Tips to Writing History Essays
I. Essay Structure:
Every essay has three basic elements: the introduction, the body, and
the conclusion.
The introduction should first briefly outline the general topic you will discuss (the status of women, the role of towns, the place of mourning) and then, very specifically, state what it is that you will argue and conclude about that topic (ie., that women had no public power but exercised power privately, through the family; that towns were responsible for changes in spirituality, political life, and economic structures; that Italians used mourning as a stage on which to act out important public rituals).
The body of the essay consists of a number of linked paragraphs, each helping to build up the argument stated in the introduction. In rereading your essay you should be able to clearly follow the order of paragraphs: the point made in one paragraph should lead clearly to the point of the next and so on. Meanwhile, the collective purpose of the points of all these paragraphs should be to prove the argument stated in the introduction.
Finally, in the conclusion you should restate the argument made in your introduction and say a few words about how the evidence presented in the body has come to firmly prove it.
II. Making an Argument (or formulating a thesis)
Making an argument is extremely important for history papers and can
often spell the difference between analysis and summary (a summary-type
paper simply reports back what other authors have argued; an argument-driven
paper performs an analysis of those other authors). Since many arguments
can usually be constructed about the same evidence, the first step in developing
your argument is to consider the topic (the role of towns, the status or
power of women, etc). Then you should look at the evidence you have
available for that topic (primary and secondary sources) and see what they
have to say about the topic. Before you begin writing you should
decide what it is that you are going to say about the same evidence; ie.,
you should, if at all possible, know what you are going to conclude before
you begin writing (this is not to say that you cannot write your way through
an argument - I have done this on occasion - but such a method of writing
invariably ends up with a very weakly argued, poorly constructed essay).
So decide what it is you are going to conclude before you begin - it is
often helpful to write on a piece of scratch paper "In this paper I
will argue [that women were excluded from positions of public authority
but, within their familial roles, were still able to exercise a form of
private authority; or whatever your argument will be]." Some
authors will even use such a phrase in the introductory paragraph of the
essay; while such a sentence provides great clarity, it is not stylistically
elegant (see below). Oftentimes it is helpful to the reader to follow
up your statement of the argument with a few sentences discussing how you
will go about proving what you have just said you will argue (To do
this, it is necessary first to look at the public role of queens and abbesses
to determine whether they were able to exercise power in the public sphere;
such an examination will demonstrate that these women were increasingly
excluded from the possession of real authority. After examining their
public roles, I will turn to an study of their positions within the family,
which will reveal ...).
Once you have set forth an argument in the introduction, the paragraphs of the body of your paper should all relate back to that initial argument. These subsequent paragraphs may well discuss very specific points, but the purpose of each paragraph should be to help prove the initial argument.
III. Paragraph Structure
Paragraphs in the body of the paper should all begin with a topic sentence.
The topic sentence is the most important part of each paragraph since it
needs to a) link this paragraph to the preceding one and b) set forth the
theme of that paragraph. The transition from the previous paragraph
is extremely important for good style and clarity of argument; it can be
accomplished as simply as through the use of "furthermore" or "moreover"
(used when the new paragraph is using new evidence to make the same point
as the previous paragraph: Furthermore, the case of Queen Balthild also
demonstrates that Merovingian queens were able to exercise both private
and public power.) or it can be accomplished through more formal transitional
prose (Even though it can be shown that Merovingian queens and abbesses
possessed substantial abilities to influence both public and private life,
such evidence of women's power disappears with the Carolingian and Post-Carolingian
world: this sentence serves to shift the stream of an argument from one
chronological period to the next).
Not only should the topic sentence provide a link to the previous paragraph, it should also set forth the main idea of the paragraph that it introduces. The remainder of the paragraph should then be devoted to expanding the theme of the topic sentence. The last sentence in a paragraph is often a recapitulatory sentence, one that summarizes the point introduced by the topic sentence and proven by evidence introduced within the paragraph). What this means is that in addition to having clear topic sentences, paragraphs should also contain one main idea, not several.
IV. Some Elements of Style
1. Avoid using the first person (I, we)
Thus, don't use "I think" or "I feel" or other such constructions;
since you are the author of the essay, it is obvious that you feel or think
these things.
2. Avoid using the passive voice
Passive constructions are ones in which action is performed by
some unknown subject; active constructions are ones in which a clear subject
performs a clear action.
Active: Jane threw the stone
Passive: The stone was thrown
Active: The author proves ...
Passive: It was proven that ...
If you cannot answer the question "by whom or by what" was the action performed, then the sentence is passive. It is almost always better to use active constructions, since they provide greater clarity.
3. Exceptions to the rules on the First Person and the Passive Voice
a. I find it acceptable to use the first person on occasion when stating
arguments. Thus I find "I will prove that women had an inferior status
in the Middle Ages" to be acceptable. Some persons do not.
The construction "We shall see that ..." is also sometimes used to help
along an argument, but should probably be avoided.
b. To avoid use of the first person, passive constructions are sometimes necessary. Thus instead of "I will prove" one could use "It will be shown that." Mind you, there is no rule about these constructions: some people are so adamantly opposed to the passive that they gladly accept the first person; others want no hint of the author intruding into the paper and allow use of the passive. When in doubt, ask your instructor.
4. Do not use contractions in formal writing
This means that you should not use "don't", "isn't", "couldn't", etc.
5. Learn the difference between its and it's
Its: is the possessive of the word "it." In other words, it
is an adjective conferring possession of something on the word it.
Example: "The bear looked
in the mirrror. It could not recognize its own face."
-its is an adjective of possession telling us whose face was not recognized.
It's: is a contraction of the phrase "it is". Only use
it's
if you can replace it's with it is.
Example: "It's cold
outside"
-the sentence really reads "It is cold outside"; it's is simply
a contraction.
6. Follow the rules for other possessive adjectives
While students most commonly confuse its and it's, some
make errors with other possessive adjectives.
A common error is to make a simple plural noun into a possessive.
Example: Write "The donkeys move
slowly" (not "The donkey's move slowly")
-in this sentence the s attached to ‘donkey' merely shows there
are more than one donkey. Using donkey's (that is,
attaching an apostrophe-s) changes the meaning to a possessive: the sentence
is incomplete because it suggests that
there is some item of the donkey that is moving slowly, except that item
is not mentioned.
Example: "A donkey's tail moves slowly" (not
"A donkeys tail moves slowly")
-the first sentence is correct in its use of the possessive; the apostrophe-s
on the end of donkey conveys possession; it
tells us whose tail was moving slowly. The second sentence is incorrect;
without the apostrophe the word donkeys
becomes a plural noun meaning more than one donkey.
7. Avoid colloquial phrases, words, or comments in formal writing.
Use formal prose when writing history papers. Note: formal does not
mean prose that is wordy, boring, or dull. It simply means correct speech
that is not sprinkled with colloquial phrases.
Bad example: "When I read Beowulf I thought ‘Whatever?!' I mean, like, he was totally bloodthirsty and way nasty. He was just wasting guys left and right, like he was on WWF Monday Nite Nitro. He was on some kind of power trip. What's up with that, anyway?"
Explanation: This sentence includes many phrases in common use in oral discourse. Yet, even if we may speak like this, we should not write like this. Formal writing requires more care and more precision. Problems and solutions: 1) "When I read"; avoid the first person; 2) "Whatever?!"; this is a figure of speech that has no real grammatical meaning; 3) "I mean, like,"; these are throw-away words; they are redundant and colloquial; 4) "totally bloodthirsty"; inaccurate use of ‘totally'; 5) "way nasty"; some people use ‘way' to mean ‘very' but in fact it does not mean ‘very'; it thus should not appear this way in formal writing; 6) "wasting guys"; only colloquially does the verb ‘to waste' mean ‘to kill'; it in fact means ‘to squander' or ‘use thoughtlessly;' the author should also specify the ‘guys' he/she means; 7) "WWF Monday Nite Nitro"; inappropriate cultural reference; in fact, Beowulf is nothing like pro-wrestling; most attempts to compare historical figures casually to modern culture are doomed to failure; 8) "some kind of power trip" is also colloquial; "some kind of" is vague", and "power trip" is a modern concept not a medieval one. 9) "What's up with that, anyway?"; another casual figure of speech.
A better example: "Beowulf's actions show him to possess a callous brutality and lack of concern with human life that is shocking to a modern audience."
Explanation: This sentence retains the (anachronistic) modern assumptions about the nature of violence in Beowulf, but it is much more precise and formal. It also drops the inappropriate (if amusing) cultural references (to wrestling) and focuses on the meaning that the writer wishes to convey.
Richard Barton
April 17, 1996
Modified 2/8/00