An essay in history is a short analytical overview or explanatory, interpretive study of a historical topic or issue.

The most common essaypay.com types of essays are:
Free essay - the author freely, of his or her own volition, presents his or her own opinion on a historical topic or issue.
Argumentative essay.
 
Essay writing requires:
Broad and deep knowledge.
The ability to analyse, select the necessary facts and arguments.
The ability to plan and organise the material logically.
Ability to make reasoned judgements and draw conclusions.
An argumentative essay is usually written when it is necessary to support or refute a claim.
A claim may:
Reasonably agree;
Reasonably disagree;
Develop the problem further.
 
You must defend your chosen position with 3 arguments. Each argument must be supported by at least 3 sentences: the first sentence must state the argument, the second and third must support it. Finally, a conclusion should be drawn by summarising the thoughts of all 3 arguments.
 
Reasonably agreeing:
Support the statement with your own knowledge, experience, facts, scientific opinions.
Refute possible counter-arguments.
Reasonably disagreeing: 
Counter-arguments must challenge the credibility of the claim.
The claim may be accepted but its limitations should be pointed out.
The claim must be analysed in relation to scientific knowledge, facts.
Developing the problem further:
 Additional aspects to be addressed should be identified.
Point out the inconsistency of the statement with the requirements of logic, with certain regularities. 
 
Typical arguments:
Factual arguments. Fact - a true, unconceived occurrence, event, experience, which corresponds to reality. A thesis is supported by logically linking it to an indisputable fact. If a fact is used that points to only 1 isolated event, the argument is not convincing.
Authoritative argument. The thesis is supported by reference to a well-established, widely accepted authority that has expressed a similar or exactly similar view.
Normative argument. Normative - that which establishes a norm, standard, principle or law. A thesis is justified by logically relating it to a general or widely accepted scale of values (norms).
Analogical argument. Analogy is a form of inference in which the similarity of one feature of two objects is used to infer the similarity of other features of those objects. The thesis is supported by choosing an example from another area of life.
An indirect argument. An indirect argument is one that operates or manifests itself in a hidden, imperceptible way. A thesis is supported by trying to show that opposing views are false, unrealistic, etc. With indirect arguments, the thesis may initially appear to be justified, but it is not justified in a logical and convincing way.
 
Essay structure:
Introduction (a brief statement of the proposition to be proved), 1 paragraph. Formulate the main questions or issues, outline the main hypothesis, the scope and sequence of the argument. A weak introduction destroys any interest in the work, a good one attracts attention.
Discussion (statement of claims, evidence and examples, conclusions) (e.g. 3 paragraphs). Combine narrative with analysis, showing your ability to think and draw conclusions independently. If quotations are used, they should be brief and relevant to the topic, and note from which source they are taken. Quotations usually illustrate the point but rarely prove it. Judgement is based on evidence. Be concise and clear and avoid unnecessary generalisation. Do not use jargon, colloquial expressions. Observe spelling.
Conclusion (summary of conclusions and findings, proving the assertion made in the introduction). Must give a clear answer to the essay question. Conclusions, summary.
 
Criteria for assessing the essay:
Content - specific, persuasive, relevant, creative, comprehensible
Opinion - clear, coherent
Essay layout - logical, coherent, cohesive, fit for purpose, directed towards conclusions
Paragraph layout - structure of different paragraphs, indentation
Style - interesting, imaginative, expression appropriate to the content
Sentence structure - logical, complete, skilful use of different sentence structures (parallelism, contrast, repetition, exclamation)
Vocabulary - appropriate to the topic, language - precise, lively, imaginative
Grammar - observance of grammatical rules (punctuation, spelling of words).