trap of the one-word-idea. “Love” is not an idea. Instead, your idea should take the form of a firm statement about love.

If your essay is given to you in the form of a question, think of the idea as an answer to that question.

Example question: “ Should the Hunger Games be considered a feminist text ?”

Idea/claim/argument/thesis: “ Despite The Hunger Games having a female protagonist, the character of Katniss reinforces masculine notions of strength, therefore it should not be considered a feminist text.

Your idea should show some critical thinking. For example: “ The Hunger Games should not be considered a feminist text ” is not a strong enough observation – you need some substance behind it.

If you’re too vague or short with your idea, your supporting evidence will lose structure, and could go on forever. Think about your idea as if you were explaining the main point of your essay to another person.

If you read your idea aloud – ask yourself: Does it make sense? Does it answer the question or fulfill the demand? Does it summarise most of your essay’s argument?

If the answer is no to any of these three questions, refine and try again.

2. GET PLANNING

Essays almost always follow the same linear structure:

• Introduction.
• Body Paragraphs
• Conclusion.

We’ll break down the anatomy behind each element later on – but for now – it’s useful to know how they work together to make an essay. The introduction is the clincher: its job is to contextualise your argument, interest the reader, briefly explain your argument and of course,  introduce the idea . The body paragraphs are the  supporting points to hold up your main idea, with evidence from the text . The conclusion  brings together everything you’ve argued in a neat summary , reinforcing the idea one more time.

Whether you’re writing under time pressure or doing a take-home assignment, it’s important to know (at least in part) where your argument is going to go. Planning is a sure way to do this – and it doesn’t have to be boring. While ‘fluking it’ might work for some people, having no plan makes it easy to get lost in your own train of thought and go off on long tangents. There are loads of different ways to plan, and you should give yourself enough flexibility so that you have the freedom to incorporate new points or ideas as you’re writing.

A great, easy and flexible way to plan is the Box Plan. This plan can be adapted for a range of subjects; it’s a neat and easy visualisation of your essay’s skeleton and key points; and also serves as a great resource for revision – because who wants to spend hours rewriting the same essay over and over?

See the table below for an easy template of the Box Plan. Feel free to print it out, and if you’re feeling extra-motivated for revision, spend some time making it colour co-ordinated or adding some visual doodles to help memorise the content and make things fun.

DIY BOX PLAN

Introduction :

Clearly state your main  IDEA .

What are the  THREE MAIN POINTS  that you will use to support this idea?

Body Paragraph One :

Clearly state the main  POINT  you will discuss in this paragraph.

Record all of the  EVIDENCE  you will use to prove this point.

Connect this evidence back to the  MAIN IDEA  or the  OUTSIDE  world.

Body Paragraph Two :

Body Paragraph Three :

Conclusion :

Clearly state the main  ARGUMENT  you have made or  IDEA  you have explored.

Review how all of your points have supported this  IDEA .

3. ANATOMY OF AN INTRO

There’s lots of advice out there that tells you an introduction is the least important part of an essay, something you can rush over to get to the ‘good stuff’. They’re wrong.

Writing a killer introduction is the magic ticket to an excellent essay. A great intro lays out your ideas concisely and persuasively, and can provide focus and momentum for the rest of the essay. Plus having something concrete to come back to can be really helpful when you’re feeling stuck or lost – and remind you of your overarching argument or idea. Our best advice for nailing the intro is to start broad and then narrow down.

Here’s a quick formula to follow for writing an introduction that’ll blow your teacher out of the water.

Pro tip: Get a hook, start broad and narrow down. Finish on by going SUPER broad (society/the world/the universe) to be extra fancy.

• Hook  (rhetoric question/quotation/exclamation to engage the reader)
• Context  (the boring but important contextual bits like the author/director/poet/setting/title/characters/etc.)
• Idea  (see our first chapter for a definition)
• Brief explanation of how you’ll prove this idea  (whatever points/evidence you’re putting in your body paragraphs)
• For extra points, round up your intro by making a  connection to the outside world  (some profound and relevant moral lesson about society usually works)

Here’s an example of a great introduction for a basic English text analysis essay. Each colour in the paragraph corresponds with the formula above (Hook = purple; Context = red; and so on).

Why do bad things happen to good people? The majority of society believes that there are no logical answers to this question. Terrible things can happen to the best of us, for no particular reason. However, in William Shakespeare’s “King Lear”, the main character, King Lear, who claims to be “a man more sinned against than sinning”, is fully responsible for his own downfall. In fact, the sins committed against King Lear are a result of his personal faults of rashness, blindness, and foolishness. Though a good king, Lear’s actions cause his family and kingdom to fall apart. Furthermore, he is personally punished for disrupting the natural order, with his poor decision-making. King Lear’s downfall demonstrates how good people can still make terrible decisions  – inviting the reader to consider the complex nature of humans, and emphasising the importance of taking responsibility for your own actions.

4. BREAKING DOWN THE BODY PARAGRAPH

The body paragraph makes up the “flesh” of the essay “skeleton” you have at the moment. Three body paragraphs is enough for a strong essay, however you can add as many more as you need to strengthen or fully unpack your overall argument (provided you’re not ranting). It’s important that each body paragraph is sharp and clean, and backed up by some relevant evidence. The point of a paragraph is to indicate a break – so make sure that each paragraph has only ONE predominant focus. If you find yourself going off topic from your original focus, consider making a new self-contained paragraph to explore that idea in full depth.

WHAT’S THE POINT?

Your main point should be introduced at the beginning of your body paragraph, and take form in what the experts call a “topic sentence”. This is similar to your big idea, but it’s a bit more specific. Similarly, it should make some sort of definitive claim about the text or topic, and help to support your main idea. If your main idea is the spine of your essay, your topic sentence is the spine of your body paragraph.

Let’s have a look at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel  The Great Gatsby  for some ideas:

Main Essay Idea:

“ Through the use of motifs and symbolism,  The Great Gatsby  explores the disintegration of the American dream in 1920’s America. ”

Point of Body Paragraph 1:

“Geography is used as a motif to illustrate the different classes of the decaying nation, and their clashing social values.”

Point of Body Paragraph 2:

“The distant Green Light is used to symbolise the ideal of the American Dream – relentlessly pursued but never realised up close.”

Focus of Body Paragraph 3:

“The Valley of the Ashes symbolises the moral and social decay of the nation, figured literally by its desolation and pollution, but also by the poor citizens who live there.”

SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE

It’s all very well and good to be able to make big claims – but you have to be able to back them up, otherwise for all we know, you’re just peddling conspiracies.

The evidence is all the stuff you need to show your reader that your argument has some validity to it. The evidence can be a quote, technique, event, plot point, character, excerpt, symbol, motif, etc. – so long as it’s relevant to the point you’re making and taken directly from whatever your essay is about.

Remember that it has to be factually correct too, don’t ever think you can get away with making up a quote! Your marker knows more than you think, and chances are they’ll sense something fishy and look it up.

ROUND IT UP

To finish your body paragraph in style, throw in one or two sentences that link back to the main idea of your essay. Better yet, reflect on something bigger to show your ability engage critically with the world around you. This final element is your chance to give an opinion on something, it can be as abstract or far-fetched as you like, provided your body paragraph is strong enough to support the claim.

Connecting your essay to wider forces in the world shows that you’re thinking about what you’re writing, rather than simply regurgitating content you’ve learned in class.

Markers love this part – especially in NCEA – and it often makes the difference between a Merit and an Excellence essay.

Here’s a quick table showing the anatomy of a body paragraph:

Focus of Body Paragraph One:

“Geography is used as a motif to illustrate the different classes of the decaying nation, and their clashing social values”

“ I lived at West Egg, the – well, the least fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them[…]Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans .” (1.14)

Explanation :

This quote from Nick demonstrates how he envisions class distinctions geographically – drawing a literal and figurative contrast between the two sides of the lake and economic status.

Reflection :

The geographic illustration  of class in  The Great Gatsby  mirrors the growing disparity between rich and poor that was taking place in America in the 1920’s.

5. CONCLUSIONS – MAKING A LASTING IMPRESSION

By the time you’ve made it here, you’re probably sick to death of your topic.

At this point, it’s tempting to just spurt out whatever your mind can muster, and hope that the rest of your essay holds you afloat when it comes to marking.

Avoid thinking like this! Your conclusion is the your final chance to leave an impression on your reader.

If anything, it’s a golden opportunity to boost the quality of your essay by tying it all together with a sparkly bow.

This doesn’t mean the conclusion has to be a difficult or particularly long process. All the work is pretty much done for you, now it’s a matter of selecting the most important points to drive home.

At bare minimum, your conclusion must accomplish three things:

• Restate the main idea of your essay.
• Summarize the three points in your body paragraphs.
• Leave the reader with an interesting final thought or impression.

Excellent conclusions will convey a sense of closure while also providing scope for other trains of thought – like an appetizer of a main dish at a different restaurant.

This is a tricky balance to strike, but it makes a world of difference.

6. PROOFREADING – YOUR FINAL SAFETY NET

At this point, after so much energy has been spent dutifully perfecting your work, it’s probably likely that the sentences in your essay are looking less and less like words and more like meaningless drivel on a page.

You might be itching to hand it in so that you can treat yourself to a well-deserved Big Mac Combo and  never ever look at  The Great Gatsby  again in your life.

This is why proofreading is so crucial. When you’ve spent a while writing something, it’s really difficult to pick up on the mistakes you may have made during the process.

You may feel attached to certain parts that took you ages to spit out, when really, they’re unnecessary waffling.

Your mind may have convinced itself that some sentences are elegant masterpieces, but when you get your marks back, you realise they made no sense at all.

We all know too well the shameful feeling of getting an essay back and realising all the obvious errors you failed to pick up on in your frenzied state.

BUT, a great essay riddled with linguistic and grammatical errors will instantly make your ideas seem less valid than they are.

That’s why it’s really important to allow yourself time for proofreading, and even better, for reading it over with fresh eyes.

If you’re writing from home – take a break! Go for a walk, get some food, try a guided meditation, watch an episode of GoT, whatever – but come back to the essay later.

It’s amazing what a short break can do for your detection of mistakes. Even if you’re really strapped for time and you’re pulling an all nighter, go to sleep now and wake-up a bit earlier to proofread.

If you’re writing under pressure in an exam environment, make sure to plan for 5-10 minutes of proofreading. When you’ve finished the writing, go to another question or take a very short breather to clear your mind.

One great way to ensure your essay is pristine for hand-in is to run through this mental checklist for each individual sentence of your essay:

• Read the sentence aloud (or at least in your head). Does it make full sense when you hear it?
• Can it stand in isolation and still hold up as a sentence?
• Does it support the point that you’re making, or is it waffling to fill up space?
• Could it be articulated in a clearer way?
• Do the commas, full-stops and speech-marks “flow” properly when read aloud?
• Does it repeat a point that you’ve already made?
• Does it go on for too long? Could it be split into two separate sentences?
• Does it begin with a capital letter? Does it end with correct punctuation?

Next time you’re assigned an essay for an internal or exam, don’t put it off until the night before and put yourself through a half-hearted, exhausting, unproductive all nighter.

Bookmark this page, breathe, and walk through the guide step-by-step. You might even enjoy the process.

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Student Learning

Essay structure.

Having a structure to your essay makes sure that each main idea is presented logically and cohesively.

Click on the purple plus signs within the image for more details about each part of the essay structure.

• pdf 124.2KB Introductions and conclusions
• pdf 187.2KB Structure of a paragraph

Forms of writing

Essay writing.

• Report writing
• Reflective writing
• Writing for business contexts
• Writing a memorandum
• Email etiquette
• Producing Word documents and GoogleDocs

Essays are often used to demonstrate in-depth understanding of a particular topic. There are two main types of essays:

• Descriptive – when you give a thorough description of a particular topic
• Persuasive – when you present an argument and demonstrate that you have at least looked at both sides

1. Plan your essay

Deconstruct the question

A crucial first step is to understand exactly what the question requires of you. View the deconstructing a question resources .

Brainstorm an essay map

You will be asked to write an essay based on content you have learnt in class. Once you know exactly what the question is asking of you, do a quick brainstorm to map what you already know about the topic and what you need to find out.

Find and review information sources

Your lecturer will likely ask you to include course readings and to refer to additional readings. A good place to start is to refer to your course readings, revise these and see who the authors refer to in their reference list. You will also need to conduct a focused search for further information. View resources on finding quality sources of information .

Start writing

2. Write your essay

The Introduction

The Introduction sets the scene for the essay and gives the reader a clear idea of what they can expect. A good introduction briefly introduces the topic and gives signposts to the main points that the essay will address.

The Body consists of paragraphs that address your essay topic. Paragraphs should focus on one theme and they should be structured in a logical manner. View resources on writing paragraphs .

The Conclusion

The Conclusion summarises key points of the essay. A good conclusion doesn’t simply regurgitate content, rather it gives the reader a concise summary of the key points and a clear idea of your stance on the topic. The conclusion should not contain any new information.

3. Revise, edit and refine your essay

• Check the essay question – does your essay address the question?
• Check the marking criteria in the assignment rubric – if the lecturer wants you to address specific points, make sure you do so
• Read it out loud – by reading your work out loud, you get a better sense of how the reader will interpret your work
• Give it to someone to check for flow and to proof-read. If you’ve written a good essay it will make sense to someone who has no previous knowledge of the topic. This shows that your essay is clear and is structured in a way that develops understanding for the reader
• Proof-read your work – make sure you proof-read your work to identify spelling and grammar errors
• Check your referencing – make sure your work adheres to   APA referencing standards

Further information

• Massey University’s  assignment planner  will map a timeline to complete key essay writing steps
• Use this list of linking words to help you link paragraphs and/or sentences within paragraphs
• Refer to examples of essays on AWA . 
• Our resources on paraphrasing will help you incorporate evidence into your writing
• Our resources on grammar will help you edit and refine your essay

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Writing and Presentations

Introduction.

• Academic Style
• E-portfolios
• Grammar and Punctuation
• Paraphrasing
• Presentations
• Proofreading and Editing
• Referencing and Plagiarism
• Reflective Writing
• Academic Writing Guide - Logic and Flow Improve your paragraphs with the words and phrases (discourse markers) in this guide
• Academic Writing Guide - Passive Voice Learn the difference between active and passive voice and when you might use passive structures in academic writing
• APA Style Guide - Italics, Bold, Headings Use this guide for examples of when to use italic and bold styles for text, and how to format headings in APA style
• APA Style Guide - Formatting Use this guide as a reference for font size, line spacing, margins, page numbers, and more in APA style
• APA Style Guide - Abbreviations Use this guide for examples of how to correctly shorten words, terms, and more.
• APA Style Guide - Numbers and Units Use this guide for examples of how to correctly express numbers and units in APA style

An academic essay is a form of writing that often contains an answer to a question and usually contains an argument. Making an argument means taking a position on a topic and critically analysing information and ideas that are relevant to that topic. An essay should both inform the reader about the topic and convince the reader that the writer's argument is valid. Writing essays helps develop critical thinking skills as the writer organises ideas into paragraphs and an orderly sequence of points.

Essay Structure

To be convincing and to make sense, an essay needs to be presented as a well-structured piece of writing. The general framework of an academic essay consists of the following:

Example structure of an essay:

• Introduction (10% of total essay length)
• Paragraph 1: First supporting statement, Definition, Explanation, Evidence
• Paragraph 2: Second Supporting Statement, Definition, Explanation, Evidence
• Paragraph 3: Third Supporting Statement, Definition, Explanation, Evidence
• Conclusion (10% of total essay length) 

Example for a 2,000-word essay:

• 200-word introduction
• 1600-word body
• 200-word conclusion

The introduction opens your essay and introduces the reader to the main argument and points which you will discuss and develop in your essay. An introduction can be broken into three parts:

• General statement(s)
• Indication of essay structure
• Thesis statement

The body is the place to fully develop the argument that you outlined in the introduction. Each paragraph within the body discusses one major point in the development of the overall argument. Each main point needs to be clearly stated in the form of a topic sentence, which is then supported with evidence.

There are four types of paragraphs:

• Narrative – Tells a story
• Persuasive – Convinces the reader
• Descriptive – Describes something
• Explanatory – Gives information/explains something

Each paragraph should explain one major point and can be laid out in the following format:

• Define – Describe the main idea of the paragraph
• Explain – Clearly outline the main idea of the argument and link to research
• Evidence – Use research and examples to support your main idea

The conclusion is where you wrap up the essay. You should restate the main argument or thesis and reinforce the most important evidence supporting the argument.

You can break up a conclusion into three parts:

• Restate your thesis statement
• Summarise key points in your essay

 Since the conclusion is the last opportunity to convince the reader to accept your argument, ensure you end on a strong note. 

Check out the Academic Style section of our Study Toolbox for information on the type of style used in academic essays (e.g. formal language, avoiding cliches). Also, see the writing guides in the Guides box on this page for helpful information relevant to essay writing and formatting.

Transitions and Links

Paragraphs focus on one main point, but all individual paragraphs should link together as a whole. There are plenty of words and phrases that can be useful to help link together paragraphs. These transitions can also be used to link ideas within paragraphs. Below are some examples:

Adding to a point or introducing a new point:

Also; further; in addition; following this; subsequently; in regards to.

To reinforce a point:

With this in mind; in other words; that is to say.

Identifying a stage in process:

First; second; third; in addition; consequently; next; following this.

Explaining or introducing an example:

For example; such as; for instance; namely.

Showing cause and effect:

As a result; it is evident; hence; for this reason; this suggests that.

Showing concession:

After all; granted; however; in any case; admittedly.

Showing conditions:

In these circumstances; provided that; even if; unless; although; despite.

Compare/Contrast:

In comparison; on the one hand; on the other hand; on the contrary; alternatively; otherwise.

Adding emphasis:

Evidently; conceivably; conclusively; undoubtedly; unfortunately.

Summing up/concluding:

To sum up; in conclusion; to summarise; therefore; to sum up.

Essay checklist

• Have you proofread your essay for spelling and grammatical errors?
• Does your essay answer the essay question?
• Have you gone in-depth and backed up evidence with research?
• Are your discussion points relevant to the essay question?
• Is your introduction clear and concise, giving the reader a preview of what your essay is about?
• Do your paragraphs link to each other? Are they concise and clear?
• Does your conclusion sum up the key points in your essay?
• Have you adhered to the word count limit?
• Do you have a reference list and have you checked your citations?
• Have you used the correct referencing style?

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• Last Updated: May 30, 2024 3:01 PM
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AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland

An Argument Essay argues for a position, which is usually stated in the Introduction. It may consider and refute (explain the weakness in) opposing views. The position is usually restated in the Conclusion.

Copyright: Jerome de Vries

Description: In 2012, the Expert Advisory Group for Child Poverty Solutions produced a report called Solutions to child poverty in New Zealand: Evidence for action which outlined a number of key issues and recommendations. Critically reflect on how similar or different the Expert Advisory Group's view on the issue of child poverty is compared to those of National governments in the 1990s.

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Title: Island Stories

Author: Chris Hilliard

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• Autobiography; Biography; Journals; Correspondence
• Contemporary Māori and Pacific Islands
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Island Stories

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The foregoing chapters have both discussed some texts in detail and made more general surveys of them and their contexts. I have attempted to show the interpenetration of texts and contexts. This approach casts some light on the workings of texts, but it also illuminates the contexts that were reformulated through these texts. This task of this final chapter is to piece together the individual chapters' findings to create a broad picture of history-writing in interwar New Zealand. I will proceed by briefly recapping the arguments of the preceding chapters, contrasting the various histories discussed in them with reference to some persistent themes of the thesis, and then assessing the changes in history writing between 1920 and 1940. 1

The local histories of the period 'colonised' their district discursively by claiming that the pioneers made the area fruitful, by marginalising Maori, and by arrogating the language of origins. Each text commemorated a particular group. In keeping with their commemorative functions, local histories named en masse, seldom criticised their subjects or revealed personal 'faults and frictions', and attempted to give voice to their subjects through lengthy quotations. This latter characteristic was related to local historians' efforts to collect and preserve the knowledge and artefacts of the disappearing past. Their histories were organised round the central figure of the pioneer: hardworking, resourceful, energetic, and a public servant to whom later generations owed obligations of memory. The image of the pioneer was an important currency of value in Pakeha culture generally. In local histories, this image was appropriated and contested on behalf of Pakeha groups who were marginalised by local élites.

Cowan too wrote about 'pioneers', but his pioneers were, first and foremost, 'frontiersmen'. They were not only breaking in the land, but exploring racial borders. Other border-crossers, such as the Pakeha-Maori, also loom large in his work. For Cowan, both sides of this border mattered: though there was nothing covert about Cowan's racism, he was the only writer discussed here to accord Maori page 148 and Europeans a similar level of agency. Cowan's New Zealand was made through racial conflict and the respect that emerged from this test by battle. In his books Maori were not the incidental figures that they were in the pioneer narratives of the local histories. Cowan's books drew on a variety of sources, including American historiography and popular fiction, and perhaps most importantly the testimonies and friendship of veterans. Cowan's commitment both to Maori causes and to pioneer-adulation, and his attempt to build a story of racial compact out of a racial conflict, made his books unstable. Sometimes, as in the draft of Settlers and Pioneers , this tension became explicit. Cowan had a more ambitious project for a national history than anyone else discussed in this thesis, because his metanarrative admitted much more conflict That he failed to synthesise these conflicting voices does not make his work any less important. Indeed, his failure demonstrates some (but only some) of the heterogeneity of New Zealand's past which other contemporary histories smoothed over.

Like many local historians, Cowan drew heavily on interviews for his history. Personal testimonies, oral and written, gave him 'the real meat of history': history was a matter of individuals' activities, as it was in a more institutionally implicated way for the local historians. For Cowan these individuals' deeds amounted to more than they did for the local historians: they made a national history. Of the other Wellington historians and their contacts in other cities, only Buick and (much less coherently) Ramsden made parallel attempts to create a general story of New Zealand's development. Buick, Ramsden and Cowan took particular phenomena (the Treaty of Waitangi, conversion, war), concentrated on particular locations (the Bay of Islands and in Cowan's case most of the rest of the North Island as well), and treated these as defining or governing New Zealand history. None of them grounded their narratives of the making of New Zealand in a broad general history.

Their wider concerns did not prevent Buick, Ramsden and Cowan from having emotional attachments to their subjects, and inclinations to defend their subjects' reputations, that were equal to those of local historians. Like most local historians, they had personal contact with some of their subjects or their descendants. They were keenly interested in the 'character' of historical personages. The same went for Stewart and Scholefield. Scholefield, who considered himself 'a student of social science' and who was interested in economic and political structures, also produced the most substantial work of biography. 2 His Dictionary was also the most impressive textual embodiment of the practice of collecting. Like Cowan with his interviews, and local historians with their interviews, reminiscences, and museum collections, Scholefield, Fildes, Buick, Ramsden and Stewart stressed the need to page 149 preserve the residues of 'our fast receding history'. They relied more on written sources than Cowan did, though all except Fildes saw value in interviews. They took pains to augment New Zealand's libraries and archives, and to make accessible through their books the voices of primary sources, albeit with varying levels of accuracy.

The concern with collection extended to some university historians. At Auckland University College, Rutherford gathered historical records; at Otago, Elder edited the journals of Marsden and his lieutenants. Unlike Rutherford, Elder partly adopted the non-university historians' collector-like mode of writing. This way of writing relegated the authorial voice almost to editorial status, and quoted in bulk. Hight too wrote like a collector, though about different subject-matter. Neither Hight nor Elder, the two academic historians whose tenures spanned the interwar period, had been schooled in the academic tradition that took shape in Britain from the beginning of the twentieth century, a tradition involving training in research and intense attention to the administrative and constitutional detail of state-formation.

In the mid-1930s, three historians schooled in this tradition (in particular, Beaglehole and Rutherford, though some of the latter's study was in America) took up academic positions in the North Island colleges, and others (Morrell, Marais, Harrop) wrote on New Zealand history from afar. Airey and Condliffe were educated differently, but they too brought to New Zealand history practices different from those of Hight, Elder and those outside the colleges. Among these practices one might count a documentary rigour, though this can be overstated. Fildes seems to have been as accurate as any of the academics, and like most of the academics he distrusted oral sources. The major innovations of the newer academics were, first, the treatment of New Zealand history in a new genre, the scholarly monograph, thoroughly footnoted and written more as a synthesis of sources than an anthology of quotations; secondly, the treatment of New Zealand history within the framework of the historiography of British colonial policy, rather than merely within the confines of imperial patriotism; and thirdly, sweeping general histories. These general histories brought substantial and sustained economic analyses and almost unprecedented cultural critiques. Though they took the nation seriously as a historiographical unit, they emphasised its dependence on the outside world, and some were nationalist through their criticism rather than praise. Where Cowan and Buick had treated New Zealand's overall history as a particular process (war, sovereignty) writ large, the general histories written in the universities cast their net over a wider range of subjects. Their accounts, however, concentrated mostly on Europeans; like the local histories, they pushed Maori to one side.

In this way these university histories were ideologically closer to the local histories, Scholefield and Stewart than they were to Cowan and Buick. The latter pair foregrounded race relations; the others put Maori people on the sideline of 'New Zealand' history, which was tacitly assumed to be a European phenomenon. Maori consequently appeared mostly in subplots designated specific to themselves: 'Maori scares', 'Maori wars', 'the Maori problem'. Texts as different as Beaglehole's New Zealand: A Short History and Woodhouse's George Rhodes of the Levels assumed that New Zealand history was the history of European endeavour in these islands.

In this respect the Centennial surveys were a 'standardisation' of New Zealand historiography. In marked contrast to some of the non-literary Centennial celebrations, the surveys eschewed 'patriotic exoticism'. Reference to conflict between Maori and Pakeha was also muted; even 'good' race relations were not emphasised. Their style modified, pioneer narratives were retained. In some cases subtly used as structuring principles for discussions of topics as unlikely as literature and international relations. European settlement and society became the stuff of New Zealand history. In some of the surveys, this history was conceived along the lines of McCormick's adaptation thesis. Others treated New Zealand history as Pakeha history in less theorised ways.

I want now to draw together the issues raised in the preceding chapters, and examine more directly some issues and relationships that I have so far treated incidentally. The first matter I want to look at is these historians' different positions on the question of 'objectivity'. The local historians made no claim to absolute truth. Some explicitly stated the commemorative purposes of their works, and acknowledged their elision of 'faults and frictions'. When Cowan defended the accuracy of his works, he said they were 'true': he seldom had recourse to the more clinical term 'objective'. For him, historical truth was bound up with personal investments. 'Human documents' such as interviews brought an investigator closer to the truth than more impersonal texts did. He privileged the accounts of people he had met personally; when he reached an evidential impasse, he would simply provide documentation from which readers could draw their own conclusions.

Whatever the veridical status of Buick's work, on the surface The Treaty of Waitangi conveys an impression of wise judgement. His prose enacted comparisons of different sides of an argument and magisterially settled on a conclusion that involved the least amount of conflict and criticism. Hight impressed upon his students the objectivist pronouncements of Lord Acton; for him, as for Scholefield, who wanted his Dictionary to be non-evaluative and 'purely factual', the stance of objectivism seems to have foreclosed any self-examination. Thus could the austere page 151 Hight refer airily to 'that sense of rough justice which is never wholly absent from any community of white men'. 3

Most other academics made less pretence at total exclusion of subjectivity than Hight did. They were more alert to the complexities and contrariness of evidence, perhaps because of their grounding in archival research. To make broad generalisations about their philosophies by reading between the lines is dangerous: perhaps the most one can say reliably is that their primary research made truth-claims possible at the same time as it made them provisional. None of them claimed to be above judgement, but they claimed or aspired to judgement based on a comprehensive and critical examination of those sources agreed to be valid and pertinent.

Objectivity, then, did not mean neutrality. Condliffe 's New Zealand in the Making was openly polemical but its claims were grounded in piles of evidence. Beaglehole's New Zealand: A Short History supplied statistics and other evidence, but it was firmly within the genre of the essay. It made no pretence at being a reference book and instead provocatively satirised its subject-matter. Morrell's book on colonial policy was a monograph rather than an explicitly reflective essay (as Beaglehole's 'The Colonial Office' was), but in the course of its narrative it assessed conflicting arguments on particular points.

In this thesis I have used the word narrative in a broad sense, rather than in the sense it is often used by historians and history teachers, as the opposite of 'analysis'. Both narrative in this restricted sense and analysis (assessing arguments, critiquing sources) had a place in academic monographs such as Morrell's. The structure was usually chronological (or, if the book was divided into sections on a number of colonies, each colony's section was chronological) and the analysis was spliced together with the narrative. The same went for the general histories, though at a higher level of generalisation.

Buick's writing was not far removed from this practice of interleaved 'narrative' and 'analysis'. He too wrote chronologically and wrestled with what he regarded as knotty issues as they came up in the material. Thus, the distinction between academic histories written along English academic lines and other New Zealand histories was not that between 'narrative' and 'analysis', but between different kinds of narrative and analysis.

However, some historiographical practices in the interwar period could fairly be described as unanalytical. One of the most common was quoting in bulk and relegating the narrative voice to bridging status between excerpts from sources. Many local historians wrote in this manner. Other writers, such as Acland, and page 152 Fildes in his compilation of James John Taine 's reminiscences, did the same thing on a larger scale, in much the same mode as their predecessor, McNab. Elder, Hight, Woodhouse and Buick also employed the tactic of extensive quotation, but they bolstered it with a strong authorial voice.

Buick, in addition, wrote sustained oratorical passages. His work was widely praised for its 'romantic' and 'picturesque' qualities. 'Romantic' was a word widely applied to historians' works, by readers and by the writers themselves. It was applied to Cowan's accounts of battle and Buick's recreation of the Bay of Islands in the 1830s, and, in Harrop's first book, the history of Westland. As I argued in the section on Letters and Art in New Zealand , the use of this word as a touchstone for New Zealand history (and 'Maori legends') made history a kind of proxy for literature, at least as a weapon against claims that New Zealand had no distinctive identity because it lacked quality high-cultural artefacts. On a more subtle level, the use of the word 'romantic' discloses associations between history and fiction. If it had any link to early nineteenth-century romanticism it was probably not to Wordsworth but to Walter Scott . Erik Olssen has argued that Otago's 'pervasive historical consciousness' owed much to Scott; Scott was also a popular author elsewhere in New Zealand in the nineteenth century and at least as late as the 1920s and 1930s. 4 The romantic picturesque associated with him was evident in a wide range of writings and aesthetic judgements in 1920s and 1930s New Zealand.

Cowan was one of the most persistent exemplars of the 'romantic' strand of writing. His work also contained other generic elements, most notably those of popular fiction. His work had strong American influences, but it also fed on the plot-heavy masculinist short fiction with oral story-structures (and often with yarning narrator figures as well) that was common in New Zealand at the time. 5 Gilkison too worked in this latter tradition, and a chapter of his Early Days in Central Otago would have fitted well into O. N. Gillespie 's anthology New Zealand Short Stories . (Elder used much the same anecdotal material for his populist works, but he narrated it in a less excited style and substituted a broader explanatory framework for the oral frames of Cowan and Gilkison.) The overlap in style between yarning, anecdotal histories and some popular Australasian and American fiction is nicely emblematised by the way the Wellington City Library and the PEN Gazette classified page 153 separate Cowan collections of historical stories as 'fiction', much to the author's chagrin. 6

'Yarning' histories preserved some of the oral nature of their source material. Characteristics of sources intersected with particularities of style and genre in other kinds of history too. To take one example, the historiography of colonial policy was based on official publications and Colonial Office and New Zealand Company papers; less formal (and more 'romantic') New Zealand sources like settlers' or travellers' reminiscences were of minor importance to this body of work, which retained much of the formal, institutional character of its source material.

The questions peculiar to different traditions of history also shaped the nature of the histories written therein. Working on the terms of academic imperial history, Marais and Harrop discussed 'the colonisation of New Zealand' in relation to the New Zealand Company, the British government, and the agents of both; for local historians, the subject-matter of colonisation was the daily business of settlement. Rutherford's and Buick's accounts of the Treaty of Waitangi formed one of a very small group of cases in which very different historians examined the same sources on the same topic; they produced very different accounts.

As a corollary, historians in the interwar period worked with a variety of metanarratives. Cowan's version of New Zealand was a tragicomedy: through the strife of war Maori and Pakeha came to respect each other, and in partnership save each other from racial degeneration. This achievement through suffering remained in the twentieth century as a memory for all New Zealanders to honour and revel in. Buick and Ramsden also located the heart of New Zealand history in Maori-Pakeha compact, though for them this compact was achieved more peacefully. For Buick, racial unity was secured through the Treaty of Waitangi and its ongoing compact. In Ramsden's work, this state of affairs was threatened by dissolute Europeans in the 1830s and potentially threatened by apathetic Pakeha a century later. In Buick's Treaty of Waitangi and his public speeches, the Treaty was threatened by 'misunderstandings' (by Heke, FitzRoy, and the New Zealand Company) in the nineteenth-century, but never seriously breached; at the time of writing, he said, Pakeha needed to make sure that they did not betray Maori trust.

Buick and Cowan (and Ramsden, with whom I have dealt only in passing) were the only New Zealand historians at this time to work with a metanarrative in which 'race relations' played a significant part. This does not necessarily make them heroic. While I believe that Cowan's texts (and I do mean his texts, because Cowan himself could not subjugate the conflicting currents in his work) came closer than page 154 any other Pakeha writings to collapsing the contradictions of Pakeha ideology in on themselves, they certainly did not invent any coherent means of writing outside those frames. Buick skilfully excluded evidence that would have troubled his comforting claims.

Other histories engineered silences without having Maori centre-stage. Books as different as George Rhodes of the Levels and New Zealand in the Making fall into this category. In Woodhouse's book, Maori farm-hands laboured on the sidelines; in Condliffe 's, Maori made a minimal contribution to the 'New Zealand' economy. Both books tend to conflate 'Pakeha' and 'New Zealand' (or 'Canterbury'). Several kinds of narrative making this conflation may be discerned. The first is the pioneer legend informing most local histories. This was the story of the transformation of the wilderness into fruitful farms and prosperous towns by honest, hard-working, and public-spirited pioneers. Here the Englishness or Scottishness of the colonists was not bruited much; in some other histories it was. The metanarrative of academic monographs dealing with New Zealand was that of academic imperial history generally—the political and administrative development of the British empire. Consequently, in this framework, New Zealand history's academic validity depended upon New Zealand's relationship with British imperialism. The general histories of Condliffe and Beaglehole went further ahead in time, and in different ways related the imperial framework to the development of New Zealand. Academic histories virtually defined New Zealand history as the history of settlement, a process of definition which reached a peak in the Centennial surveys. The adaptation thesis was the most ambitious initiative in theorising New Zealand history in this way. Not all the Centennial writers accepted it, but all except Cowan endorsed its governing principle: that New Zealand history was a story of European endeavour in which Maori occurred as inconveniences, stage hands, or curtain-raisers to the main drama of European settlement. Both pioneer histories and imperial historiography presupposed a metanarrative of colonisation in which the indigenes were only of incidental significance. The Centennial surveys by McCormick and Wood drew together the very different narratives that shared this assumption.

Alan Mulgan later held the Centennial up as a watershed in the development of a Pakeha interest in New Zealand history. 7 As did contemporaries and later historians, he yoked the development of an interest in New Zealand history to the development of 'national identity'. To what extent was the writing of New Zealand history a nationalist project? At the very least, whether or not New Zealand historians saw the nation as an existing reality or a feasible goal, they found page 155 something in New Zealand's past that made it valid to write about. For some, this required considerable effort. The validity of the task, for instance, could be located in New Zealand's implication in the general problematics of imperial history, or in the need to explain or reform contemporary New Zealand. Despite Beaglehole 's claim that he was not a nationalist until the Centennial, he clearly thought that there was something worth fighting for in and through New Zealand historiography.

It is difficult to find the local histories nationalist in any sense other than the minimal one of finding New Zealand worth writing about. They made little attempt to synthesise the national and the local, and they exhibit localism rather than nationalism. They did, however, feed into the wider current of war-related nationalism. Cowan too linked his explicitly 'patriotic' histories to World War I, seeing joint Maori and Pakeha self-sacrifice in this war as the seal on the compact originating in the New Zealand Wars. From this compact arose pride and obligations. Buick too was a purveyor of a national identity that involved racial compact with attendant obligations.

These versions of New Zealand identity were conspicuously absent from the Centennial surveys. This was not simply because the university-trained members of the Centennial staff wanted it that way: things would have been quite different if Ngata had written his survey and had Heenan not been so opposed to explicit treatments of Maori-Pakeha relations. But, as they turned out, the Centennial surveys were much closer to the cultural nationalism of the younger writers of the 1930s. They did not conform absolutely to the agendas of those writers, and they borrowed from the pioneer traditions in which local histories operated. And as an attempt at covering 'the whole field of our national life', their accounts of what was distinctive about New Zealand inevitably settled on more than literature and foreign and domestic policy, the main places where younger academics, like many of the crew-members of Tomorrow and Phoenix generally, sought national identity. But these matters were discussed in detail, and the subjects championed by Cowan , Ramsden and Buick were not. 'There are greater things than literature and art in the making of a young nation', Cowan had rebuked Beaglehole in 1938. 8 In the Centennial surveys, however, 'the spirit of New Zealand' was to be found in prose fiction about Pakeha men.

How much, overall, had things changed by the time of the Centennial? New Zealand history was substantially established as a field of inquiry, though many people, and not just academics, were leery of it for long after 1940. The universities were producing substantial amounts of research work on New Zealand topics, in theses, papers and books. With the universities' expansion came an increasing page 156 emphasis on documentary sources, synthetic narrative and analysis, and the problematics of imperial history. In the 1930s and for some time afterwards, the establishment of academic history marginalised Maori and devalued many local sources. This was not a monolithic orthodoxy, as the work of Sinclair , John Miller and others in the two decades after 1940 showed. However, the emphasis of Cowan , Buick , and Ramsden on Maori-Pakeha relations, and the 'romantic' poetics they brought to this subject, were besieged during the 1930s by the academics and graduates, and by the Centennial organisation in which they played a prominent part. The prominence of the latter groups was increased by Buick's death in 1938 and Cowan's incapacitation from 1941. At this time Ramsden had none of the prestige of Cowan and Buick, and the country's most prominent writers of history were now academics.

Consequently, Pakeha strategies of indigenisation that involved Maori people became much less prominent in New Zealand historiography. Pioneer stories of conquering the land remained. In some works by academics, the business of 'settling', of building a 'home in thought' was now much more concerned with the fruits of high culture, with politics and economics, and with New Zealand's changing international persona as the Empire became the Commonwealth.

None of the historians discussed here thought that the past was safely finished. All of them, except perhaps Fildes , saw New Zealand as part of processes that were not yet over or, if fading, recoverable as an ideal. The histories discussed in this thesis were informed by contemporary concerns, and many drew attention to this fact. But none of them was a pure product of its time. They all existed through engagements with texts (first) created long before, from Robert Burrows ' diary to Wakefield 's tracts on colonisation to Wordsworth 's preface to Lyrical Ballads . The New Zealand histories written in the interwar period were parts of complex intertextual networks that traversed the boundaries between past and present They complicate the bromide that every 'generation' writes its own history. And if historical texts cannot be satisfactorily explained only in terms of their authors or a 'contemporary' ideology, nor can other texts. If this study has a 'moral' beyond the history of history in interwar New Zealand, it is that an awareness of intertextuality complicates, and thus enriches, the study of texts and contexts, culture and ideology.

1 References will be given only for passages not quoted or discussed in previous chapters.

2 Scholefield, 'Autobiography', p. 209.

3 Hight and Bamford, Constitutional History and Law , p. 35.

4 Olssen, History of Otago , p. 173; Dulcie N. Gillespie-Needham , 'The Colonial and His Books: A Study of Reading in Nineteenth Century New Zealand', PhD thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 1971, pp. 102, 174; Mulgan, Home , pp. 7-8; E. H. McCormick , 'Appendix C: Results of Correspondence', in McCormick, 'An Essay in Cultural Criticism', pp. xxxv-xxxvii. The pages referred to in McCormick's MLitt thesis are the results of a survey (inspired by the work of Q. D. Leavis ) on contemporary reading tastes. It draws on questionnaires and information elicited from public librarians.

5 Lydia Wevers , The Short Story', in Sturm, ed., Oxford History of New Zealand Literature , p. 222.

6 Cowan to Lawlor, 30 October 1934; Cowan to Lawlor, 2 May 1938, Lawlor MSS L418 N, folder 1.

7 Mulgan, Making of a New Zealander , p. 85.

8 Cowan, 'New Zealand History: Its Teaching and Its Uses', p. 56.

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Geography. Australia’s and New Zealand’s Conflicts Essay

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Australia and New Zealand, in terms of similarities, are two counties that have a lot in common. The foundation of the two countries as colonies has set a similar start, almost identical in terms of what could have made these countries united. However, the subsequent different paths of development showed many differences that outlined the initial differences that were present in the countries background that was not so apparent at first. This essay addresses the issue of differences between those two countries in the context of the contrasts in indigenous as well as immigrant cultures, divergent policies, and practices.

Prior to starting the differences between the two countries, the apparent common factors should be mentioned. The first factor is the geographical position, as the two countries are positioned in the same part of the world, where the first apparent difference is the area, as Australia is a large country that occupies a whole continent with the same name, whereas New Zealand is an island country consisting of two major island and many smaller ones. Despite sharing a close position on the world map, the environment of the two countries is rather different where New Zealand is predominantly mountainous with some large coastal plains, and Australia is mostly a low plateau with deserts; fertile plain in the southeast. “(CIA, 2008 The World Fact Book)

Another apparent similarity is the foundation of both countries as an attempt for Great Britain to expand its empire. However, the form of colonization is somewhat different as Australia was a convict colony, and due to the fact that Australia was colonized 50 years earlier than New Zealand, it cannot be said that New Zealand was settled by convicts as mostly it was the place where “a handful of absconders, traders, whalers and sealers and, of course, missionaries ventured” (Mclean 2)

If talking about the indigenous population differences, at the present time, according to the CIA factbook, the aboriginal population in Australia is approximately 1% of 20 million of the overall population, and in New Zealand, this ratio is shown in 7.9% Maori of 4 million of the overall population.

Talking about the indigenous population, it should be mentioned that both the Maori and Aborigine, in addition to the different apparent ratio that they have in the two countries they are different in almost every aspect of history, language, culture, and social organization.

“Maoris have heavily imprinted themselves on the character of New Zealand, whereas Aborigines have not in respect of modern Australia. These issues have profound consequences for further development of the relationship between the two countries.” (Mclean 2)

The existence of monoculture in the Maori race, i.e., one language, one tradition in contrast to the multi-cultural Aborigines who have more than 250 languages and many cultural differences, made the Maori more prominent in New Zealand society. This is shown through the fact that “Maori is an official language of New Zealand. It is taught in schools, used in government departments, and broadcast on television. New Zealand also has a Maori monarch, and a Maori war dance is performed before rugby games. Finally, Maori tattoos are used as a form of tribal expression.” (Australia versus New Zealand, 2008)

In the same context, Australia is behind in its relations to the minority indigenous people, and not only due to the multi-culture of the Aborigines. Such factors as life expectancy, infant mortality, household income, being victims of violence, and sexual abuse are forming a large gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous people in Australia. “Australia compares badly to other similar countries in terms of the ongoing treatment of its Indigenous peoples. In Canada and New Zealand, for example, there have been massive improvements in areas of disadvantage like life expectancy. In these countries, the gap between how long Indigenous and non-Indigenous people live has narrowed from about 20 years to 7 years. This shows that real change is possible – and Australia could do a lot better.” (About Indigenous Australia, 2007)

Another difference that could be outlined is the strategic thinking that was obvious almost since the European settlement. “New Zealand the more committed to the idea of One Empire, One Navy, and Australia moving steadily towards the establishment of its own navy within the Imperial system.” This difference is rather evident in the political relationship of the two countries toward establishing regional concerns. (Mclean 2)

The social dispute between the two countries has also made a contribution in forming the differences in the political system of the two countries. These differences address such issues as compulsory and voluntary voting, preferential voting, first-past-the-post, and a proportional voting system, having a senate or not, and the reservation of seats for particular social groups (Maori); however, in both countries, the queen of England is the head of the state.

The last difference obviously results from the different relations of the government to the minority indigenous people, which are mentioned earlier. (Australia versus New Zealand, 2008)

Despite the differences, one mutual aspect between the Maori and the Aborigines is the “land claims” aspect. In New Zealand, the initial regulations were in a single treaty, the Treaty of Waitangi that was signed in 1840 between Maori and the British Crown. “The Maori have struggled to redress these wrongs ever since and finally achieved success with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi Act in 1975, which established a Commission to hear Maori claims for recent breaches of the Treaty. A further amendment in 1985 allowed claims to be heard back to the original signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.” ( Anderson 2006 The Indigenous Land…)

In Australia, the regulations concerning land claims were described first in Aboriginal Land Rights Act in 1976. This Act, along with the Native Title Act (NTA) and National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT), was the regulatory law in land claims issues. “The NNTT’s goal is to foster agreements between parties in the hopes that they will reach a resolution outside of court. The NNTT is also responsible for mediating between native title claimants and mining companies seeking to establish grants and exploratory licenses on land subject to native title claims. Whereas agriculture and grazing are no longer as profitable, Australia’s mineral resources are an enormous source of potential wealth for corporations, their stockholders, and the government.” (Wood, Aboriginal Land Rights)

Reviewing the differences between Australia and New Zealand, it becomes obvious that the two countries have a lot in common. However, major contributions to establishing the differences have been made by two vital factors, which are the history of the settlement and the relationship with the indigenous minorities. Another issue is the self-identity of Australian and New Zealanders that makes them distinguish themselves from each other even in common issues such as land claims.

Central Intelligence Agency. The World Fact Book. 2008. Web.

De Blij, H.J. and Muller Peter O. Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 12th Edition. : Wiley, 2005.

Mclean, Denis. “AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND: Two Hearts Not Beating as One.” New Zealand International Review 26.1 (2001): 2.

Reconciliation Network. About Indigenous Australia. 2007. Web.

Wood, Sandy. Aboriginal Land Rights in Australia. Web.

Convict Creations. Australia versus New Zealand . 2008. Web.

Anderson, Robert B & B. Corinne. The Indigenous Land Claims in New Zealand and Canada: From Grievance to Enterprise. 2006. Web.

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J.K. Rowling says in new book of essays that loved ones begged her to keep trans views private

J .K. Rowling has revealed in a new book of essays that her loved ones had tried to persuade her to keep her views on transgender women to herself.

The Harry Potter author has contributed to an essay collection, "The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht", and in an extract published in The Times said that “people around me, including some I love, were begging me not to speak.”

“So I watched from the sidelines as women with everything to lose rallied, in Scotland and across the UK, to defend their rights. My guilt that I wasn’t standing with them was with me daily, like a chronic pain.”

Rowling has caused repeated controversy with her stance on trans rights, having shared numerous statements condemned as transphobic stemming back to 2020. She has been met with strong backlash in recent years over her claims that trans women “are not women” and her statemennt that she would rather go to jail than refer to a trans person by their preferred pronouns.

In the extract from "The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht" – a title which refers to a slogan used by so-called ‘gender critical’ activists in Scotland - Rowling also hits out at the double standards of friends who have rushed to criticise her views on transgender rights. The author said she had been surprised by colleagues who had condemned her views in public, only for them to email her privately to remain friends.

“People who’d worked with me rushed to distance themselves from me or to add their public condemnation of my blasphemous views,” she wrote. “In truth, the condemnation of certain individuals was far less surprising to me than the fact that some of them then emailed me, or sent messages through third parties, to check that we were still friends.”

Rowling went on to add that “those appalled by my position often fail to grasp how truly despicable I find theirs. I’ve watched ‘no debate’ become the slogan of those who once posed as defenders of free speech. I’ve witnessed supposedly progressive men arguing that women don’t exist as an observable biological class and don’t deserve biology-based rights.”

The author did not name names.

However, Rowling has had public disagreements with those who worked with her on the Harry Potter movies in recent years.

Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have all spoken out against her views and defended transgender women and men.

Earlier this month, Radcliffe told The Atlantic that Rowling’s views “make me really sad”, adding: “Because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.”

Rowling previously said that she wouldn’t forgive the Harry Potter stars who have criticised her views.

“Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces,” she wrote on X/Twitter.

"The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht" is released today (Thursday 30 May) and is a collection of more than 30 essays and photographs from women in Scotland who claim to be on “the frontline of the battle for women’s rights”. It includes the views of women who are opposed to the Scottish government’s gender reform plans, who argue that the proposals infringe on women’s safety.

Labour’s Peeni Henare calls for Government to take action on New Zealand Rugby’s civil war in Budget 2024

Bonnie Jansen

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Labour’s sports and recreation spokesman Peeni Henare is calling on the Government to show leadership over the New Zealand Rugby (NZR) civil war .

Eight months on from the Pilkington Review’s damning report , rugby’s warring factions appear no closer to reaching a unified solution on the best way to tackle the game’s many pressing and vexed problems.

Henare, who’s taken up the portfolio from former Deputy Prime Minister and Sports Minister Grant Robertson, told the Herald it’s noted when there’s unrest in Aotearoa’s national game.

“It has far-reaching ramifications and even as a politician, it affects the mood of our country when now our rugby union isn’t in a good shape,” he told the Herald.

“It’s important that we don’t have a protracted drawn-out process and arbitration between the NZRU and the Players’ Association.

“If there was a role for the Government to perhaps play as an arbitrator or as a medium between the two factions – but more importantly where if the Government provides direction for the future of the way it looks towards sport and recreation that might go some way to making sure [how] rugby and other sports see themselves in our future.”

On Thursday, New Zealand Rugby will hold a special general meeting , to vote on its governance structure , after the Pilkington Review found the current model not fit-for-purpose.

The New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association, most of the NZR board, Super Rugby Pacific and Aupiki franchises, New Zealand Rugby Commercial, the New Zealand Māori Rugby Board and some provincial unions are supporting what is called the Review Proposal.

There is then a cohort of provincial unions supporting a second proposal, known as Proposal 2, that sees the same thing but with more experience on a provincial board.

On the same day as the rugby vote, the Government will reveal its first Budget, which Henare said should be used as an opportunity to tackle the anarchy.

“There’s lots of moving parts at the moment in sports and some challenging areas,” Henare continued.

“[The] New Zealand Rugby union, for example, is going through some challenges with its Players’ Association and a few other spaces where we’re looking to continue to support participation and diversity in sport and sometimes many of those things take money and I think the Budget is a good chance if the Government’s of a mind to draw a line under what they see [as] important.”

Henare referenced Hurricanes Poua and the haka they performed early in the Super Rugby Aupiki season calling out the current Government, saying it was symptomatic of the dispute between the rugby union and the Players’ Association.

“Maybe that’s a sign of just how big the divide is here when our players who are professionals want to be heard they want to utilise their platform to support a cause whatever it might be.

“They should feel free to be able to do that and what better way to do it than to do it on the battleground that they do that they enter in on every weekend and every sporting game.

“[Sportspeople,] they’re often political by nature and I congratulate those wāhine for standing up... and with respect to any of its fallout, it’s up to the rugby union and those players to be able to work through that.”

Minister for Sport and Recreation Chris Bishop told the Herald it’s a matter for the rugby community.

“I hope the matter is resolved quickly and the focus returns to leading, growing and promoting rugby from the community game through to their representative teams in black.”

Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast . She’s equally passionate about women’s sport and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.

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Writing in an academic context is different from writing in other situations. Academic writing follows specific conventions of structure, style, and content, and your marker will expect to see these conventions in your assignments. This section describes academic writing, and suggests ways to plan and proofread your assignment so that it meets the expectations of tertiary study.

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Specific types of assignment (for example, essays, reports, and literature reviews) have their own expectations, and these are described in the section on assignment types .

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For a broader understanding of honesty in assignment writing, see Academic Integrity .

For information on academic writing at postgraduate level, see the introduction to postgraduate study .

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The Ethicist

Can i use a.i. to grade my students’ papers.

The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on artificial intelligence platforms, and whether it’s hypocritical for teachers to use these tools while forbidding students from doing the same.

By Kwame Anthony Appiah

I am a junior-high-school English teacher. In the past school year, there has been a significant increase in students’ cheating on writing assignments by using artificial intelligence. Our department feels that 13-year-old students will only become better writers if they practice and learn from the successes and challenges that come with that.

Recently our department tasked students with writing an argumentative essay, an assignment we supported by breaking down the process into multiple steps. The exercise took several days of class time and homework to complete. All of our students signed a contract agreeing not to use A.I. assistance, and parents promised to support the agreement by monitoring their children when they worked at home. Yet many students still used A.I.

Some of our staff members uploaded their grading rubric into an A.I.-assisted platform, and students uploaded their essays for assessment. The program admittedly has some strengths. Most notable, it gives students writing feedback and the opportunity to edit their work before final submission. The papers are graded within minutes, and the teachers are able to transfer the A.I. grade into their roll book.

I find this to be hypocritical. I spend many hours grading my students’ essays. It’s tedious work, but I feel that it’s my responsibility — if a student makes an effort to complete the task, they should have my undivided attention during the assessment process.

Here’s where I struggle: Should I embrace new technology and use A.I.-assisted grading to save time and my sanity even though I forbid my students from using it? Is it unethical for teachers to ask students not to use A.I. to assist their writing but then allow an A.I. platform to grade their work? — Name Withheld

From the Ethicist:

You have a sound rationale for discouraging your students from using A.I. to draft their essays. As with many other skills, writing well and thinking clearly will improve through practice. By contrast, you already know how to grade papers; you don’t need the practice.

What matters is whether an A.I.-assisted platform can reliably appraise and diagnose your students’ writing, providing the explanation and guidance these students need to improve. In theory, such tools — and I see that there are several on the market, including from major educational publishers — have certain advantages. The hope is that they can grade without inconsistency, without getting tired, without being affected by the expectations that surely affect those of us who hand-grade student work.

I notice you haven’t raised concerns about whether the platform provides reliable assessments; you’ll have to decide if it does. (If it isn’t quite up to snuff, it might become so in a year or two, so your question will persist.) Provided the platform does a decent job of assessment, though, I don’t see why you must do it all yourself. You should review the A.I.-annotated versions of your students’ writing, check that you agree with the output, and make notes of issues to bring up in class. But time saved in evaluating the papers might be better spent on other things — and by “better,” I mean better for the students. There are pedagogical functions, after all, that only you can perform.

In sum: It’s not hypocritical to use A.I. yourself in a way that serves your students well, even as you insist that they don’t use it in a way that serves them badly.

Readers Respond

The previous question was from a reader who asked about professional boundaries. He wrote: “I am a retired, married male psychiatrist. A divorced female former patient of mine contacted me recently, 45 years after her treatment ended. Would it be OK to correspond with her by email? Or is this a case of ‘once a patient, always a patient?’”

In his response, the Ethicist noted: “The relevant professional associations tend to have strictures that are specifically about sexual relationships with former patients. … In light of the potential for exploitation within the therapist-patient relationship, these rules are meant to maintain clear boundaries, protect patient welfare, uphold the integrity of the profession and eliminate any gray areas that could lead to ethical breaches. But though you do mention her marital status, and yours, you’re just asking about emailing her — about establishing friendly relations. The question for you is whether she might be harmed by this, whether whatever knowledge or trust gained from your professional relationship would shadow a personal one. Yes, almost half a century has elapsed since your professional relationship, but you still have to be confident that a correspondence with her clears this bar. If it does, you may email with a clear conscience.” ( Reread the full question and answer here. )

As always, I agree with the Ethicist. I would add that the letter writer’s former patient doesn’t realize that the therapist is actually two different people — the professional and the regular person underneath. Therapists portray their professional selves to their clients. The former client may be disappointed upon meeting the therapist outside of the professional context. Additionally, the feelings she has toward the therapist may be based on transference, and they would need to address that. — Annemarie

I am a clinical psychologist. While the Ethicist’s description of professional ethical boundaries is correct, there is more to the story, and I disagree with his conclusion. A very big question here is why this former patient contacted him after 45 years. That is a question that is best explored and answered within the context of a therapeutic relationship. He would be well- advised to respond in a kind and thoughtful way to convey the clear message that he is not available for ongoing communication, and he should suggest that she consult with another therapist if she feels that would be helpful. — Margaret

In my case, it was the therapist who reached out to me, seeking to establish a friendship several years after our sessions ended. I was surprised, but he shared that he had since experienced a similar personal tragedy to one I had explored with him in sessions. Since it had been several years since we saw each other professionally, I responded. There was never any hint of romantic or sexual interest. Still, as he continued to reach out to me, clearly desiring a friendship, it never felt right to me. It did feel unprofessional, as his knowledge of me was borne out of a relationship meant to be professional, never personal, as warmly as we might have felt during our sessions. I ended up being disappointed in him for seeking out my friendship. — Liam

I am a (semi)retired psychiatrist who has been practicing since 1974. In my opinion, “once a patient, always a patient” is correct. Establishing any type of personal relationship with a former patient could undo progress the patient may have made in treatment, and is a slippery slope toward blatantly unethical behavior. As psychiatrists, our responsibility is to work with patients in confronting and resolving issues that are preventing them from having a reality-based perception of their life. With such an outlook, they are more capable of establishing satisfying relationships with others. An ethical psychiatrist is not in the business of providing such satisfaction to his or her patients. — Roger

I think there is a difference between being friendly and being friends with a former client. As someone who used to attend therapy with a therapist I think dearly of, she made it clear to me that it was OK to send her emails with life updates after our therapeutic relationship ended. But beyond that, I think it would be inappropriate and uncomfortable to pursue a friendship with her, and vice versa, because of the patient-provider relationship that we previously had and the power dynamic that existed between us. The letter writer didn’t share the content of the email his former patient sent to him, but if it’s just a friendly life update, I think it’s fine to write back and thank her for sharing. Beyond that, I feel like it would be unprofessional to meet or pursue a deeper relationship. — Meghan

Kwame Anthony Appiah is The New York Times Magazine’s Ethicist columnist and teaches philosophy at N.Y.U. His books include “Cosmopolitanism,” “The Honor Code” and “The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity.” To submit a query: Send an email to [email protected]. More about Kwame Anthony Appiah

Trump verdict will not affect his 2024 election chances

Former President Donald Trump after he was found guilty on 34 felony counts at Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday. Credit: AP/Seth Wenig

This guest essay reflects the views of Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He wrote this for the Tribune News Service.

Former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records in New York is an ignoble first. No former president has ever been tried, much less found guilty, for felonies before.

But Trump’s new status as a convicted felon probably won’t significantly affect his chances of winning the 2024 presidential election.

That, too is a strange historic first: a presidential candidate convicted of felonies, but suffering little if any political damage in the process.

However sensational the charges, which stemmed from hush money payments made to an adult film actress, many voters will react to the Manhattan jury’s decision with a shrug.

The conviction won’t prevent him from staying in the race until election day. If he wins, he stands a good chance of avoiding serious penalties while he’s in the White House.

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It won’t be easy to spin a conviction on 34 felony counts as a victory, but there are plenty of ways Trump can mitigate the consequences.

He’ll continue to claim that the charges were flimsy and the process was rigged against him.

If he appeals the verdict, as expected, that will allow him to argue — correctly — that a conviction isn’t final while it’s under challenge. Not incidentally, it will also keep him out of jail, at least for a while.

Why do I say the guilty verdict won’t likely put much of a dent in Trump’s electoral prospects? Because that’s what the smartest political pollsters, Republicans and Democrats, say.

Democratic strategist Mark Mellman said the conviction was “unlikely to play a significant role” in the election. “It’s possible that the polls will flutter and then return to where they were. And it’s possible that there won’t be a flutter.”

Republican pollster Whit Ayres said the verdict’s impact would most likely be “negligible.”

In an ABC News/IPSOS poll last month, only 16% of Trump’s current voters said they would “reconsider” supporting him if he were convicted in the New York case. A mere 4% said they would definitely stop supporting him. But voters are often poor predictors of their own reactions, the pollsters said.

Many Democrats told pollsters in 1998 that they thought then-President Clinton should resign if he were impeached for lying about a sexual relationship with a White House intern, Mellman noted. But when the Republican-led House of Representatives actually impeached Clinton, his popularity soared.

Trump voters have proved fiercely loyal to their favored candidate, felon or not.

A month before the 2016 presidential election, when a videotape surfaced in which Trump boasted of kissing women without asking and grabbing them “by the pussy,” his poll numbers dropped by only one percentage point and rebounded quickly.

“We have seen, over eight years, a series of events that caused people to say, ‘Surely this time, Trump will lose support.’ But he never really does,” Ayres said.

Trump himself has marveled at the phenomenon. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” he said in 2016. “It’s, like, incredible.”

The presumptive Republican nominee has primed his supporters to ignore a guilty verdict by relentlessly attacking the cases against him as politically motivated.

“If I were trying to design a court case that would be easy for Republicans to dismiss as a partisan witch hunt, I would design the New York case,” Ayres said, noting that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is not only a Democrat, but a vocal Trump critic.

Trump has also shown that constant repetition of even bogus claims can bend public opinion his way.

Case in point: his false claims, long since disproved, that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. A year ago, the Monmouth University Poll found that 68% of Republicans said they believed President Joe Biden won the election through fraud. This year, after Trump spent months denouncing the election at campaign rallies, that number has ticked up to 75%.

Despite the verdict in New York, Trump has scored an important victory in all four of his criminal cases: He and his lawyers, aided by a dose of luck, have succeeded in postponing any final reckoning until after election day.

Six months ago, any of the cases could have threatened his presidential campaign: a federal prosecution stemming from his supporters’ invasion of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; a federal case on charges he illegally retained highly classified documents; a Georgia election interference case; and the New York business fraud case.

Trump has contrived to postpone the trials in three of those cases and will likely appeal his verdict in the fourth. The appeals process would last far beyond the election.

Those delays won’t make the charges go away.

But if Trump wins the election, once he is president he can order the Justice Department to halt the two federal cases. Some career Justice Department officials might refuse to carry out those orders, but a newly inaugurated president will presumably be able to find — or appoint — someone willing to do his bidding.

And under most legal precedent, state courts would put his prosecutions in New York and Georgia on hold while he’s in the White House. If he takes office in January and completes a full term, none of the cases would be decided before 2029, when he’ll be 82.

Being the first former president ever convicted on criminal charges is a dubious achievement, to be sure.

Equally unprecedented — and potentially more damaging to democracy — Trump has given future politicians a dangerous example: He has shown that felony convictions need not stand in the way of success.

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12 graduates awarded library prizes for best senior essays

Each year, the library invites Yale College seniors to submit their senior essays for consideration to win one of three prizes for excellence: the Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award, the Diane Kaplan Memorial Prize, and the Yale Library Map Prize. The winners are selected by librarians or faculty members, and the prizes are funded by Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The prizewinners are each awarded a cash prize in the amount of $500 (honorable mention recipients receive $250), and all winners’ essays are published on EliScholar, Yale Library’s digital platform for scholarly publishing. As is the tradition, students receive their awards at their residential commencement ceremonies.

The Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

The Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award recognizes a student whose senior essay or capstone project substantially draws on national government information or intergovernmental organization (IGO) information, including documents or data. Yale Library has been a designated federal depository library since 1859.

The Applebaum award was presented to Henry H. Carroll , Davenport College, for the essay “Ship Shaping: How Congress and Industry Influenced U.S. Naval Acquisitions from 1933—1938.” Read Henry Carroll’s essay .

Honorable mention was awarded to Nina Grigg , Benjamin Franklin College, for the essay “Surveyor: Scratching for a Wild Moon.” Read Nina Grigg’s essay .

The Diane Kaplan Memorial Prize

The Diane Kaplan Memorial Prize recognizes prizewinning students’ excellent use of research materials from the library’s diverse collections and also the high quality of their writing.

Three students received the Diane Kaplan prize this year:

Leo Egger , Trumbull College, for the essay “‘Living Its Strange Life’: A Literary Biography of Margery Latimer from the Archives in 18 Scenes.” Read Leo Egger’s essay .

AJ Laird , Benjamin Franklin College, for the essay “Whaling Logbooks: Colonial Knowledge Acquisition in the Pacific World.” Read AJ Laird’s essay and visit the related exhibit in Sterling Memorial Library exhibition corridor.

Shira Minsk , Pauli Murray College, for the essay “Steady through Time: Ella Barksdale Brown and the Perception-Based Politics of Black Women’s Racial Uplift in 20th-Century America.” Read Shira Minsk’s essay .

The Library Map Prize

The Library Map Prize recognizes students whose senior essays or projects make use of one or more maps or charts in substantive ways. Students may either create the maps or refer to maps found online or in the library’s special collections.

This year the Map Prize was awarded to two seniors:

Lisa Dong , Pierson College, for the interactive StoryMap essay “So, Where Are Your Really From?: A Digital Humanities Repository Mapping ‘Home, Identity, and Belonging’ within the Intimacies of the Fuzhounese Experience.” View Lisa Dong’s web-based essay .

Nick McGowan , Pauli Murray College, for the essay “Rebirth: Investigating Industrial Gentrification and the Land Use Policy in Chicago’s West Loop.” Read Nick McGowan’s essay .

The Department of History Prizes

The library also stewards the funds for three American History prizes, selected by faculty members in the Department of History. This year, five prizes were awarded for best senior essays.

Julia Aerin Hornstein , Ezra Stiles College, won the Howard R. Lamar Prize for the essay “Charles ‘Minnie’ Dole: The Peak of Masculinity and the Frontier of Western Snow”; AJ Laird , Benjamin Franklin College, won a David M. Potter Prize for “Whaling Logbooks: Colonial Knowledge Acquisition in the Pacific World”; Sydney Zoehrer , Silliman College, won a David Morris Potter Prize for the essay “Adobe: Material Histories at a Crossroads in Marfa, Texas; Hilary B. Griggs , Branford College, won a Walter McClintock Prize for the essay “Does a Man’s Word or a Nation’s Word Ever Become Obsolete?’: Fighting the Floodwaters on the Fort Berthold Reservation”; Teanna Hart (Sicangu Lakota), Silliman College, won a Walter McClintock Prize for the essay “Reconciliation Is Not Enough: Looking and/as Speaking Back at Portrayals of the American Indian”; and Taylor Rose won the Frederick W. Beinecke Dissertation Prize for the essay “Battle Born: Mining, Militarization, and Native Lands in the Nevada Desert, 1860–1990.”

Read more about the three Library Prizes and other Undergraduate Student Prizes. Read more about the History prizes.

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