History Course

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING PAPERS

IN HISTORY COURSES

A. GENERAL POLICIES

1. Handing in a poorly-written paper need not happen as resources abound that can help you achieve the goal of writing a quality paper. The PC Writing Center can assist you. Use the tutors who are on duty. Ask a professor for help. Run spell-check and proofread carefully.

2. By now you should have mastered the use of the English language, and you should be familiar with the rules of citation. It is, therefore, quite unacceptable that you should turn in a paper that is sloppily written and/or cited. Contained in this document are guidelines that I am expecting you to follow. If you do not follow these guidelines, I will read only to the third grammatical, typographical, or spelling mistake and/or the second error in footnote or bibliographical format. The paper will fail, and I will return it to you for resubmission should you desire to do that. The resubmitted paper cannot receive full credit. I will allow only one resubmission, and I will not receive a resubmission more than a week after I have returned it to you, in which case the failing grade will stand.

3. Student syllabi clearly state the dates on which papers and assignments are due. Papers and assignments will be accepted up to the close of the class period in which they are due. Failure to meet the stated deadline will result in a failing grade for the exercise.

4. For some comic relief, read Rules for Doing Grammar Good.

B. ORGANIZATIONAL CONCERNS

1.State your thesis clearly early in the paper, preferably within the first paragraph. From that point on, everything in the paper should contribute to the process of proving the thesis. In a strong paper, the author proceeds systematically and logically from point to point, seeking to convince the reader of the validity of his/her argument. Good organization enhances credibility.

2. Paragraphs:

a. Paragraphs must not be too long or too short. Those that span several pages are obviously too long, but so are paragraphs of reasonable length that cover several topics. Paragraphs should contain material related to only one topic.

b. Do not have paragraphs of less than three sentences; these should be reworked and merged with the surrounding paragraphs or omitted.

3. Sentence Structure:

a. Use complete sentences.

b. Vary your sentence structure throughout your paper, otherwise the paper takes on choppy and elementary characteristics.

4. The conclusion is one of the most important parts of your paper. It should flow logically and smoothly from the body of the paper, tying together loose ends but not raising new questions. It needs to demonstrate sound logic and clear analysis.

5. Remember, writing is a process, not an event. Working through multiple drafts of a paper is the ONLY way that a paper can improve. Numerous drafts allow the author to see problems, reorganize, tighten, etc. Reading the paper aloud also identifies trouble spots. Start the writing project with plenty of time as these steps cannot be accomplished the night before.

C. CITATION OF SOURCES

1. History papers employ footnotes or endnotes and use superscript numbers as shown below and in the various writing manuals in the Writing Center.

a. Why footnote? Because it is an honorable thing to do. It is your opportunity to give credit to the person(s) who did the work from which you are benefiting. In other words, we footnote because it is the right and honorable thing to do, giving credit to whom credit is due.

b. What to footnote? Views, ideas, facts, charts, statistics, etc. that are not your own and for which you relied on the work of another. Footnoting is NOT restricted to direct quotations. A simple test is to ask yourself, did I know this before I read it in this book or article? If not, footnote it. If so, ask if it is appropriate to acknowledge this person's work. If so, footnote it.

c. Paraphrasing is more than taking an idea or statement and putting in synonyms, and it is more than changing a couple words but leaving the remainder as found in the source. Both of these methods constitute plagiarism. Instead, reformulate the idea in your own words. Your goal is to retain the original idea but express it differently and uniquely.

d. How to footnote? Place citation at the end of the sentence and use formats shown below and/or listed in the various resource books found in the Writing Center.

e. BE SURE THAT YOU ADEQUATELY AND PROPERLY USE FOOTNOTES IN YOUR PAPER. Improper footnoting is an infraction of the Honor Code.

2. Footnotes:

a. Examples of footnotes for books:

1 Ralph V. Turner, Men Raised from the Dust: Administrative Service and Upward Mobility in Angevin England (Philadelphia, 1988), 39.

2 Turner, Dust, 45.

b. Examples of footnotes for journal articles:

1 Richard R. Heiser, 'Richard I and His Appointments to English Shrievalties,' English Historical Review 112 (1997): 178.

2 Heiser, 'Richard and Shrievalties,' 183.

c. Examples of footnotes for an article that is part of a collection in a book:

1 David Crouch, 'Normans and Anglo-Normans: A Divided Aristocracy?', in English and Normans in the Middle Ages. David Bates and Anne Curry, eds. London, 1994: 57.

2 Crouch, 'Normans and Anglo-Normans', 63.

3. Your bibliography should include the sources with which you have spent considerable time and that are cited in your paper. Sources that you consulted but were not helpful may be included as well, but do not pad the bibliography. Textbooks, encyclopedias, and lecture notes are not valid sources for a research paper. Bibliographies are to be alphabetized,