Good Historical Research and Writing

Advice from Richard W. Slatta

Why this emphasis on writing? Here's the word from a July 2005 survey of 64 American corpoprations. Excerpts from "Writing: A Ticket to Work . . . Or a Ticket Out, A Survey of Business Leaders," issued by the National Commission on Writing for America's Families, Schools, and Colleges.
  • People who cannot write and communicate clearly will not be hired, and if already working, are unlikely to last long enough to be considered for promotion.
  • Two-thirds of salaried employees in large American companies have some writing responsibility.
  • All employees must have writing ability
  • Applicants who provide poorly written letters wouldn't likely get an interview.

Central Points about Historical Writing

  1. Good historical writing requires, above all, three things. First, know what's expected. If you are writing essays for a classroom course, study and apply the four areas of the History Essay Rubric. If you are on online student, study and apply the requirements of the Online Discusson Rubric as well as the Discussion Reply Rubric.
  2. Second, argue with evidence. Fill your essay with specific historical events, words, people, and places. Every paragraph should be supported by direct quotations from at least three different primary sources.
  3. Third, organize information clearly, logically, and topically. Create several well-focused paragrphs that each focus on one subtopic related to the question.
  4. Get the help that you need. Take advantage of the many services of the university's Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services . You can also email writing and grammar questions to OWL, NCSU's Online Writing Laboratory.
  5. Final points: Do sweat the small stuff: spelling, grammar, word use, etc. Write history using the active voice and the simple past tense [-ed verbs]. (See how to kill the passive for details. For those of you new to historical writing, here's a Venn diagram of similarities and differences between writing in history and in other disciplines. For help with specific issues, eee Jane Straus's Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.
  6. If you need further advice, continue reading about the finer points of historical writing.