1. The first paragraph of a historical paper, be it a research paper, short synopsis, book review, or commentary should contain the author's central thesis or conclusions.  The author must mention all important actors, as well as inclusive dates of coverage and basic concepts or historical developments in the first paragraph.

Writing an article synopsis.  Put the correct citation to the article (see below) at the top of the page.  At the beginning of the first paragraph, start with the author’s last name followed immediately by the words “argues that,” and briefly summarize the author’s central contentions.  Thus: Smith argues that. . . .

2. Use vigorous, direct language.  Short sentences work.  Employ concrete, precise nouns and active verbs, being careful, for example, to find active substitutes for forms of the verb "to be" and "to go."  Inexperienced writers often erroneously think that convoluted language, long sentences, and pretentious diction impress teachers.

3. Use the active, not the passive voice, in your prose.  The active voice places the subject before the action.  Active voice: On opening day, Alex Rodriguez blasted his 71st home run. Passive voice: His 71st home run was blasted by Alex Rodriguez on opening day.  See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html for a good discussion of this important point.

4.  Avoid all first-person or surrogate references.  By "surrogate" I mean such terms as one, we, the current writer.

5.  Avoid discussion of method, intentions, and structure.  There is no need to intrude explicit statements of authorial intention ("In the following pages, I am going to argue that. . . .")–just state the argument; or to deliver bulletins about the paper's structure ("This paper is divided into three sections. . . .")–just state your three central arguments or observations in a well-crafted opening paragraph.

6.  Inclusion of frequent chronological references and their placement at the beginnings of sentences, paragraphs, phrases, and so forth contributes to accessible and dynamic prose.

7.  It is easy to fall into stuffy, pompous, and trite rhetorical patterns. Double negatives, for example, often only lend inflated importance to commonplace observations. The gratuitous imputation of erroneous views to the reader is another bad habit (as in:  "It would be unfair to conclude that Nixon was a homosexual. . ."; or "It would be a gross overstatement to say that the South won the Civil War. . . ."  In both cases, the reader is being warned against making an error that the author is actually suggesting).

8.  Avoid block quotes.  Always paraphrase and integrate into your own prose. Confine quoted words to short, distinctive selections, subordinating quoted material to your own purposes and your own language.  Of course, you need always to give proper attribution to quoted words or distinctive ideas.  When you do quote, be sure to identify  the author of the quoted words and his or her standing. 

9. There is much dismissive talk these days about so-called "political correctness."  It is necessary for serious people to weigh carefully their language when referring to ethnicity, race, gender, and other politically charged subjects.  Many complaints about the need to be "politically correct" reflect a desire on the part of politically or culturally dominant groups or interests to have license in the language they use to characterize or refer to minority, subordinated, or vulnerable groups.


1.  Run-on sentences.  When in doubt, start a new sentence.  Short sentences work.

2.  Misplaced modifiers. ("Jumping out of bed, my shoulder hurt"; "Based on this evidence, Prof. Jones argues. . . ").

3.  Quotations and punctuation marks.  Remember these lifetime rules: In American English--

    Commas and periods always go inside quotation marks
   
    Colons and semi-colons always go outside quotation marks
   
    Question marks and exclamation points (which latter you have no need for in this paper) depend on the context.

4.  Distinguish between possessives, which take the apostrophe, and plurals, which don't.  There are specific rules for plural possessives (e.g., for nouns ending in s, add apostrophe s to make the possessive; but for pluralized nouns otherwise not ending in s, just add the apostrophe). Examples:  Margaritas are made with tequila (correct). Margaritas' [or Margarita's] are made with lime juice (incorrect).  The Margaritas' intoxicatory properties turned me into a zombie (correct).

5. Watch out for its and it's.  Its is the possessive, as in "I liked the house because of its roominess."  It's is the contraction for it is, as in "It's going to rain today."

6.  Adjectives and adverbs– get rid of as many as possible.  The higher the proportion of verbs in your writing, the more vigorous and effective it will be.  Especially, strike the words "very" and "interesting" from your written vocabulary.

7.  Comparisons and parallels.  Make sure that when you make or draw them, the terms are consistent with each other. ("In regard to onions, Harding's smelled stronger than Coolidge"–should be:  stronger than "those of Coolidge" or "Coolidge's.")

8.  Be a "which" hunter, substituting "that" wherever possible.

9.  When dealing with human beings, "who" is the correct pronoun; "that" is never acceptable (as in: I met a man who [not that] once tended Sir Douglas Haig's horse).

10.  In quotations, always make clear the identity of the person whom you quote. Every quote needs a "signature phrase," indicating the identity and/or standing of the person being quoted.



    It is important to learn the basic rules for citation.  The historian’s Bible is The Chicago Manual of Style.  For handy reference, consult Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.  For this class, see the end notes to For Jobs and for examples of how to cite books, journal articles, papers contained in collective works, and other commonly used references.


Titles of books, journals, and newspapers are always either underlined or rendered in Italics.

Citations to books and articles must include the full title–i.e., the words after the colon, including any dates that are contained in the title.

Journal articles and unpublished works, such as dissertations and manuscripts, are set off by quotation marks (in American English, double-quote marks [“     ”] are standard).

Punctuation–in particular the placement of commas–must follow standard American English usage.

Here are examples of the four most common items found in most historical writing.  Follow them and you can’t go wrong.


Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction:  Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 (Cambridge:  Harvard University Press, 2001)


Jane Dailey, “Land, Labor, and Politics Across the Post-Emancipation South,” Labor History 44: 4 (November 2003): 509-22


Nan Elizabeth Woodruff, “The New Negro in the American Congo:  World War I and the Elaine, Arkansas Massacre of 1919,” Time Longer than Rope: A Century of African American Activism, 1850-1950, ed. Charles M. Payne and Adam Green (New York: New York University Press, 2003), 150-78


Allie Gater, “UF Swamps Buckeyes; Hogtown Ecstatic,” Independent Florida Alligator, January 9, 2007
   


There are several forms of plagiarism, all of which are contemptible.

1.  Hiring someone to write a paper for you or buying a paper from a professional paper-writing service.

2.  Turning in a paper written for another course.

3.  Appropriating the language and/or ideas of another scholar or source without proper attribution.

    Form number 3 is the one most often encountered.  And it is true that sometimes there is a thin line between the legitimate use of another author’s distinctive ideas or findings and wrongful appropriation of her work.  There is an excellent discussion of this subject at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/