I thought you may have meant June 30th, in which case you have plenty of time to prepare.
....
Without the slave trade, the Industrial Revolution wouldn't have happened?
Do you see that what your essay title is actually asking you to do is look at
all the reasons why the Industrial Revolution took place in Britain and then decide whether the slave trade was so important that the Ind. Rev. couldn't have taken place without it?
I assume that the work you have done in class on this topic means that you already have a list of reasons for the Industrial Revolution? (eg. money available for investment, raw materials needed for industrial development - coal and iron ore, men 'with 'enterprise' willing to take risks with new ideas, a growing population
etc)
I also assume that you understand
why the slave trade was one of the things that made the Ind. Rev. possible? (briefly: British merchants and plantation owners made a great deal of profit out of the slave trade and thus had money that they could invest in developing industries - textiles, coal mining, iron and steel etc. They also already had trading contacts in various parts of the world that meant importing raw materials such as cotton and exporting manufactured goods was easy.)
I suggest that in the coming week before the test you make an essay plan and that in the 10 minutes you will be allowed before you write the essay that you look at this carefully to remind yourself of what you are going to write.
Your plan should have:
1. An Introduction - a
short paragraph in which you start by writing a one sentence answer to the question (eg. "
The Industrial Revolution could have happened without the slave trade"*) and then go on very briefly to explain that there are
several reasons for the Industrial Revolution all of which
worked together and that your essay is going to consider them all.
* Of course this opening sentence will need to be what
you think. I'd have thought you could probably learn this paragraph off by heart before the test so that you can make a really quick beginning.
2. Main Body of the essay:
- This needs to be several paragraphs long.
- Each paragraph needs to be about one of the reasons why the Ind. Rev. happened. When you are doing your planning try to put these paragraphs into a logical order. Make sure that you begin each para. with a sentence that links what you are going to say directly to the question. (Eg. "The slave trade was important in helping the Industrial Revolution to happen, but it was not the only reason, nor was it the most important" ... and then go on to explain how the slave trade helped.)
- You need to explain how that reason helped and say how important you think that factor was.
- You will need to give factual information from your research to back up what you say.
I wouldn't pratice writing the main body of the essay out in full before the test if I were you, but I
would plan in advance what the opening sentence of each paragraph was going to be and to have thought through what I intended to say.
3. Conclusion. This is where you sum up your argument in a few sentences. Obviously it needs to be a logical conclusion to everything you have said earlier. Again, you could practice what you intend to say before the test.
Making a detailed plan in advance like this should help to make sure that you tackle the test with confidence and that you are able to do your very best in the time allowed.
I can find you web sites about the Slave Trade and about the Industrial Revolution, but these are mainly factual description and will actually waste a lot of your time. What your essay needs to be is one that concentrates on explanation and analysis rather than lots of descriptive detail. My best suggestion is that you go carefully through all the notes you have already made as I expect you already have what you need.
I hope that helps? Do post again if you need more help.
PS. Do remember how anxious you were earlier in the year about your Y8 exams and how well you did then. That should give you confidence this time.
