Writing Historically

Writing Historically, Part I

By. Dr. J. Ross-Nazzal

Houston Community College

Last updated: 04 MAR 2016

1. Introduction to Writing Historically

Each discipline has their rules for writing. If you write for a history class like you did for an English class, or Anthropology class, or a math or science class, you will not do well (i.e, you won’t pass). The purpose for writing in history is to convey a new idea, challenge an existing belief, or to add a new interpretation to an old idea. Unlike math or science writing, you never “prove” anything in history writing. Rather you use evidence to suggest the veracity of your thesis (if you don’t know what “veracity” means look it up as your grade depends on it). And many students find writing for history frustrating because there is no right answer in history. One plus one rarely equals two in history. This is frustrating for undergraduates because they’ve spent their entire K-12 career being instructed on finding the right answer on every state mandated test. History writing is not about finding the right answer. History writing is about successfully arguing a specific position by using sufficient evidence as well as analyzing the narrative and the evidence, in order to, again, suggest the veracity of your thesis.

1. Thesis

Proper history writing begins with a thesis. In history, a thesis is a statement of what the writer is going to examine. The history thesis is not a conclusion. And the shorter the essay, the earlier in the essay the thesis needs to appear. For example, in a monograph, the thesis might be buried somewhere in the middle of the Introduction or maybe even at the very end of the author’s introductory remarks. Most of the writing you will do for a survey history course is relatively short (12 pages or less) and some of my assignments are very brief to the tune of 750 words (that’s approximately three double spaced pages). In my classes, I want to see your theses as the very first sentence of your submission.

Again, a history thesis is not a conclusion, rather it is a general, ever so brief, statement of what the author is going to examine without telling the readers the result (or conclusion0 of the writing. And, make your theses idiot proof: write them in such a way that the reader (me) has no question as to what your essay or paper is going to examine. A very simplistic thesis, and one that I want my students to use, goes like this: “This essay will examine . . .”.

Let’s say that you are writing about the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, or the foreign policy aspect of the Emancipation Proclamation, or the changes in Hip Hop between “New York State of Mind” (1994) by Nas and “Empire State of Mind” (2009) by Jay Z. A clear, concise thesis statement would be “This essay will examine the presidency of Benjamin Harrison,” or “This essay will examine the foreign policy implications of the Emancipation Proclamation” or “This essay will examine the changes in Hip Hop between 1994 and 2009.” Simple. Clear. Concise. And, you are not tipping your hat. You are not telling me where you will end up, only what will be generally covered.

 Don’t write, “The presidency of Benjamin Harrison was a success” or “Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation as prevent England from entering the war on the side of the Confederacy” or “Hip Hop culture did not change between Nas and Jay-z.” In part because those are all conclusions and in history you cannot form a conclusion without first introducing evidence and you will not introduce evidence in the introduction. You will introduce evidence in the body of the essay.

In addition those examples of “theses” are bad ideas in part because maybe the reader already thinks that the presidency of Benjamin Harrison was a failure, or that the Emancipation Proclamation had nothing to do with foreign policy, or that there were major changes in hip hop culture between 1994 and 2009, so such a “thesis” might prejudice the reader’s ability to honestly analyze your writing o even turn readers off to even reading your writing because they already conclude that you are wrong, wrong, wrong. You want to draw readers further into your writing. You don’t want readers to dismiss your writing at the get go.

1. Body

Here is where the rubber meets the road. In the body you will narrate your story and analyze the narrative as well as the evidence. Narrate less and analyze more is what I tell students over and over again. In high school you offered linear narratives. Not in academia. In college you need to explain how and why stuff happened as well as how and why this stuff is important. Again, it is simplistic however I want my students to use certain trigger phrases such as “this is important because . . .” or “this happened because . . . “. Phrases that will let me know that you are now going to tell me the historical significance of the narrative or evidence. I know the historical significance of what you are writing, however I need to know that you know the historical significance of what you are writing.

Also, the body is where you will first draw conclusions however conclusions must follow evidence or logic. You don’t start a paragraph with a statement of fact (a conclusion). You start each paragraph by discussing then analyzing the narrative as well as the evidence, then you can draw a conclusion.

The body needs to make sense and there are two ways to construct the body: either chronologically or thematically. What you do not want to do is to detract the thinking of your readers by jumping all over the place. So, either start at the beginning and follow the narrative through the end, chronologically (such as the Civil Rights Era starting with the Plessy decision and ending with the US Supreme Court striking down the heart of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2013) or thematically (by examining how the Civil Rights movement affected American religious beliefs, then the economy, then politics, then race relations, et cetera).

And you must progress logically. You need to take the reader by the hand, show him, or her, your evidence, tell the reader why the evidence is important, then draw conclusions for the reader, the conclusions that you want the reader to also conclude. Again, you do not want the reader to diverge from your intellectual path so you must clearly tell the reader not only the conclusion but what those conclusion mean (the historical significance).

1. Conclusion

Proper history writing is not unlike a date. After dinner, or the movie, or whatever event you two experienced, you don’t slow the car down and push your date out the door. Rather, you stop your car, you chit chat about what you learned about the other person, what you liked about the event you two shared, then you walk together to the front door, and you say goodnight and something like “I very much enjoyed getting to know you a bit. Let’s do this again.” End your date on a positive note! The same with writing history.