I . Writing in the History Department   [Return to Top ]

Writing in the Hopkins History Department falls into two main categories: the essay and the research paper.   The essay is usually on an assigned narrow topic where you must express your opinion supported by evidence.  The research paper is usually on a topic of your choosing where you have gathered material from a variety of sources and have put together a lengthy report complete with bibliography and footnotes. Both the essay and the research paper are best if you have a thesis that the paper then tries to prove.   Most of the writing in the History Department is analytical, and not creative, though expressing your voice on paper is important. 

Any analytical writing assignment should have its ideas supported by facts.  Building blocks to this would be for you to start with facts and then use these to form a thesis.  As teachers, we will respect your ideas, but evidence must support these ideas.  To write a good essay, you must have and include the following ingredients:

1. An understanding of the subject matter

2. A point of view or opinion (thesis)

3. Factual evidence to support that point of view (sometimes as authoritative testimony)

What follows are recommendations for essay writing.  Many of the ideas are also pertinent for the research paper, in addition to using the format as presented by A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.  (There will be copies of this in the Hopkins Library.)  You must start learn the basic format to the history essay: the introduction, thesis, main body and conclusion.  Broken down, this format is as follows:

At this stage in your education, you are not expected to come up with a totally original slant on your subject.  However, your thesis should reflect your thinking about that subject.  A thesis is more than a rehash of what you have read and taken notes on.  It points to some meaning in these facts and ideas, some perspective that your reading has caused to form in your mind.  Your thesis should reflect what you believe is interesting and important.

One way to make sure that your thesis meets that basic rule is mentally to put “I think that” in front of your statement and see if it fits.  However, make sure that you do not include “I think that” in your final statement.  Why?  Because it is distracting.  You want your reader to think about your ideas, not you.  Don’t name yourself, just launch right into the idea.

Guidelines for a thesis statement:

1. A thesis must be an assertion, not a question.
    

2. The thesis must be a generalization or an opinion, not just
   a statement of fact. Someone must be able to disagree.
    

3. The thesis on a controversial subject should not be wishy-washy.
    

4. A thesis should make a point, not just promise to do so. (An incomplete thesis: “There are two main reasons why the government should support solar energy.”  Tell us the reasons up front!)

The middle section is where one finds the material in support of the thesis: the evidence. 
Two kinds of evidence are usually used to establish proof: 1)  facts and 2) authoritative statements/testimony.

A fact is something that can be demonstrated to be true, verified beyond a reasonable doubt.  Facts provide the strongest possible support for an argument.  The facts must be accurate and must be plentiful enough to be convincing.  (This number will depend on the nature of your subject and the impressiveness of the facts themselves.)   Authoritative statements or expert opinion may be admitted as evidence.  It is possible that the expert may be wrong, yet if he/she is a respected figure in their field, their opinion should carry a good deal of weight. (You should examine the qualifications the person has: degrees, profession, experience, etc.)

Here are different types of essays that require a thesis:  Analyze, Evaluate, Support, Assess, Compare & Contrast (discuss similarities & differences).  The following types of essays may not necessarily require a thesis statement, but should follow the same basic guidelines: Describe (give details), Discuss (present all angles of a topic), Explain (give the reasons), Outline, Summarize (state the main points briefly), Develop, Show, Illustrate (give examples), Trace, and Narrate.

General notes concerning essay/research writing:

1. It is wise to use a variety of sources.  This includes the document books which you might think are a collection of different writings so it is not necessary to use more than one.  Using several texts avoids the bias of the editor who made some conscious decision to include certain works and not others.

2. If you mention a less well-known fact in your essay, don’t assume the reader knows what you are talking about, even though you should be writing for a fairly sophisticated general audience.  For example, if you mention the Declaratory Act, you should include a brief definition.  You do not need to explain common knowledge information, such as The American Revolution.

3. If you include a direct quotation, don’t forget to comment on it in your own words.  Explain how this quote supports your thesis.

4.  Keep the focus clear throughout the essay.  After each paragraph ask yourself if this relates to your thesis and is it clear.  Read it out loud!

Evaluation Form: You may want to use this after you have written your paper.

1. What is the thesis of this paper?  Underline it.  How effectively is it stated?  Could it be narrower and more focused?  Could it be broader and more thoughtful?  How well do you stay with that thesis throughout the paper? 

2. Make a short list of the evidence used to support the thesis.  Could you have used either more or better details to support and illustrate the thesis?  Where else could you look for useful material?

3. Does the paper’s argument build in a logical and cumulative way?  Are there specific elements of the paper which detract from that argument and would be better left out?  Are there missing steps which would have tightened the argument or helped it to flow? 

4. How coherent and tight are the individual paragraphs?  Does each seem to have a central idea?  Is each connected to the thesis and to other paragraphs?  Look for the parts  that are too loosely organized. 

5. List the paper’s overall strengths and weaknesses.  What would be the most important change to make in revising?  What would be most important to keep?

II. History Papers: How to properly cite your sources  [Return to Top ]

Please note that the History Department requires its students to use two different formats for citation, depending on the type of written assignment.  Check with your teacher to see which format you should use for a particular assignment.

A. Citations for Short History Essays.

For short essays in history classes you may use the MLA parenthetical citation style as found in your Harbrace Handbook on pages 603-613 (15^th edition).

If you are citing one author, and you have no other works by this author:

Sermons from the Great Awakening envisioned a world of fire and brimstone, as God's "wrath towards you burns like fire" (Edwards 67).

The citation will change if the text includes more information about the author or source. Note that you only need the page number.

Jonathan Edwards painted a world of hell on earth in his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" when he said, "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked" (67).

At the end of your paper you should have a section entitled "Works Cited" which will list alphabetically the sources you used.  See Harbrace Handbook, pages 613-622, for format. (15^th edition)

For the above citation, which is an essay that was published earlier before being included in the anthology you are using, use the following form:

Edwards, Jonathan. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Works (1842): 10-11. Rpt. in The American Spirit. Ed. Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2002. 1:425-426.

Rpt. stands for reprinted.  Pay close attention to punctuation.

Please refer to your Harbrace Handbook for more details, and for other, more complicated, examples.

B. For Multi-source Research Papers follow The Chicago Manual of Style as found in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History for footnotes or endnotes.

For footnoting/endnoting, use this format for a book:

            ¹Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live By (New York: The Viking Press, l972), 28.

If you use this source more than once, the format to use is:

            ²Campbell, 30.

(You may use Ibid. This is rather outdated. However, the format is: ³Ibid., 79-84.)

For footnoting/endnoting when a primary source document or article is quoted or republished in a secondary source:

¹Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, in The American Spirit, ed. Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2002), 1: 116-119.

Example of a footnote:  (in a paper with multi-sources)

C. Warren Hollister, professor and author of many books on medieval history, is critical of Charlemagne's legacy.  He argues, "Even at the height of Charlemagne's power, his empire remained economically primitive and undergoverned.  Towns were small and scattered, and the roads that linked settled areas were miserably poor."¹

For example, the following would appear at the bottom of your page, in the footer:

                        ¹C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe (NY: John Wiley  & Sons, 1982), 101.

III. History Papers: Direct Quotations in your research papers   [Return to Top ]

Direct quotations should promote important ideas in your paper. Select a quotation only if it beautifully enlightens an idea you want to emphasize.  You may also want to include a direct quotation if you plan to discuss  the implications of the quotation.

Primary source quotations are many times more powerful than secondary source quotations.  In most circumstances, secondary source material, no matter how well articulated, should be paraphrased and presented in your personal narrative style.

Keep quotations short if possible and make them an integral part of your text.

If you have a short quotation, you may include it right in the text.  If you have a lengthy quotation (5 or more lines), you should block it.  This means you should indent it 5 spaces on both sides and single space it with a double space above and below.  No quotation marks are necessary for indented quotations, but you should use a footnote/endnote at the end of the quotation.

If the source is unfamiliar to your readers (probably most are), you must identify the author and establish his or her authority right in your text, before you quote the statement.  Then you must also footnote.

For example:

C. Warren Hollister, professor and author of many books on medieval history, is critical of Charlemagne's legacy.  He argues, "Even at the height of Charlemagne's power, his empire remained economically primitive and undergoverned.  Towns were small and scattered, and the roads that linked settled areas were miserably poor."¹

For example, the following would appear at the bottom of your page, in the footer:

                        ¹C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe (NY: John Wiley  & Sons, 1982), 101.

IV. History Papers: Specific Grammar/Style Problems   [Return to Top ]

1. Never rely on spell check or grammar check to fix all of the potential problems with writing.

2. All verb tenses must be consistent. In most cases, historians use the past tense.

3. Use active verbs; eliminate the weak passive verb tense (WPV). For example, do not write "Poland was taken over by Russia." Instead, "Russia smashed Poland."

4. Choose verbs with meaning; avoid the verbs "To be," "get," and multi-word verbs ("The President took it all in.") Use meaningful verbs. For example, write "The President digested the information."

5. Check for unclear pronoun references such as "this," "it," "that, "she."  Also make sure your pronoun and antecedent are either both singular or plural.

6. Eliminate all wordy phrases: "In order to..." "The fact that..." "A man by the name of..." Check for excessive wordiness, comma splices, and run-on sentences.

7. Eliminate all slang or colloquial expressions such as "It bummed him out because…" "Henry shot her down..."

8. Eliminate the use of "I" (first person) and "You" (second person)-- stick to the third person.

9. Watch out for commonly misspelled words such as "their/ there," "lead /led," "chose /choose," "loose /lose."  Also look out for: ” separate,” “receive.”

10. Check all possessives-- "Its," "America's," etc.

11. Avoid non-descriptive nouns and adjectives such as "good," "bad," "things," "the people."

12. Read the essay aloud and listen for mistakes and awkwardness.

13. When using quotation marks, commas and periods are placed inside the closing quotation marks (even though they may not be part of the quoted material.)  Periods and commas, however, come after a parenthetical citation, which would be outside the quotation marks.  Colons and semicolons also go outside quotation marks. 

V. History Papers: Formatting   [Return to Top ]

For short essays, you do not need a title page.  Just put a title on the top of the first page of the text.  Double space to the first line of your introduction. For longer research papers, you should have a title page.

The only pages of your paper that should be numbered are those in the text, beginning with the second page.

You may have an appendix which contains supplementary material inappropriate for inclusion in the text of the paper. 

You should allow for 1 inch margins on all sides of your paper, top and bottom.

You should double space your text lines. 

VI. History Department: Plagiarism   [Return to Top ]

 Please read the Chapter on "Plagiarism: What It is and How to Avoid It,” starting on page 88 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. Plagiarism is claiming that someone else's words, research, or insights are your own.  You should cite any factual information or abstract ideas that are not general knowledge and opinions of others.  Sometimes there are questions about what is general knowledge, so at this stage of your education, it would be best to footnote more than you think necessary.  Your teacher can help you with this.

Plagiarism is a form of intellectual dishonesty, and the academic community takes it very seriously.  You will receive an automatic failure on the assignment that you plagiarized and you could face the discipline committee.

A bibliography is a list of books, magazines, encyclopedias and other sources you have used for researching your topic.  It appears at the end of your paper, after your endnotes. For the longer research paper, title your source page with the following title that is centered:  Bibliography.

Each bibliographical entry should include the author’s or editor’s name (or names), complete title of the source (underline the book, magazine or encyclopedia; put in quotations the title of an article), place of publication (include state if not from a major metropolitan city), publisher’s name and the most recent copyright date.  Some of this information may be unavailable for periodicals, newspapers, and encyclopedias, but the title of the article should be included for these types of sources.

Your bibliography should be arranged in alphabetical order (without numbering) by the first word of the entry.  The first line should be even with the left margin with subsequent lines indented.  Each entry should be single spaced; a double space should separate each entry.

There are several acceptable formats, but please use The Chicago Manual of Style as outlined below:

Author’s last name, first name. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, date.

Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live By. New York: The Viking Press, 1972.

McDowell, Bart. “The Aztecs.” National Geographic, December 1980, 704-752.

Dundes, Alan. “Myth: Myths of the Beginning and of the End.”  Encyclopedia Britannica (1970), V, 1135-1138.

Mitchell, W. J., ed. The Language of Images. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Burland, C.A., and William Forman. Feathered Serpent and Smoking Mirror. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1975.

For a world wide web site:

•     author's name, last name first  (if known)

•     title of document, in quotation marks

•     title of complete work (if applicable), in italics

•     date of publication (day month year) or last revision (if known) in parentheses. (If not known use: n.d.)

•     URL: uniform resource location (a string of characters that uniquely identifies a world wide web site)

•     date of access (when you went to this site):  month day, year in parentheses

Internet example:

 CK-11/2006