Research
To write a successful history essay, students should choose a topic that they are interested in learning a lot more about. Students should choose the best sources available and get as close to the actual events as possible. The sky is the limit on research! If you are interested in a topic, you many end up writing a dissertation about it someday in graduate school. This happened to me.

Writing
The answer to the research question should be stated in the first paragraph of the essay as a thesis statement (also known as the argument or guiding statement). This should be followed by a topic sentence that provides the reader an outline. The topic sentence is about three main points. There are also some tricks, such as beginning with the weakest material, and leading to the strongest toward he end of the essay. 

Use of Sources
In addition to getting as close to the events as possible, students should be careful to cite sources they have used and not plagiarize the work of others.