Who Is Responsible for World War I?: Guidelines for Historical Writing

Guidelines for Writing Historical Essays 

You will be writing a 5-paragraph historical essay.  A paragraph is typically 3-8 sentences in length.  For this assignment, try to aim for about 5 sentences per paragraph.  Follow the format of writing an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. 

• The introduction introduces your topic to readers.  The thesis statement - your main argument - should be the last sentence of the introduction. The introduction will be 1 paragraph long.
• The body offers evidence and analysis to support your thesis statement. The body will be 3 paragraphs long.
• The conclusion summarizes how your evidence and analysis supports your thesis.  The conclusion will be 1 paragraph long.

Always write in the correct tense.  Historical essays require a significant amount of writing in the past tense.

Avoid personal pronouns like I, you, we, us, me, and my.  Instead of saying, “In my opinion…” or “I feel that…”  Say something like, “It is apparent that…” or “The evidence shows that…”

Avoid “to be” verbs whenever possible.  For example, do not write, “America was making preparations for war.”  Instead, write, “America made preparations for war.”

Always write in the active voice.  For example, do not write, “Taft was disliked by many progressives.”  Instead, write, “Many progressives disliked Taft.”

Respect the rules of grammar and sentence structure.  Avoid using contractions like “didn’t” or “weren’t”.  Instead, write, “did not” or “were not”. Never, ever, ever use text-speak in an essay.  Make sure to spell-check.  Spelling and grammatical errors detract from what might otherwise be a well written essay.

Be sure to provide an appropriate amount of evidence.  Be specific as to how that evidence supports your thesis.

There are two types of sources you should depend upon to write historical essays – primary sources and secondary sources.  

• A primary source is a piece of evidence from the time period that you are writing about.  For example, if you are writing about the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence might serve as a valuable primary source document.  
• A secondary source is generally something written about a particular event later.  For example, historian David McCullough’s book 1776 can be used as a secondary source for the same essay on the American Revolution.

Make sure to cite your sources when both paraphrasing and quoting directly from a text.  Failure to do so is plagiarism.  If you are writing something that is common knowledge, for example, “George Washington led the Continental Army,” it does not require a citation.  If you are quoting or paraphrasing another historian’s analysis on Washington’s leadership style, then you need to give that historian the appropriate credit.

Use quotes sparingly and effectively to enliven your argument.  A well-placed quote can really drive a point, but a paper cluttered with quotes is difficult to read and often leaves little room for your analysis.  Avoid excessively long quotes.  It is perfectly acceptable to quote a portion of a sentence.

Use Chicago Style citations for historical essays. This included footnotes and a Bibliography page at the end.