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Writing Guidelines
Guidelines for Writing Scholarly Papers
With thanks to Professor John Moser, Department of History and Political
Science,
Ashland University (http://www.ashland.edu/~jmoser1/papers.html), who
produced these guidelines (though I have changed them slightly) and who
gave me permission to post them.
Writing, even just a brief essay, is one of the most difficult tasks
that you will face in college. It comes more naturally to some than to
others, but it is almost never easy. And like everything else, writing
clearly and effectively requires practice. This handout seeks to address
the basics of writing, but there is no substitute for actually sitting
down and putting your thoughts on paper in logical and coherent form.
Scholarly writing has its own set of rules and conventions that are
different from those of creative or technical writing. Written work in
this class will be expected to conform to these standards, the most
important of which are outlined below.
Basic Structure:
The introductory paragraph should engage the reader’s interest
by setting out clearly the question that the paper is attempting to
address, how you plan to address it, and why it is worth addressing in the
first place. Often it is wise to begin with a brief story or anecdote, or
a particularly powerful statistic, or an appropriate quotation. The key
here is to make the reader want to keep reading.
The thesis statement is a summation of your main point; this
should generally appear at the end of the introductory paragraph. Before
writing, try phrasing your thesis as a simple assertion (“The planet is
running out of manganese”), and then develop it as you write by being as
specific (and, indeed, as provocative) as you can: “Thanks to over-mining
by American corporations, there is a very real possibility that the next
generation will be forced to live in a world without manganese.”
You should then provide background information, basic material
about the subject, to provide context for the reader. Continuing the
above example, you would want to say something about what manganese is and
what it is used for. Depending on the amount of background you think is
necessary, you might want to include this in the introductory paragraph;
for longer essays a separate paragraph (or more) may be required.
The real “meat” of your paper will be the actual points of
discussion. These will be a series of paragraphs that support your
thesis statement, with each point occupying one or two paragraphs,
depending on the essay’s overall length. In this case, one might showcase
statistics on how much manganese there is left in the world; another could
contain statistics on how quickly the manganese supply is being depleted.
The actual number of points, of course, depends on how much you have to
say.
One of the hallmarks of good writing is the ability to move back and
forth smoothly between general statements and concrete details.
Each paragraph should start with a generalization—sort of a miniature
thesis statement. The rest of the paragraph should provide specifics to
back it up; these might include reasons (Corporations have been
over-mining manganese because….), examples (The supply of manganese in
Zaire is at an all-time low….), expert testimony (Joe Baggadonuts,
considered by some the father of the modern manganese conservation
movement, says….), or statistics (In the past twenty-five years more than
20 million tons of manganese have been taken from the earth.). Always
remember, however, that every sentence in any given paragraph should be
devoted to making one individual point, and nothing else.
The concluding paragraph should flow logically from the rest of
the essay, but it should be more than simply a restatement of what you
have done. For a paper of more than three or four pages, you might want
briefly to summarize your main points. The concluding paragraph might
also offer some guidance for action (The time has come to stop the rampant
depletion of the manganese supply….).
In general, the same sorts of strategies employed in writing an
introductory paragraph—using an anecdote, a quote, or a telling
statistic—apply to conclusions as well. However, although your conclusion
should refer back to your thesis statement, if should not merely be a
rewording of what you said in the introduction. Ideally, your conclusion
should convince the reader that he has not been wasting his time, and that
there is something that he can take away from your essay.
Things to Avoid:
Contractions: Words like “didn’t,” “couldn’t,” and “wouldn’t”
should not appear in scholarly writing. Instead use the full words.
Apostrophes should only be used to indicate possession (for example,
George Washington’s presidency).
Passive Voice: “Washington chopped down the cherry tree” sounds
a lot better than “The cherry tree was chopped down by George
Washington.” The former is simple and straightforward; the latter is
wordy and clumsy. Occasionally you will have no choice but to use
passive—for instance, when the subject of the sentence is unknown—but in
most cases you should use the active voice.
First or Second Person: In scholarly writing, the author is
assumed to have “distance” from his or her subject. You should therefore
write as an outside observer, not a participant, and you should treat the
reader in the same way. This means that pronouns such as “I,” “we,” or
“you” are inappropriate. Note that this document is not an example of
good scholarly writing (it is, rather, a piece of technical writing).
Incomplete Sentences: Every sentence must have a subject and a
verb, unless it is part of a direct quote. There are no other exceptions
to this rule.
Imprecise Language: Use words that express your point exactly.
If you write, “Theodore Roosevelt was a good president,” the reader will
probably be left wondering what you meant by that. You might have meant
that he was an effective president, or a strong president, or a morally
upright president. Therefore the words “effective,” “strong,” or “morally
upright” are all far preferable to “good.”
Slang: In conversational English it is perfectly acceptable to
use phrases such as “bumped off” to describe a killing, or “laid back” to
describe someone with a relaxed attitude toward life. However, such
language has no place in scholarly writing (unless it is part of a direct
quote). In general, try to imagine how a reader one hundred years from
now would react to your words. What would your reaction be to a paper
that referred to something as the “bee’s knees” (an expression that was in
vogue one hundred years ago)?
Words Out of Proper Proximity: We see sentences like this all
the time, and they are frequently good for a laugh. For example,
“Witnesses described the thief as a six-foot-tall man with a mustache
weighing 190 pounds.” What weighed 190 pounds? This sentence would lead
one to believe it was the mustache, when clearly the author meant the
thief.
Excessive Wordiness: Do not use more words than you absolutely
need to in order to make your point. For instance, do not write “Queen
Elizabeth was a woman who knew how to rule” when “Queen Elizabeth knew how
to rule” will work just as well. Do not write “time period,” when either
“time” or “period” will suffice. Do not write “due to the fact that,”
when a simple “because” will do.
Excessive Quotation: Often writers who have yet to develop
their own “voice” have a tendency to use a lot of direct quotes from other
authors. This is tedious for the reader, and likely to leave him
wondering whether you have anything original to say. Wherever possible,
paraphrase the work of other authors instead of quoting them directly.
Limit quotes to instances where the author uses a particularly striking
turn of phrase, and where his or her precise meaning would be lost in a
paraphrase.
Dumb Mistakes: College students ought to know better than to
confuse “its” with “it’s,” “there” with “they’re” or “their,” and “who’s”
with “whose.” At the college level students should know that subjects
must agree in number with verbs, and pronouns with their antecedents; for
example, “Each of them had their own ideas” is wrong. “Each of them had
his [or her] own ideas” is correct. Errors like this will cause the
reader to question the basic intellectual capacity of the author.
Plagiarism: Most are familiar with the notion that it is wrong
to pass of another author’s work as one’s own. However, there are more
ways of doing this than simply by copying another author’s words (or
cutting and pasting from the Web). Some seem to think that by changing a
few words one can avoid an accusation of plagiarism. This is wrong;
avoiding plagiarism means citing every single source that you used in
writing a paper—and “use” means draw any sort of fact (except those which
are common knowledge) or interpretation. Plagiarism is the worst form of
professional misconduct that there is in the discipline of history, and I
will punish it to the fullest extent. (Note from Sam here: I agree
completely with Professor Moser's comments.)
Things to Do:
Use Proper Style for Notes and Bibliographies: Whether you use
footnotes or endnotes, make sure they, as well as your bibliography,
conform to the proper style. In the discipline of history that means
Turabian. Your best bet is to obtain a copy of Kate L. Turabian,
Student's Guide for Writing College Papers (3rd revised edition,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), and follow its standards
rigorously. (Note from Sam: you might also pick up Strunk and White,
Elements of Style.)
Pay Attention to Tense: By definition, historical events are
things which happened in the past; therefore it only makes good sense to
use the past tense when discussing them. The only exception to this rule
comes when you are referring to a primary source of some kind, such as an
important document, a book, or a piece of art. For example, you would
write, “The Declaration of Independence states that ‘all men are created
equal.’”
Proofread: If there is one rule that every writer (scholarly or
otherwise) will agree on, it is that the first draft is never the last.
Go back over what you have written again and again, until you are
completely satisfied with the result. Ask yourself some hard questions:
Is my introductory paragraph sufficiently enticing to the reader? Are all
of my statements (and particularly my thesis statement) clear and easily
understood? Have I given the reader enough background to understand my
argument? Do all of my points of discussion back up what I said in the
thesis statement? Does my concluding paragraph follow logically from the
rest of the essay?
Also, be sure to check spelling, grammar, and usage. Spell-check is a
handy feature, but it will only get you so far. Matters like subject-verb
agreement and word choice may sound petty, but they are vitally
important. Sloppiness in this regard will suggest to your reader—even if
it is only your instructor—that you have not taken your subject
seriously. And if that is the case, why bother to read your work at all?
Sources:
Gilderhus, Mark T. History and Historians: A Historiographical
Introduction. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.
Rampolla, Mary Lynn. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. 2nd
ed. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 1998.
Troyka, Lynn Quitman. Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers.
4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.
Style Sheet for Student Papers
General Format: Papers shall be typed, on 8 ½ by 11 inch white
paper, double-spaced, 12 point type, with 1 inch margins all around.
Pages are to be numbered sequentially. The paper should be stapled once,
in the upper-left corner.
Title Page: Feel free to use a title page. If you do not use a
title page, put your name, date, class and instructor’s name in the
upper-left corner of the first page; the title of the paper is to be
centered below this, with the text of the paper following.
Quotations: Place quotations of two lines or fewer into the
text, beginning and ending with quotation marks. Place quotations of 3
lines or more in block format, without quotations marks, as follows:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with another, and to
assume among the powers
of the earth a separate and equal station to which the Laws of
Nature and Nature’s God
entitle them.5
Quotations of either length shall be followed by a footnote citing the
authority. Footnotes shall be numbered sequentially. The format for
footnotes should be as shown in Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers
of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations (6th edition, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1996). Footnotes in short student papers
should not be used for incidental comments or digressions, but should be
limited to citations of authorities.
Footnotes: The most common footnotes are for a book. This must
include the author’s name, full title (including subtitle) of the book,
the place of publication, publisher, year of publication, and page(s).
The style for this is as follows:
Donald Kagan, On the Origins of War and the Preservation of the
Peace (New York: Doubleday, 1995), 150-157.
The last page should be a bibliography, listing all sources
alphabetically according to author’s last name.
Reference: For more narrow issues of style, follow Turabian,
who is consistent with the Chicago Manual of Style (14th edition,
Chicago: University of Chicago, 1993).
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