Advice for first-year students
This Guide gives you only a quick summary of some of the rules and techniques of writing history. You will learn much more when you take one of the required methodology courses (HIS 2100 The Historian’s Craft, HIS 2391 History and Theory, or HIS 2390 Theory and Practice of Microhistory). Make certain that you take one of these courses by the end of your second year! If you have any difficulties (studying, grasping the material, writing, reading all the assigned material, debilitating stress, etc.) there are many services available to you to help you overcome these obstacles. It can happen that the first grade you receive in university will disappoint you. Do not let this discourage you! Some of the professors now teaching you had the same experience. The transition from High School to University level work can be difficult. Do not hesitate to go see your professor, and/or to call upon one of the services of SASS. Do not wait until it is too late in the semester to address your particular difficulty.
Advice for non-history majors and first-year history students
Keep in mind that history is not just about what happened in the past, but also about why things happened the way they did. A history paper is therefore not a “report” (summarizing a bunch of facts about the past), nor is it an opinion piece (you need proof for your hypothesis, like in the sciences). Simply put, you will need two things in your papers: an argument, and evidence to support that argument. See here for History-specific problems and tips. You may wonder why we historians require such a complicated footnoting system (Chicago style), as opposed to the simpler parenthetical system used in the social sciences (APA or MLA styles). The reason is simple: historians write on the basis of hundreds of archival documents. If we used the APA style, the source list could end up longer than the text.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M Williams, and Joseph Bizup, eds. The Craft of Research, 4th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Chicago Manual of Style Online. 17th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Marrus, Richard and Melvin E. Page. A Short Guide to Writing about History. 9th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2015.
Robertson, Hugh. The Research Essay: A Guide to Essays and Papers. 5th ed. Ottawa: Piperhill, 2001.
Storey, William Kelleher and Mairi Cowan. Writing History: A Guide for Canadian Students. 5th ed. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Tosh, John. The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of Modern History. 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2010.
Turabian, Kate, Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations : Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. 9th edition. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
On-line resources
History Research Guide (Library)
Kreis, Steven. “A Student’s Guide to the Study of History.” Last revised January 3, 2020. http://www.historyguide.org/guide/guide.html This online guide covers many topics not covered here, such taking notes in class, writing short essays, studying for exams, etc.
Rael, Patrick. Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students. Brunswick, Maine: Bowdoin College: 2004. This older guide remains very useful since it covers – in addition to the topics addressed in this Guide and the one mentioned above – reading primary and secondary sources.
American Library Association, Reference and User Services Association. Primary Sources on the Web: Finding, Evaluating, Using.
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