The Line Between Narrative Recount and Analysis

[susanne]

So history people, what do you think constitutes a narrative recount?

 

I'm currently doing my history exams and i am a bit concerned if what I've wrote in my exams are narrative recounts rather than proper analysis

[Emmi]

Narrative account is just restating facts and events without analyzing them.

 

An example, if you were writing on the causes of World War 1, could be something like "In the late 1890s a lot of treaties and alliances were signed. These include X between country 1 and 2, Y between country 1 and 3, and Z between country 2 and 3. X stated that this would happen, Y stated that that would happen, and Z stated that something else would happen. So when the Archduke was assassinated in 1914 all of the countries were in a war with each other because of the alliance system." Here you don't mention anything about the implications of the alliances, and barely anything about the effect they had on the outbreak. You also fail to mention its significance in causing the war relative to other causes.