Stylistic Suggestions for History Writing Assignments

• Proofreading and presentation: A paper’s presentation makes a statement about how much the author cared to submit it. Papers should be presented as neatly as possible. They should not be submitted folded or creased and should be stapled before you come to class. Additionally, an essay filled with typographical errors, misspellings, words & paragraphs crossed out in ink, and other such distractions, however minor they may be, distances the reader from its content, much as an individual’s breath infused with garlic coffee distances one from the woman he is about to kiss. Diligent proofreading will catch most, if not all, errors, thereby improving the reader’s appreciation of your prose. Do not depend on your spell checker to bail you out; it does not catch homonyms. I expect that you will proofread your papers as if your grade depended on it, because it does.

• Plagiarism occurs whenever one uses someone else’s words or ideas without attribution. It is a form of cheating and is one of the worst academic sins. When writing papers, therefore, you must use your own words, except when you use quotations, in which case you must use quotation marks. Suspected instances of plagiarism, or other forms of academic dishonesty, will be turned over to the appropriate disciplinary authorities.

• When writing an essay, a brief introduction that sets the historical context of your topic is usually appropriate. The introduction should contain a thesis, a single statement that states what your essay intends to accomplish and lays out the organizational pattern of your essay. Think of your thesis as a road map for your essay.

• Write in complete sentences. Vary the length and complexity of your sentences, but make sure that each sentence is clear and has some relationship to what precedes it and what follows it.

• Connect information in body paragraphs to your thesis statement. Don’t abruptly end a paragraph without expressly connecting its contents to your overall argument.

• Connect ideas within and between paragraphs using transitional words and phrases such as however, moreover, therefore, thus, etc.

• A short conclusion that ties together your argument with the main points you have presented is usually a good idea – especially if there is a possibility that your essay will be read by a tired grader. In some circumstances, it is appropriate to connect your essay to some future event in history or its overall place in history’s scope. But other than making these broad connections (which should only be done briefly), no new information should be introduced in a conclusion.

• Always use the past tense for historical writing. (Although Mrs. Woollen and Mrs. Bobula would like me to point out that you should use the literary present tense in writing for their classes.)

• Generally speaking, history essays should be written in chronological order. It usually does not make sense for your first body paragraph to focus on an event that occurred 50 years after the event you discuss in the second body paragraph. Introductions and conclusions should utilize chronological order as well.

• Avoid the passive voice. Instead of writing “The student was berated by Mr. Thorburn for not knowing the name of Millard Fillmore’s vice-president,” write “Mr. Thorburn berated the student for not knowing the name of Millard Fillmore’s vice president.” See how much better that sounds?

• The first time a person is mentioned in your paper, use the full name. Thereafter the last name is usually sufficient. In no case should you refer to a person simply by their first name. Drop titles such as Mr., Ms., Mrs., and Dr.

• Always avoid absolutes. History is not a science. Rarely in this discipline do things never, always, precisely, or absolutely happen. Be careful when making these claims, and beware of other peoples’ absolute claims.

• Avoid abbreviations – especially the temptation to refer to the great global monstrosities as WWI and WWII, or God forbid, WW1 and WW2.

• Avoid vague language – particularly any word or variation thereof in the following sentence: One gets a lot of great things and nice stuff there.

• American people live in the United States – when needing to use an adjective, use the word “American.” Likewise, when needing to use a noun, use United States.

• Avoid phrases such as “It is interesting to note,” and avoid first person references such as “I feel” and “we see that.” In fact, simply avoid using I, me, we, us, our, you, and your. I cannot make this next point strongly enough: no one really cares what you think, so drop the phrase “I think.” Instead of saying “I think Mr. Thorburn is suave, debonair, and handsome,” simply state “Mr. Thorburn is suave, debonair, and handsome.” In the first statement, the audience has the opportunity to disagree by saying “Well, I think he’s goofy.” In the second statement, it has been stated as fact (as it should), and as such is a much stronger statement.

• Do not use contractions. While most contractions contract two words, can’t is a contraction for cannot. Notice that cannot is one word.

• Underline (or italicize) titles of books, magazines, movies, television shows, newspapers and the names of ships. “Titles of articles, chapters, songs, poems, and short stories” should be placed within quotation marks.

• Only write out numbers as words when the number is less than ten or if the number is the first word of the sentence. Otherwise, use numerals. (Although you should not mix words and numerals in the same sentence – choose one way to write it and be consistent.) Use numerals when expressing a dollar amount (ie, $2.76, $.05, $769,022) unless it is an amount over one million. You may then truncate the number and use the word million (or billion, trillion, etc. – ie, $4.5 billion).

AP US HISTORY/AMERICAN STUDIES

MR. THORBURN

Editing Comments

Here are a few of the symbols or words I may use in commenting on your papers:

· awk. - awkward phrase or sentence structure (read sentence aloud)

· ew - empty words

· vt - verb tense

· aa - avoid absolutes

· ch - chronology error

· ME - major error / LE - little error

· ppp - see pet peeve posters

· TIS - turkey in suspense - a vague statement that indicates later you will take a stand; it is a waste of words; ie, “Some people supported imperialism and others were opposed but only one side had the stronger argument.” This person could have simply stated which side had the stronger argument, but for some reason, didn’t.

· frag. - fragment; incomplete sentence

· run-on (or R-O) - run-on sentence

· T - (for transition) - the topic shifts suddenly without the new subject’s being properly introduced or contextualized

· C – connect this information to your thesis and/or topic sentence(s)

· WC - poor or incorrect word choice

· (A) Insert Document A here

· TS - need topic sentence or topic sentence is unclear

· OT - information out of time period

· RE - redundant • // - parallelism

· aa - avoid absolutes • FL - faulty logic

· KQW - key question words

· ¶ - insert paragraph

· ^ - insert word(s) (phrases may be circled or enclosed in parentheses). I may also use arrows.

· / - through a capital letter, this symbol often means “use lower case.” More generally, it means “delete.”

· √- good point; well said

· # - Error in writing out numbers as word vs. as numeral. See classroom pet peeve poster

· ! - indicates astonishnj hyyment/amazement/bewilderment at a statement and may express either appreciation or consternation.

· A(n)rgh! - Factor of Frustration, where A is the coefficient of exasperation, and n the number of times I beat my head against the wall in disbelief at what you have written.