What is an Historical Essay?

(Adapted from  Writing Historical Essays  by S. Waugh)

When you write an historical essay (in an exam question or as a research paper)  you are arguing in favor of a your own particular interpretation of an historical event or process.  Your argument recognizes that differing interpretations are possible, but it seeks to convince the reader of yours.  Basically, an argument consists of two elements: the statement of your thesis (your main point, assertion, argument, or interpretation) and the evidence you use to support that thesis and to convince the reader of its validity.  The thesis and the evidence are mutually dependent.  The thesis grows out of your knowledge of the subject, while its strength and validity depends on the accuracy and relevance of the information you use to support it.

Your thesis statement establishes the topic of the paper and clearly defines your position on it.  Whatever the historical topic, you always write from a subjective viewpoint (whether consciously or unconsciously).  A good historical essay makes that viewpoint clear.  You state your thesis about the historical topic as succinctly as possible and declare your intention to argue in favor of that thesis.

Once you have defined your thesis, you defend it by producing supporting evidence in a convincing manner.  A thesis by itself is useless unless supported by historical facts.  On the other hand, mere facts by themselves do not demonstrate anything.  You must evaluate your information and sources carefully and then select only those facts which pertain to the thesis.  If you find that your facts do not "fit" your thesis, serve as "filler" to take up space,  or if they contradict your thesis, then you must re-evaluate your thesis and either modify it or discard it so that the evidence and argument mesh.  The process of planning an historical essay thus involves understanding the historical topic and information relating to the topic, then working out a thesis that accounts for the topic and is supported  by the information. 

In addition to choosing relevant evidence, you must present it logically and clearly to defend your thesis.  Most historical arguments depend on factual evidence to support the thesis, and you must organize and marshal that evidence in a convincing manner.  Loosely connected or random facts do not constitute evidence.  You must connect them and demonstrate how the facts support your thesis and how they relate to the historical topic.  Thus, an historical essay presents and defends a thesis through the logical construction of an historical argument and use of historical evidence.

Point of View    

Most available information is in secondary sources (history books or textbooks, internet history pages of various quality) and lectures.  Remember that this material has been filtered and selected by the authors or instructor.  They have organized it around a thesis, just as you are expected to organize it in your thesis.  While not necessary, you may need to comment on the historiography  (that is, the history of historical writing on this subject) of an historical argument:  how historians have produced differing interpretations and theses concerning that topic, and how your thesis fits into that tradition.  Always be aware in reading historical works, looking at history-related web pages, listening to lectures, or gathering material to write an essay, that the author or instructor or source has organized their material with a special emphasis to defend a particular thesis or point of view.  Is the point of view presented valid?  Consider the source of the point of view.  What if it is the KKK giving you their version of history on their web page?  Remember, just because evidence is found on the internet or in a published source does not make it valid unless you can determine if it is by analyzing its background and point of view.

Six Steps in Writing an Historical Essay     

The following outline presents the method of planning and writing your historical essay that is expected by the instructor.  Following these steps will save you time and result in a better essay grade.

Step I.  Understand the Assignment        

Begin by reading the question or assignment carefully.  Be clear about its intention.  If you are not sure what is expected of you, ask your instructor to clarify it for you.  Refer to Appendix A for explanations of different types of questions, historical terminology, and the meaning of assignments.  You are literally "betting your grade" if you do not follow this necessary step.

Step. 2:  Make a Provisional Thesis Statement  

Once you understand the assignment, skim the material which relates to the question as you now understand it, especially the relevant parts of the textbook.  Review your notes on readings, lectures, and discussions.  Other basic background information sources include encyclopedias (paper, disc, or online), history reference materials in the library reference section, and other general history books or texts (you should note that the instructor does not recommend or count these as acceptable sources unless he has given his permission -- they are for background only).  Once you have sufficient background information, take a stand yourself.  Write down a short statement of one or two sentences that summarizes your preliminary position on the topic.  Be bold and state your thesis as clearly as possible.  Remember, this is only a provisional stand that you can change later.   This is actually the most difficult part of the process.

When it comes to formulating your thesis, state it in a way that convinces the reader that the topic is important and your thesis will contribute to understanding the topic.   

Step 3:  Gather Your Ideas and Information (Research) 

After formulating your thesis, carefully study the course material which pertains to the assignment and then collect relevant outside information.  As you know, this is the most time-consuming part of your paper.   You will need to do in-depth research at the library or in other sources.  To be successful, you should try and locate and utilize as many information sources as possible, remembering that the instructor requires (at the barest minimum) at least three other than your textbook.  Your search for facts will be easier if you have a clearly stated thesis to guide you.  Remember, the facts you gather are the evidence you need to defend your thesis and to convince the reader (the instructor)  of its validity.  If in the course of this search you discover information that contradicts or weakens your thesis, go back, reconsider, and revise your thesis.  Furthermore, as you gather evidence, take time to sort it out and start to organize it into a logical argument.  Thus, as you begin to group related facts and ideas, you will sense an appropriate structure for the evidence, such as a chronological, comparative, or topical arrangement.

Step 4:  Outline Your Essay    

In the simplest terms, an historical essay (a research paper/project or an exam question) consists of three basic parts.  The introduction presents the historical topic, announces your thesis about the topic, and defines your focus, usually by previewing the organization of main points to come.  The body defends your thesis by offering evidence to support it (dates, figures, names, historical events, citations from secondary sources, explanations).  The conclusion briefly restates your thesis, summarizes your main points of evidence, and places your thesis in its general historical context.  Organize your essay on this basis.

The body of your essay requires the greatest organization because the evidence, to be convincing, must be presented in a logical, coherent form so that your argument moves clearly from point to point.  The facts must be organized consistently throughout your essay according to a principle that is appropriate to the question or assignment.  These could be: (1) chronological -- -presented in order as they occurred, (2) comparative -- according to similarities and differences, and  (3) topical -- according to analytical categories that identify features of a problem:  e.g., social, technological, administrative, military, political, intellectual, economic, religious, external, geographical.  Such clear organization helps the reader follow your thesis and evidence in order to evaluate your argument (and grade it). 

Outlining at this stage will save time and effort when you draft the paper.  But outlining is helpful in another way, too.  This planning stage, where you have to identify some main ideas and put them down on paper in some order, also forces you to think through the material actively.  By outlining, you make the material your own and learn it thoroughly.  It is also much easier to revise an outline (add, omit, or change around main points) than to revise a completed essay.  A simple outline will show you if your evidence matches your thesis, if your thesis "stands up," and if your essay will flow smoothly from point to point.  If not, then you can experiment with rearranging the material to present it more convincingly, without having to rewrite the entire essay.  A satisfactory outline reassures you that you now know the material well enough to write a good essay, and it provides a plan for drafting the essay.

 Step 5:  Draft the Essay   

Your outline is a skeleton structure of the essay. Now develop these main points, paragraph by paragraph, by writing sentences that add examples, define terms, explain facts, draw conclusions, connect one point to another, etc.  As your write your essay, following the outlined plan you have laid out, keep a few points in mind:

     a)  Use simple, direct language.  Express your ideas and present your evidence clearly and accurately in every-day words.

     b)  Compose your essay in paragraphs that are clearly related to one another.  Each paragraph should have a topic sentence and should develop a single idea.  Provide a transition sentence or phrase to link paragraphs. 

      c)  Use specific, relevant information to support your thesis, and present it in precise sentences.  For example, instead of writing vaguely that "There was great population growth during the Progressive years," say, "During the 1890s and the first decade of the twentieth century, America's highest rate of population growth was achieved because of the immigration of some 17 million people from southern and eastern Europe."

      d)  Use the active, rather than the passive voice.  As often as possible show the agent of historical actions.  For example, instead of saying, "The Puritans were forced to leave England," you can more effectively and accurately write, "Persecution by the royal government and Church of England drove Puritans into exile during the 1630s."

      e)  Cite only facts that support your argument.  Any information that you could not know or you have researched to support your argument should be acknowledged by a citation.  You need to "unlearn" that footnoting is just for quotes.  You may quote (and cite) only statements of fact that are necessary pieces of  evidence to support your thesis, for example, primary source evidence.  Do not quote unnecessarily (for "filler" purposes).  Do not quote some author's analysis, even if it is exactly what you want to say, unless you are contrasting it to your thesis.  The instructor wants your work, not the ideas you have borrowed from some author.  You may, however, cite facts that the author has used.

Step 6:  Revise, Edit, and Proofread Your Essay     

After you have written the essay, go over your draft and revise it.  Rephrase your thesis, if necessary, to make it as clear and effective as possible, making sure you have previewed all the main arguments.  Add specific examples and transitional words and phrases.  Read the essay out loud to hear how it sounds.  Correct any mistakes in phrasing, grammar, or spelling as these all impact your grade.  Change passive sentences to the active voice.  Make sure that each of your paragraphs has a topic sentence, covers a single main idea, and links up with those before and after it.  Refer to Appendix B for the required format of the final draft.  When you have a final draft, proofread it for typing errors.  In fact, have someone else proof it for you.  Spend a little extra time to insure that your final essay is polished and professional. 

Writing Style    

As important as the argument and organization (for your paper's grade) is your writing style --that is how you present your thesis and evidence.  Refer to Appendix B for the basics required by your instructor.  To develop your writing I would highly recommend two books that were (and still are) very helpful to me:   William Strunk, and E.B. White's, The Elements of Style,  is short, bold, and  a classic.  It is a necessary part of a 4-year (or serious 2-year) college student's library.  Joseph Gibaldi and Walter Achtert's, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, is critical for understanding the style of citations and the "Works Cited" page required in your essays.  This book is recommended for college students who anticipate significant writing during their college career.  It is not necessary for most of you as the college library also has on reserve several handbooks on writing college research papers that include and explain the MLA style.  Ask at the desk for help.

  Appendix A:  History Terms

Used in Exams, Essays and Research Projects

1)  Analyze:  Deal with the whole in terms of its parts - for example, a theory in terms of its components, a process in terms of its stages, an event in terms of its causes.  Analysis involves characterizing the whole, identifying the parts and showing how the parts relate to each other to make the whole.

2.)  Assess/Evaluate:  Determine or judge the importance or value of something.  Assessing requires you to develop clearly stated criteria of judgment and to comment on the elements that meet or fail to meet those criteria.

3)  Compare/Contrast:  Discuss the similarities and differences between two elements, emphasizing similarities if the command is to compare and differences if it is to contrast.  Show your understanding of one or the other or both of the elements by showing how they are similar or different from each other.

4)  Criticize:  Clearly state your standards of judgment and then express your judgment about the merit or truth of the factors or views mentioned.

5)  Define:  Give the special characteristics by which a concept, thing, or event, can be recognized - for example, what it is and what it is not.  Place it in its general class and then differentiate it from other members of that class.

6)  Describe:  Give an account of and present the characteristics by which an object, action, or person can be recognized or an event or process can be visualized.

7)  Discuss/Examine:  You are given room to describe, analyze, and/or make judgments about a particular topic.  You must decide on your own position concerning the things to be discussed, your own approach to the topic, and your method of proof.

8)  List/Enumerate:  Give essential points one by one in a logical order.

9)  Interpret:  List the possible effects, results, or meanings of the event or idea, describing their relationship to the event or idea and to each other.  If it is a quote, explain what the author, not you, meant by it.

10)  Explain:  Make clear the reasons for, or the basic principle of something; make it intelligible.  Explanation may involve relating the unfamiliar to the more familiar.  In explaining something, you are answering the question "why" and "how."

11)  Identify:  Briefly answer, as relevant, the questions "who," "what," "when," or "where," and (especially include) "why it is important."

12)  Illustrate:  Use concrete example to explain or clarify the essential attributes of a problem or concept. 

13)  Justify:  Give the reasons in support of an act, event, attitude, statement, thesis, etc.

14)  Outline/Trace:  Organize a description under main points and subordinate points, omitting minor details and stressing the classification of the elements of the problem or the main points in the development of an event or issue.

15)  Prove:  Establish that something is true by citing factual evidence or giving clear, logical reasons for believing the truth of something.

16)  Relate:  Show how things are connected with each other or how one causes another.

17)  Annotated Bibliography:  You explain what you learned or how valuable each listed source was on your Works Cited (bibliography) page to understanding the topic.

     Appendix B:  Final Paper Format

1.  Use ordinary, smooth-surfaced, white typing or printer paper.  Do not use onionskin, or any lightweight, erasable or colored paper.

2.  Make sure your printer produces a good, clean, easy-to-read paper.  Faded print or hard-to-read papers are unacceptable.  Plan ahead.

3.  Print on only one side of the paper.

4.  Unlike MLA required style (the only exception),  provide a cover-sheet giving:  (a) the essay's title, (b) your name, (c) the course, (d) the instructor's name [spell it right!],  (e) the date, and  (f)  "Revision"  if this is a rewrite.  This is for each student's privacy.

5.  Number each page, preferably at the top, and beginning with the second page of  text.

6.  Allow generous margins on all sides:  about 1-1/4" on the left, and at  1" or the other three sides.

7.  Double-space the text.

8.  Use MLA textual citations and provide a Works Cited page.  Be sure to annotate each source if that is required.

9.  Do not abbreviate unnecessarily or use contractions.  For example:  "nineteenth century" (not "19th century"), "that is" (not "i.e." nor that's), "can not" (not can't), "for example" (not "e.g."),  and so forth.  Do use numbers for dates, except as the first word of a sentence, then spell it out.

10.  When you divide a word at the end of a line, place the hyphen only between syllables.

11.  Proofread carefully as you prepare your final draft:  unless you're sure of a word's spelling, check the dictionary.  Use a spell check or have someone else read and proof the final draft before turning it in.

12.  As this is a history paper, all action (and verbs) are in the past tense.

13.  Do not write as you talk.  Speech is much more informal than academic English (check out the my recommended style guides for advice and rules).

14,  Avoid all slang (even if it is commonly used) in writing.  Use standard American English (use a dictionary or style guide).

15.  There are no plurals in the English language, including American English that use:  's   as a plural.  Therefore, "student's, president's, 1980's"  are all wrong.  They should just be:  "students, presidents, 1980s."  Apostrophes (') are only used with possessives.

16.  No plurals in English end with "ist."  Therefore, when you write "colonist" you are writing about only one colonist.  The plural of colonist (or Federalist, communist, or nationalist) is colonists (or Federalists, communists, nationalists).  Plurals in English end in an "s" and it must be there to be grammatically correct.

15.  Staple each essay together with a single staple in the upper left-hand corner.  Do not use paper clips or fold the essay.  And please do not use a folder, a cover,  or a fancy binder.

16.  If given permission for a re-write, always include all the previously graded drafts.

Appendix C:  Organizing An Essay or Project: The Outline  

TOPIC______________________________________________________________________________________________

THESIS_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Main  Point #1 and a preview of evidence to prove it__________________________________________________________

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Main Point #2 and a preview of evidence to prove it__________________________________________________________

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Main Point #3 and a preview of evidence to prove it__________________________________________________________

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Main Point #4 and a preview of evidence to prove it___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

etc...

BODY

Main Point #1_________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Main Point #2_________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Main Point #3_________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Main Point #4_________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________

CONCLUSION

THESIS RESTATED___________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Main Points Reviewed__________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Topic's Place Within Historical Context_____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Personal Conclusion___________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________