Writing a Great Politics Essay: Advice from an Expert

27 April 2026

Learning how to write a great essay is a powerful skill, and develops a tool kit that can also be applied in any number of different tasks when stitching together an argument or narrative. In this post, advice from Dr Ursula Hackett, Royal Holloway, University of London, on how to develop a great essay is summarised by Dr Pete Finn, University of Greenwich.

On February 25th 2026 Dr Ursula Hackett, Reader in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, delivered a talk titled ‘How to write a great Politics essay’ at an event aimed at A-Level students taking part in an essay competition run by the American Politics of the Political Studies Association in collaboration with the Schools Programme of the Financial Times.* Having written a book titled ‘Brilliant Essays‘ (Bloomsbury, 2020), Ursula is expertly placed to provide advice on the topic. Though the talk was aimed at A-Level Politics students, it is fair to say that it is also applicable to students studying for their degree as well.

Below are four key points from Ursula’s talk:

1. Start with: Of what is this a case?

Adopting ‘American exceptionalism’ as a concept to explain how to approach this two part question, Ursula noted that this single term is used in multiple ways including as a political slogan, a foreign policy doctrine, a political stance used to motivate actions, as well as an empirical observation about political development. As such, anyone writing about the term ‘American exceptionalism’ must first decide, and be clear about, which meaning or meanings of the term they are engaging with.

2. Then ask: Compared to what?

Turning to the empirical aspect of an essay, Ursula urged students to think about what one is examining, and what it is being compared to. The logic underpinning this question stems from the fact that, as a political scientist, one needs to move beyond merely describing events, and onto focusing on how theory and conceptual ideas can be used, tested, and developed to better explain events and place them in a broader context.

Using the example question ‘What role does the minority party play in Congress?’, Ursula highlighted that the focus of the answer will depend on where one places emphasis within the question. If, for instance, emphasis is placed on the word minority, then one would likely engage in comparison with the majority party. However, if emphasis is placed on Congress, then one may well end up focusing on comparison with other legislative chambers.

3. Then decide: Is it a typical or telling case?

Next, Ursula urged students to think about the difference between typical and telling cases. Explaining that typical cases can be understood as those allowing one to tease out broad generalisations, whereas telling cases are ones that could be seen as outliers.

Ursula used the question ‘How much power does the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court wield?’ to illustrate the differences between typical and telling cases. She highlighted that it is, perhaps, possible to think of Chief Justice Earl Warren as a telling case as he presided over an era where the US Supreme Court was faced with important questions related to civil rights and the broader structure of US society, as well being an agenda setting opinion writer in his own right. Turning to typical cases, whilst acknowledging that the fact that there have only been 17 chief justices of the US Supreme Court means that it is, perhaps, hard to speak in terms of typical Supreme Court justices, Ursula highlighted various ways that one could group different courts together such as those that have operated at times of national crisis, or those who have been faced with other branches of government that they are ideologically opposed to.

4. Finally, think: Does your evidence relate to easy or hard cases?

To close, Ursula teased out the distinction between easy and hard cases. Easy cases were defined as those that are most likely to confirm our prior ideas and conform to our expectations. Hard cases, meanwhile, were explained by Ursula to be the least likely cases to conform to expectations and to test arguments or hypotheses against.

Both types of cases, Ursula noted, can be used when crafting an essay. If for example, one is unable to confirm that a supposedly easy case backs up your argument, this suggests the argument is, at the least, in need of revision. If, however, one can account for cases that might be thought of as hard or challenging to an argument, then it is likely an argument is relatively strong.

To show the value of the distinction, the essay question ‘How adversarial are relations between Congress and the President?’ was discussed. In terms of an easy case to illustrate that relations between the president and Congress are adversarial, the relationship between Donald Trump and Congress was highlighted; with actions such as the undermining of congressional prerogatives and the refusal to spend funds pointed to. However, looking back to the 1960s, Ursula noted that, despite the need to deal with the segregationist wing of his own Democratic Party at the time, President Lyndon Johnson was able to work with Congress to pass significant legislation such as the great society program that facilitated significant changes in US society. As such, the presidency of Johnson could be utilized to provide a counterpoint for the weight one puts on the adversarial relationship between Trump and congress if current events are placed into a broader historical narrative.

Together, the tips from Ursula can help students develop their arguments while, hopefully, allowing them to remove themselves from a singular focus on the day to day news cycle which can dominate political discussions.

*The inaugural 2025-26 FT-APG A Level Essay Competition is part of a broader A Level engagement project funded via competitive funding from the excellence and impact fund of the Political Studies Association.

Pete Finn is a Lecturer at the University of Greenwich. He is the co-editor of The Official Record: Oversight, National Security and Democracy (Manchester University Press, 2024) and Web Team Lead of the American Politics Group of the Political Studies Association.