A few steps to a superior history essay

Reading Historical Sources

We face three kinds of sources: primary (from the time and place we study--firsthand accounts; secondary, scholarly sources--written later by experts in the field, and tertiary sources (dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.). While you may consult a tertiary source for basic background information, you may never cite a tertiary source in university-level research. Forget most online sources, especially those without a refereeing system, such as Wikipedia. We FIND historical information by READING primary & secondary sources. We EVALUATE sources by comparing the relative strength of different documents or interpretations. Read about how to identify and navigate a scholarly monograph. If a scholarly source is not scholarly; don't cite it!!

First skim the assigned reading. Scan chapter subheadings which highlight major topics & themes. Notice the relative amount of space dedicated to various events, themes, & persons. More space usually means greater importance. Notice important persons & events.

Read ACTIVELY, using the focus questions in the syllabus as guides. Underline text, make marginal notations, take notes, or jot down page references relevant to each question. Reflect on what you read. It's one thing to know what the author says & another to evaluate it & synthesize it into your own interpretation. Set aside time to reflect, criticize, note patterns & themes. Drawing together information from various sources (synthesizing, integrating) is a key cognitive skill for many disciplines, including history.

Incorporate information from classroom notes (not for online students). Look for key concepts, themes, and examples that you can add to your essay. See the Notetaking Tips Page for advice on how to take effective notes in the classroom.

Conceptualizing and Organizing Your Essay

Consider your Audience: In preparing any act of communication, ask yourself a basic question: "Who is my audience?" Who are your writing or speaking to? Audience should determine your vocabulary, style, and level of detail. If you have a writing or speaking assignment, always be certain that you understand the target audience. If an instructor does not tell you--ASK! For this course, your audience is "the intelligent lay reader"-- someone interested in your topic but with no background. Put another way, write to your fellow NCSU students. You are not writing to me, the professor. You are writing to your fellow students. This audience has not had a course in Latin American history. Thus, when you use technical and/or Spanish-language terms, you must define them briefly. When you introduce a historical actor (someone you quote or discuss), you must briefly identify them. (This practice is also good manners. You do introduce your friends to one another, don't you?) If you refer to prior historical events, describe them briefly. Finally, you must organize your ideas clearly, because your reader is not a mind reader. S/he does not intuitively know the structure of your interpretation. You must clearly, logically present and explain your ideas so that a fellow student can understand and appreciate them. This is the first rule of writing. Violate it and nothing else can compensate.

FOCUS on what the question asks.Read it thoroughly and thoughtfully. Be certain that you understand it. Ask or email the instructor if anything is unclear. Note whether you are being asked to discuss, contrast, trace, justify, evaluate, critique, etc. Students often write "around" a question because they do not understand its essence. 

ANALYZE the type of question being asked. Examining the imperative verb. Are you asked to "compare" (which always means compare AND contrast; bring out points of similarity & difference), "evaluate" (give good and bad points, appraise, critique), "summarize" (give the main points briefly), "trace" (follow the course of, describe the progress or changes)? 

ORGANIZE your ideas clearly and logically. Avoid a "shotgun" approach. Do not spray facts and ideas around at random. How do you organize an essay? By organizing each paragraph within the essay. "Good paragraphs should develop one coherent issue. The first sentence of a paragraph should do three things: explain what the paragraph is about, connect it to your thesis, and connect it to the paragraph before" (thanks for colleague Holly Brewer for the previous two sentences.) You may wish to use the Synthesis Matrix to help draw together information from several different sources into logical topics.

Look at how the question is phrased. Does it have several parts? Does it group things topically, such as economic, political, & social factors? Use the phrasing of the question as a guide for organizing your answer. Outline your answer. Besides helping organize your ideas & factual evidence, an outline assists you in budgeting your limited space. If the outline for a 1000 word essay has 4 major sections, for example, then you should devote no more than 250 to any one section. The outline helps you stick to the point. Don't ramble or get sidetracked. Write about what is asked; not about what you know best. An outline keeps you from "overwriting" some portion of the question & omitting other sections.

Writing, rewriting, editing, revising

SUMMARIZE your reflections & COMMUNICATE them in clearly written essays. Take full advantage of computer tools: word processing, grammar and spell checking software, etc. to write and revise a clear, thoughtful paper.

Construct a good historical analysis includes the selection of significant historical events & processes, the organization of evidence into meaningful, well supported arguments, & the clear, convincing presentation of those arguments in a well integrated interpretation. Be selective; be organized; be critical of sources; be analytical, not just descriptive.

Make certain that you understand what the prompt (verbs) in the question or assignment mean. This link defines some frequently used essay verbs.

Avoid jargon, especially biz-speak. Bullfighter, free software, will help you kill the stupid, faddish, mindless jargon and phrasing that washes over businesses, especially in the computer realm. Use standard English if you wish to be understood.

Avoid sexist language. Do not exclude [alienate or offend] people through careless phrasing.

Avoid logical fallacies. Examine the varieties of fallacies at

• The European Society for General Semanatics Fallacies Page
• Stephen Downes Guide to the Logical Fallacies,
• LEO: Literacy Education Online List of Logical Fallacies.

SUPPORT your arguments and generalizations with specific historical evidence. Professional historians spend much time researching primary sources [firsthand reports] in historical archives. Most of your supporting evidence will come from secondary sources written after the fact. However, primary sources often reside "inside" secondary sources. Thus a textbook or historical monograph (secondary source) often includes the actual words and actions of people in the past. Likewise the online essays that you (mostly written "after the fact," also will contain primary source quotations from the past. These words and actions from the past are the primary sources that should support generalizations in your essays. Reread Online Primary Sources Page. It explains and illustrates the difference between primary and secondary sources.

Use real historical events and words that illustrate and "bring to life" what you've analyzed. Read your sources and then reread them (recursive reading)! A good essay is well supported by factual evidence. When you state a generalization, back it up with a specific example. This is the most common failure in student essays.

Sample generalization/thesis: The governing elite in 19th-century Argentina use the legal system to control gaucho life. Description/analysis: A government decree of July 17, 1823, made it illegal for a worker to leave his employer's ranch without getting written permission from the rancher. Other decrees in the following years made it even easier for an official to declare any gaucho a vagrant, thus making him a criminal. The laws remained in force for decades. Evidence/examples: For example, in 1839, Francisco Solano Rocha suffered arrest in the country of Ranchos for lacking a passport and an employer. Officials arrested Bartolo Díaz, from the province of Santiago del Estero, for vagrancy (lacking a passport) in 1846 (Slatta, Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier, 1992, pp. 110-12).

Let's try to illustrate this point about evidence by analogy. From grammar school on, math teachers insist that we "show our work." They want to see the process by which we arrived at our answers to be certain that we understand it. In history, a conclusion or generalization is the "final answer." However, like the math teacher, we require that you show how you arrived at the answer--what primary source information (data) from the past led you to that conclusion. In science labs, you carefully specify the materials that you use and the process that you follow. Process is as important as the end product in any discipline. Likewise I want you to illustrate your historical reasoning by linking your outcomes (conclusions) to the historical data.

Remember: PEOPLE make history -- history is the study of human actions in the past -- so be certain that you write about people and what they did! Try to support your essay with examples of what real people did and said. Do not quote secondary sources (the authors of your textbooks) directly. Use your own words instead of those of the textbook author(s). Search your assigned readings for appropriate primary source quotations --voices from the past-- and incorporate them into your essay.

THINK -- don't just parrot. Yes, you need to discuss substantive historical events and yes you must deal with the facts (evidence). But this is your interpretation-- your analysis -- so bring your ideas to the fore! Not every great thought about history has been thought. There is room for your interpretation--as long as you support your ideas with historical evidence.

Use proper grammar and punctuation. Lynne Truss reminds us that "proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking." She continues, "the reason to stand up for puncutation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning. Punctation herds words together, keeps others part. Punctuation directs you how to read, in the way musical notation directs a musician how to play." [Eats, Shoots & Leaves: A Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, 2003, pp. 202, 20]

In Learning Outside the Lines, Jonathan Mooney and David Cole provide many good college survival tips. Heer's their checklist for reviewing and revising an essay (p. 183).

1. Read the thing over out loud.
2. Find your thesis. Critically evaluate your thesis.
3. Reevluate and rewrite topic sentences.
4. Map the development. [Draw a visual image or flowchart of how the ideas fit together.]
5. Highlight the rough spots. [Yes, literally, use a highlighter, on the computer or on a printed page, to spotlight problems.
6. HAVE FUN! It's not every day you get to make history.

OK, all this writing instruction got you down? Check out this more light-hearted approach: Timeless Writing Advice. Back to the top of the page