Guidelines for History Students

Here are some things I wish I had known when I took my first college history class. Many thanks to my students and colleagues for their suggestions.

Research

• How to Read a Primary Source. Look for what the books cannot tell you.
• Document Analysis. How historians read texts.
• Image Analysis. How historians read images.
• How to Research a History Paper. Thoughts on the necessity of bewilderment.

Writing

Argument

• Elements of a Thesis Statement. Understanding the most important sentence in your paper.
• Dialectical Thesis Statements. How historians use comparisons to build interpretations.
• A Thesis-Statement Template. A formula that emphasizes the weighing of rival interpretations.

Organization

• How to Write an Essay. How to package the fruits of your research.
• NEW: Topic Sentences. After your thesis statement, the most important sentences in your paper.
• The Anatomy of a Ten-Page Paper. Breaking an assignment into its components may make it less intimidating.

Exams

• How to Take an Exam. Some skills that will prove useless after graduation.
• The Comprehensive Exam. Special advice for graduate students.

Format

• Style Guidelines. Easy ways to improve your paper.
• Pre-Submission Checklist. Make sure the paper you submit is as good as it can be.

Reading

• How to Read a History Book. A guide to active and efficient reading.
• How to Write a Review. The book review as an exercise in critical reading.
• How to Write a Reading Response. Less summary; more criticism.

Additional Material on This Site

• Grading Standards. What my letter grades mean.
• "When Thomas Takes His Pen" by Elsie Hill. An important essay on the research and writing process.
• "A Layperson's Reading List in American History". Scholarly books for the general reader.
• Syllabus Archive. My courses from previous years.
• NEW: Washington, D.C.: Spelling, Punctuation, and Capitalization.

Resources at George Mason University

• "Writing in History." Designed for students in History 100, but helpful to students in all history courses.
• The University Writing Center. Individual tutoring and on-line help.

Resources from Other Sites

• Bridgewater State College, "Turabian Style - Sample Footnotes and Bibliographic Entries (6th edition)"
• Edwards, Paul N. "How to Give an Academic Talk: Changing the Culture of Public Speaking in the Humanities" [PDF] (Society for the History of Technology).
• Faulkner, William. Nobel Prize Speech. (The Nobel Foundation.). "The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail." Is not the historian's voice a pillar as well?
• Harvey, Gordon. "Writing with Sources" (Harvard). The do's as well as the don'ts.
• Indiana University, "Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It." Shorter than Harvey, but perhaps not as helpful.
• Lynch, Jack. Grammar and Style Notes. (Rutgers).
• Rael, Patrick. "Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students" (Bowdoin).