Writing Tips

Conventions of the Discipline – what makes a History paper a History paper

In no particular order but all equally important:

Argumentative thesis: Take a position on what happened, why it happened, how it happened, and maybe (really as an afterthought) why we care.

Supportive Evidence: Support for your thesis should come from primary sources. Cobbling together a bunch of arguments by current scholars (secondary sources) does not count.

Analysis of Evidence:  Don’t just set it out there for the reader to figure out.  You are making an argument.  You need to walk the reader through this.  Each piece of supporting evidence for your thesis and sub-arguments should be closely analyzed.  Explain what the evidence is, what the thinker is thinking.  Then, explain why this matters for your argument, how it helps move your argument forward.

Scope: You should only make points/arguments that can be supported by the primary source materials you present.  Which means that for both shorter papers and/or a limited number of sources your thesis and supporting arguments should be quite narrow in scope.  It is highly unlikely, for example, that you will be able to convincingly argue in five or six pages that a particular thinker changed the course of history forever, especially when you only have one book to draw on as evidence.  No need for melodrama.  Historians are emotionally barren.

Context:  Situate your evidence in its historical context.  History, even intellectual history, is not just an exercise of connecting ideas together.  They must be grounded in their world.  These thinkers were people.  They moved through the world, engaged it, drew upon it.  So context is often a very useful explanatory tool.  Suppose your argument is that two different thinkers took two very different positions on a subject.  The specifics of their respective worlds – the politics, the culture – can provide some insight into their differences.  Context can help answer why.

Style: Chicago style.  Footnotes are fun!

Things to watch for in writing a history essay

Have a thesis

Your paper must have a thesis statement. Your thesis statement should do all of the following:

• Be a single sentence. For a very long or complex argument, you might also need a statement of limitations, but for a paper less than ten pages, one sentence should do.
• Summarize your paper's answer to the question or prompt.
• Preview the major points or structure of the paper.
• Be placed very prominently in the introduction of the paper; either the very first or (better) very last sentence of the introduction is almost always appropriate.
• Be restated, in different words but with the same point, in your conclusion
• Be arguable, but provable. The thesis statement should not be a simple statement of fact that any reader of the documents would immediately see, but it should be provable using evidence from the documents.
• Be straightforward and directly related to your introduction. The intro should lead smoothly into your thesis statement.

Meet the requirements

Be sure that your paper has met the requirements that were set out. In particular:

• Answer the question or address the prompt. Make it very clear that you did so.
• Fulfill the length requirements. Going under the minimum length is never acceptable. Going over the maximum by a very small amount is acceptable, but if you're more than ¼ page or so over, you should okay it with your teacher. Implicit in this is using reasonable formatting standards; if in doubt, think 1 inch margins, double-spaced, 12-point Times font.
• Meet the due date. This means getting a hardcopy either into your teachers's hands or his or her mailbox by the time given. Never assume that you will get an extension, or that an emergency short of hospitalization will excuse you from late penalties—if it is even accepted late. You may ask, but do not assume you will get one. Do not assume that an emailed paper is OK unless your teacher specifically says so. Do not leave papers on a desk, or slide them under a door. If you are not sure whether your teacher received your paper, it is perfectly all right to email and ask.

Follow proper style

This is a formal, college-level paper. As such, be sure that you:

• Write formally. Avoid colloquialisms and contractions.
• Write simply. Use difficult words only if they get your point across better than simple words could. Avoid complex sentence structures; if the reader cannot figure out what the sentence is saying, your brilliant idea becomes nonsense.
• Employ topic sentences and transitions to make the flow of your paper clear. Do not be afraid to explicitly sign post. Tell the reader upfront what each paragraph is about and how it helps to prove your thesis.
• Do not make logical leaps from one sentence or one point to the next.
• Have a purpose for every sentence in the paper. Remember that you are out to prove a thesis. If part of your paper does not seem to advance that thesis, rewrite it so that it does or get rid of it.
• Write from a proper historical perspective. Do your best to examine the past in its own terms, without imposing judgments or modern ideas and models.
• PROOFREAD. This is not a high school English class, so your grade is not based on perfection; an error or two will not hurt you. If spelling and grammar errors are rampant, however, your paper becomes difficult to read. It is also an insult to your reader to hand in a paper that contains many errors that could easily have been caught with better proofreading. I am particularly annoyed by apostrophe errors; please do not make them. If you are unsure, have someone look over your paper before you hand it in.
• For an ordinary course paper, all your instructor needs is the paper. You do not need to put your paper in a fancy plastic cover or folder. Do staple your paper together, however; if finishing at the last minute, be sure to budget yourself a few minutes to find a stapler.

Use sources appropriately

Failure to cite information you use in the paper is at best sloppy, and at worst plagiarism. You must also remember that you are writing your own thesis-driven paper, not simply stringing together information from other sources. Thus, you must:

• Cite all information used from primary sources.
• Cite all information used from secondary sources, unless it is considered “common knowledge.” If it’s in your textbook, it’s probably common knowledge.
• Do not over-quote. Quotations should be used very sparingly. Quote a source only if you could not capture the essence of what was said in your own words, or if a particular wording is so striking that you would lose something by interpreting it. If you are using more than one or two quotes per paragraph, you are almost certainly over-quoting. Paraphrase or summarize instead, but STILL CITE.
• Follow the citation scheme given for the paper. For me, this will usually be parenthetical citation, in which you just list the author’s name and page number in parentheses after the sentence. (Crosby, 2)

Get help if you need it

If writing the paper is causing you stress, or you don’t feel you know what a good paper looks like—get help! Your teacher will certainly be willing to help you, and there are other resources available to you. This can’t help if you are just writing your paper the evening before, but if you are generally stumped, help is out there. Of course, bringing your teacher a rough draft does not guarantee you an A on the paper; but it is guaranteed to help.

Checklist for proofreading your draft and/or reexamining your writing as a reader:

____    Run basic spelling and grammar check.  You’ll feel darn sheepish if you

misspelled Descartes.

____    Presented an argumentative thesis that is sufficiently narrow and specific in scope

as to be supported by the evidence you present.

____    Presented specific evidence.

____    Everything is properly cited

____    Your arguments build logically.  I would recommend, after completing your draft,

to look back over it and write one sentence that summarizes each paragraph.  Ask

yourself if the order of ideas makes sense, if the next paragraph addresses

whatever issue remained after the previous one.

____    The structure of the paper is clear from the start.  This may include a brief

summary of what exactly is going to happen in the paper, a roadmap if you will. 

And, if you push the roadmap thing, signposting along the way in your paper is

also helpful for the reader.  Tell them what’s going on and what’s going to happen

next.

____    Transitions from paragraph to paragraph are smooth and logical.  Transition

sentences put your reader at ease and help them to know where the argument it

going.  Nobody likes feeling lost.

____    And finally – this is a little annoying and yes, your roommate will resent you –

you have read your paper out loud to yourself.  You must do this.  It is the very

best way to make sure your sentences aren’t too convoluted and that they flow.  If

you have to reread a sentence or clause more than once because you can’t get the

phrasing right then you need to restructure it.