How to Actually Write the Enduring Issues Essay Without Losing Points
The Enduring Issues Essay is the last question on the New York Regents Global History exam. It's worth 6 credits, which is roughly 10-15% of your total score depending on how the other parts land. Most students treat it like an afterthought because they're exhausted by question 76. That's exactly why they bomb it. I've proctored and graded these for years. The pattern is boringly consistent. Students who know their stuff still lose points because they don't understand what the rubric is actually looking for. The rubric has three levels: 6 points, 4 points, and 2 points. You need a 6 to be competitive. Here's how you get there.
What Is an Enduring Issues Essay Example Global History and Why the Rubric Hates Vague Answers
An enduring issue is a problem that has happened across time and across cultures. The prompt gives you a list. You pick two or three events from the course content and connect them to one issue on that list. Simple on paper. The grading happens in layers. Level 6 requires: two accurate information bullets from different perspectives, the issue identified correctly, and a comparison that shows the issue persisted across time or between cultures. Level 4 drops one of those requirements. Level 2 is a mess of inaccuracies and basically just listing events without connecting them. The counter-intuitive part most students miss: the examiners don't care about the most famous events. They care about accuracy and perspective. A slightly obscure event you describe correctly with the right context beats a well-known event you get wrong or describe so generically it could apply to anything. I once saw a student write about the Cuban Missile Crisis as if it were a cultural movement rather than a nuclear standoff. The essay had structure but zero accuracy on the event itself. That's a 2-point essay regardless of how pretty the handwriting is.
The Framework That Actually Works Under Time Pressure
Here's what I tell my students to do instead of overthinking it. You have about 35-40 minutes for the whole part, and the EIE gets roughly 20 of those. That's tight. You need a system that doesn't require inspiration. First, circle the enduring issue you want. Pick something you can confidently talk about for two events minimum. Civil liberties and government control. Poverty and wealth inequality. Conflict and cooperation. Environmental degradation and population growth. Pick one. Don't second guess yourself once you pick it. Then fill in this mental template before you write a single sentence:
Get the Full Details
Issue: [your chosen issue]. Event 1: [specific event, date, place]. What happened: [one sentence of factual detail]. Event 2: [different event, different time or region]. What happened: [one sentence]. Connection: [how the issue shows up in both, either similarly or differently]. That's the entire skeleton. Everything else is filler and context. The rubric counts accuracy of information. Two solid bullets from two different events gets you most of the points. The identification of the issue is separate. So identify it in your opening sentence and reiterate it when you compare. I learned this the hard way when a student once wrote about the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution as two completely separate topics. He listed facts from both but never actually connected them back to the enduring issue of civil liberties and government control. He had accurate information but failed the comparison requirement. 4 points instead of 6. That gap is the difference between a B and a C in the final exam section.
Picking Events That Won't Sink You
Some events are safer than others. If you're going to write about something, make sure you know at least three specific details about it. Not general themes. Specifics. Dates, names, places, outcomes. Solid options that almost every student has covered in the course: the Renaissance and Reformation era. The Enlightenment and its political revolutions. Imperialism and resistance movements. World War One and World War Two. The Cold War and decolonization. The Industrial Revolution. The Russian Revolution. The Chinese Communist Revolution. These events appear repeatedly in curriculum materials, which means you've likely encountered them in class already. That's not a coincidence. The exam draws from what you've studied. The events that cause problems are the ones you're only vaguely familiar with. You think you remember something about the Mali Empire but you can't pin down specific details. Don't write about it. You'll fudge a fact and lose points on the accuracy requirement. I've graded essays where the student invented a treaty that never existed. That's a 2-point essay and it's painful to read because the rest of the structure was fine.
The One Paragraph Structure That Gets 6 Points
Don't overcomplicate this. Four paragraphs minimum. Five if you're comfortable with the time. Here's what each one does: Opening paragraph: Identify the enduring issue. State that you will examine how this issue appeared in at least two events. Mention the two events by name. That's it. Three to five sentences. No fluff. Second paragraph: Cover your first event. Give the historical context. Name specific people, dates, or policies. Explain how the enduring issue showed up in that event. One to two paragraphs is enough. Get the facts straight.
Third paragraph: Cover your second event. Same format. Different time period or different region ideally. The rubric likes seeing the issue across time or across cultures. If both events are from the same region and same decade, you're not demonstrating the endurance of the issue. Pick events that are separated in time or geography. Closing paragraph: Compare the two events specifically through the lens of the enduring issue. Show similarity or difference. Reiterate why the issue persisted or changed. Keep it focused. Don't introduce new events here. This is the comparison step that separates a 6 from a 4. I had a student once write her closing paragraph as a summary of everything she'd already said. It added nothing. The examiner marked it down because there was no actual comparison. Just repetition. The difference between summarizing and comparing is small but the rubric treats it as a distinct requirement.
Common Enduring Issues Essay Example Global History Mistakes
Mistake one: writing about only one event. The rubric requires two or more. One event gets you a maximum of 4 points even if everything else is perfect. That's a hard limit built into the scoring. Mistake two: identifying the wrong issue. If you pick conflict and cooperation but then write exclusively about economic inequality, you haven't addressed the issue you claimed. Match your events to your stated issue carefully. The first sentence locks you in. Mistake three: vague events without specifics. Saying "there was a revolution" without naming which one, when, or where counts as weak information. Name the French Revolution. Name the year 1789. Name the storming of the Bastille. Specificity is not optional.
Mistake four: running out of time. Students who spend twenty minutes on the thematic essay at the end of the exam have no time left for the EIE. They write three sentences and call it a day. Those essays score in the 2-point range automatically because they lack the required content. Manage your time from the beginning. The EIE deserves equal attention to the other sections.
What to Do When You're Stuck on an Event
Sometimes you blank. It happens. The simplest workaround is to fall back on events that are structurally similar even if your details are fuzzy. For example, if you can't remember the exact details of the Persian Gulf War but you're confident about the general concept of conflict and international response, you can pivot and use a better known conflict like World War Two instead. Switching to an event you actually know is always better than fabricating details for one you don't. Another practical trick: if you remember the event but not the exact date, estimate conservatively. Writing "in the early 1940s" is better than writing "in 1942" if you're not sure. The rubric looks for accuracy, not precision, but incorrect specifics can hurt you. When in doubt, be slightly vague on numbers and very precise on facts you know. There's also the option of writing about events from outside the standard scope if you genuinely know them better. Some students have studied the Rwandan genocide or the Korean War in depth through personal interest. Using an event you know well from outside class is fine. The rubric doesn't check whether the event was covered in your textbook. It checks whether your information is accurate and relevant.
The Short Version
Pick one enduring issue. Choose two events from different times or regions. Write four clear paragraphs. Identify the issue early. Include specific facts. Compare the events in your conclusion. Don't rush the ending. That's the whole thing. The students who score 6 don't write better essays than the ones who score 4. They write essays that hit every requirement on the rubric without leaving anything ambiguous.
