Table of Contents:

General Overview

Patrick Rael has produced an excellent resource on historical writing for students, Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students. I highly recommend that you spend some time reading this site.

My Expectations for an Undergraduate Term Paper: Draft

A draft is by definition a work in progress. You should always begin writing long before you have everything figured out. We learn by writing so writing must be a iterative process that begins with ideas which then get refined through the process of writing. When submitting a rough draft for a class, you will nevertheless want to include the following:

  • Clearly stated thesis statement (or hypothesis if your thesis is still evolving). The clarity is the critical part.
  • Interaction with primary sources
  • Interaction with secondary sources
  • Footnotes — avoid the temptation of putting them off citations until the last minute!
  • Bibliography

My Expectations for an Undergraduate Term Paper: Final

Thesis Statements

Your paper should contain a clear, focused, and arguable thesis statement that contains your value added contribution.

  • “Clear” means that your reader ought to be able to identify your thesis without any question in the matter. Given the fact that undergraduate writing assignments tend to be rather short, you probably want to put your thesis on the first page, if not in the first paragraph. This will help you get on with your argument but will also make your thesis easy to identify.
  • “Focused” means that your thesis should be appropriate to the length of the assignment. You cannot detail the history of the entire Roman economy in 3000 words. Proposing a thesis focused on the close analysis of a couple of primary source texts will greatly help you produce a compelling argument.
  • “Arguable” means that a good thesis cannot simply state the obvious. It must propose an argument on which different students of the subject could legitimately disagree. “Rome won a lot of wars in the process of becoming a Mediterranean empire” does not offer an arguable thesis. An example of an arguable thesis would be something like this: “Although Rome won many military victories, the secret to Roman success must be located in the Roman ability to engage successfully in diplomacy.” (N.B. This example is not focused enough to meet the expectations of requirement b. above but helps make a point about what constitutes an “arguable” thesis.)
  • “Value added” means that your thesis must set up a paper that will offer ideas that belong to you. Your thesis and argument should not merely repackage the work you find in your secondary sources. In articulating an arguable thesis, it helps if that thesis comes from your own careful reading and interpretation of primary sources.
  • One convenient way to find an arguable thesis with a clear value added is to locate an ongoing scholarly debate and weigh in on it by re-interpreting a primary source text or bringing to the debate a source that those engaged in that debate have not dealt with sufficiently.

For a different discussion of what makes for a strong thesis statement and some valuable help with the mechanics of writing a thesis statement, see this excellent resource produced by the History Department at UCLA: https://history.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/u184/thesis_statements.pdf.

The Texas A&M University Library also has a very helpful interactive tutorial on thesis writing.

Interaction with Primary Sources

  • A close reading of sources demonstrates careful interpretation and analysis of sources. You cannot prove a thesis without closely reading primary sources.
  • Make sure you understand the context of a primary source before using it in your writing. You should avoid quoting from anthologies or lifting primary quotations from secondary sources. If something is worth quoting, it is worth reading in its broader context.
  • Always analyze the primary sources you use in your paper, especially when you quote them. The presence of a primary source quotation does not, and indeed cannot, prove your point. Your interpretation must make explicit how the sources support your thesis.
  • Anything worth quoting is worth interpreting explicitly. Anything not worth interpreting explicitly is not worth quoting.
  • Use a primary source quotation in your writing when the specific language of the source helps you make your argument. Otherwise, a summary or general reference (with citation) should be sufficient.

Interaction with Secondary Sources

  • This requires careful negotiation of your relationship with secondary sources relevant to proving your thesis. Sometimes this simply means that secondary sources offer a source of information that you do not have the time or skills to prove in your paper. More importantly, however, this means that your thesis statement and the argument you use to prove that thesis statement will interact with what scholars in the field have already said about your topic. The two most common ways to do this are to agree with, but offer an improvement on, someone’s argument, or to critique someone’s argument. (N.B. A summary of secondary sources is not a research paper!)
  • Quoting a secondary source cannot prove your point. It might support your argument, but it cannot in and of itself prove your point. Show how the source supports your argument.
  • Anything worth quoting is worth interpreting explicitly. Anything not worth interpreting explicitly is not worth quoting.
  • Use a secondary source quotation in your writing when the specific language of the source helps you make your argument. Otherwise, a summary or general reference (with citation) should be sufficient.

Footnotes

  • “Footnotes” means that you should not use parenthetical citations!
  • “Footnotes” means that you should not use endnotes!
  • Footnotes must be properly formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style or Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.
  • Make sure you use the footnote feature in your word processing program when insert footnotes.
  • See the Citations page of this website for more detail.

Bibligraphy/Works Cited

  • Bibliography must be properly formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style or Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. See the Citations page of this website for more detail.
  • Take particular care with the difference between an ancient author and a modern editor of an ancient text. The modern editor was not the author of your ancient source. The author is the author and the editor is the editor. Know the difference and cite your sources accordingly. See here for help citing a work in a collection.

Formatting

  • Please do not include a title page. Simply put your name and this class at the top of the page along with the word count of your paper (use the word count feature in MS Word).
  • Give your paper a title. A title is a great place to begin the process of engaging your reader. Consider something clever (but not silly). You might want to incorporate a short quotation from your primary source reading or offer something that foreshadows your argument.
  • Consider using section and sub-section headings. These signpost to your reader where your argument is going and facilitates transitions between the separate ideas that go into making your argument.
  • Your assignment asks you to write within a certain word range. Edit your paper to ensure that it is within this range. Put the word count at the top of the first page.
  • Include page numbers.
  • If you will write about physical objects for which you could include images, create an appendix and number each image: figure 1, figure 2, etc. In the body of your text, you may then simply refer your reader to the figure you are discussing. Of course, you will want to include the source of your images in your bibliography.

Revising

  • Revise your thesis and argument to make sure that your thesis is appropriate to your argument and your argument proves your thesis.
  • Revise your prose to ensure that you employ proper grammar, clear sentences, and smooth transitions between ideas, sections, and paragraphs.
  • Look for passive verbs (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, have, has, had) and consider ways to reduce or even eliminate them. The occasional use of passive does not present a problem but the frequent use tends to take the life out of your writing. For more on passive voice, see: https://writingcenter.tamu.edu/Students/Writing-Speaking-Guides/Alphabetical-List-of-Guides/Drafting/Active-Passive-Voice/.
  • Revise your text, footnotes, and bibliography to ensure that you give proper credit where credit is due.

Writing/Revising Reminders

  • Use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
  • You generally want to avoid using the first person (I, my, we, etc.)
  • Avoid contractions (don’t, shouldn’t, etc.)