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Writing
Guide |
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This
guide offers some advice about writing a paper in a history course, but it
is not exhaustive. For
specific guidance on citation of sources, see the "Reference
Tools" link on this website. You might also consult Kate L.
Turabian, A Manual of Style for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations, the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style,
or Mary Lynn Rampolla’s Pocket Guide to Writing in History (which
I usually put on two-hour reserve in the library).
·All
papers for this course must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch
margins, and stapled in the upper left-hand corner.
I will not accept papers with paper clips or ‘dog ears’.
·For
citing sources you must use footnotes or endnotes (rather than
parenthetical citation). In
general, you should limit your use of direct quotations.
Your paper will flow better if you paraphrase a statement, putting
it into your own words. Quote
only when you wish to call attention to the precise phrasing of a source
or when you plan to analyze or interpret a passage. ·Do
not use first person when making an historical argument (e.g., “I
contend that Margaret Sanger was no longer a radical by the 1920s.”)
Instead, state your points as general statements (e.g., “Margaret
Sanger was no longer a radical by the 1920s.”) ·When
referring to something that happened in the past use the past tense (e.g.,
“In his Gettysburg address, Lincoln said [rather than “says”]
the nation was dedicated to the principle of equality.”) Common
Writing Errors to Avoid
·Misspellings
and typing errors—Use “spell checker” and proofread carefully. ·Contractions
and colloquial speech—Do not use contractions (e.g.,
"wasn’t" or "isn’t") or colloquial speech (e.g.,
“straight-up” or "ripped off") in formal writing. ·Sentence
fragments and run-ons—Check to make sure your sentences are not
incomplete, lacking either a subject or main verb (e.g., “He did not
understand the reasoning behind segregation.
The use of separate water fountains and bathrooms that were
labeled ‘White Only’ or ‘Colored’.”) ·Unclear
meaning—Be watchful for unclear references, confusing wording,
undeveloped ideas, and awkward phrasing. ·Word
choice—Using a word culled from a thesaurus can often cloud if not
completely confuse your meaning. Say
what you have to say using the simplest and most appropriate language. ·Redundancy—Avoid
unnecessary restatement of points (e.g., “People had seen that protests
could make a difference and had started to challenge all sorts of school
rules. People were seeing
that their voices could make a difference and by the time she left high
school people were not afraid to speak up.”) ·Commas
omitted or in wrong place—Set off every parenthetical phrase by a pair
of commas, one before and one after it (e.g., “The computer, an
ingenious invention, transformed modern society.”)
Also, use a comma after each item in a sequence of three or more
items, including the next-to-last (e.g., “Johnny Appleseed walked across
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.”) ·Missing
apostrophe—Insert an apostrophe when a noun is used as a possessive
(e.g., “The war’s destruction,” or “poverty’s consequences.”)
Do not use an apostrophe for “its” as a possessive (e.g.,
“The National Liberation Front began its campaign against the government
of South Vietnam.”) “It’s”
with an apostrophe is a contraction of “it is” and hence should not be
used in formal writing. ·Pronouns
with clear referents—Make sure it is clear who or what you are referring
to when using a pronoun (e.g., “Many student anti-war activists had
learned to organize years earlier in the South.
In Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama, they led marches, made
speeches, wrote literature, ran freedom schools, and had violent
encounters with law enforcement officials.”)
·Punctuation
with quotation marks—When ending a quotation in the text, a final comma
or period always precedes the closing quotation marks, whether or not it
is part of the quoted matter. Question
marks and exclamation marks precede the quotation marks only if they are
part of the entire sentence of which the quotation mark is a part.
(Thus: The newspaper reported “hundreds of women protested
outside this year’s Miss America contest.”
Should we accept its account of a “riotous congregation”?) ·Hyphens—Insert
a hyphen when you use a century to modify a noun (e.g., “seventeenth-century
science”) and for some compound words (e.g., “working-class
politics”) ·Parallel
wording—When using the constructions “both…and” or “not
only…but also,” use the same grammatical form after each of those
terms. That is, the word or
phrase immediately following both terms must be a subject, a verb, or a
prepositional phrase. (Wrong:
“The Baptists prohibited both dancing and alcohol.”
Right: “The Baptists prohibited both dancing and drinking
alcohol.”) ·Gender-specific
(sexist) language—In contemporary American usage, we no longer follow
the traditional but biased practice of using masculine nouns and pronouns
to refer to everyone. Instead,
we try to use “gender-neutral” language, finding wordings that are
inclusive or introduce both male and female terms (e.g., “humankind”
for “mankind” or “Every student is responsible for his or her own
work” rather than “Every student is responsible for his own work”). |