How to write a strong Economics essay

Most students lose essay marks for the same reason. They know the economics, but they write everything they know instead of answering the question in front of them. This guide gives you a plan you can use on any 20-mark essay in 9708.

Know which paper you are in

On Paper 2 at AS Level, Section B is a microeconomics essay and Section C is a macroeconomics essay. You answer one from each, and each is worth 20 marks. Both are split into two parts, usually 8 marks and 12 marks.

On Paper 4 at A Level, Sections B and C work the same way, but the essays are not split into parts. You get one 20-mark question and a blank page.

That difference changes how you write. A part question tells you where to stop. An unsplit essay does not, so you have to build the structure yourself.

What the marks are for

In both papers the marks are spread roughly like this: about a third for knowledge and understanding, a bit over a third for analysis, and about 30 per cent for evaluation.

Read that again, because it decides how you spend your time. Nearly a third of the marks sit in evaluation, and evaluation is the part students run out of time for. Definitions matter, but they are not where the marks are.

The plan

Spend two or three minutes planning. Write four or five words for each paragraph in the margin. It feels like lost time and it is not.

• Define the key terms from the question. One sentence each, no more. If the question says price ceiling, define price ceiling.
• Set out the main argument. Explain it in steps, with each step causing the next one.
• Draw a diagram if one fits, and refer to it in your writing.
• Give the other side. A second argument, a limit on the first one, or a case where it does not hold.
• Finish with a judgement that answers the actual question.

Analysis means chains, not lists

Analysis marks come from linked steps. A list of separate facts is not analysis.

Weak: a subsidy lowers costs and increases output.

Better: a subsidy is a payment to producers, so the cost of making each unit falls, so supply shifts right, so the equilibrium price falls and the equilibrium quantity rises, so more consumers can afford the good.

Notice the word so doing the work. Each step should follow from the one before it. Three or four linked steps is usually enough.

Use your diagram properly

The syllabus encourages clearly labelled diagrams, and they are quick marks. Label both axes, label every curve, and mark the before and after positions.

Then actually use it. Write a sentence that points at it. Something like: as the diagram shows, supply shifts from S1 to S2, so the price falls from P1 to P2. A diagram that sits on the page with nothing said about it earns very little.

Evaluation is not a last paragraph

Plenty of students write eleven minutes of theory and then add but it depends at the end. That does not score.

Evaluation means weighing things up as you go, and then reaching a judgement. Useful moves:

• Question the size. Is the effect big or small, and what does that depend on?
• Question the time. What happens in the short run, and is the long run different?
• Question the assumption. Does the argument rely on other things staying equal, and are they likely to?
• Ask who gains and who loses. Consumers, producers, workers, the government, people on low incomes.
• Compare it with the alternative. Would a different policy do the job better?

Writing the judgement

A judgement is not a summary. Do not spend your last paragraph repeating what you already said.

A good judgement does three things. It answers the question directly. It says what the answer depends on. And it justifies itself with something you argued earlier, not with something new.

Here is the shape: overall, a maximum price is likely to help consumers in the short run, because it holds the price below equilibrium. Whether it helps in the long run depends on how producers respond, since the shortage grows if supply falls. On balance it works better as a temporary measure than as a permanent one.

Timing

Both Paper 2 and Paper 4 give you two hours for 60 marks, which works out at about two minutes a mark. So a 20-mark essay gets about 40 minutes, and the data response gets about 40 minutes too.

Inside a 20-mark essay split into 8 and 12, give the 8-mark part about 15 minutes and the 12-mark part about 25. The 12-mark part is where the evaluation marks live, so protect its time.

Things that quietly cost marks

• Writing an introduction that says what you are going to do. Define the terms and start.
• Defining words the question never used.
• Long real world examples with no economics attached.
• Saying it depends without saying what it depends on.
• Running out of time on the last essay. Watch the clock at the halfway point.

In lessons we write these to time, and I mark them against the levels in the mark scheme, so you can see exactly which level your answer is reaching and what is missing from the level above.