WRITING BETTER HISTORY ESSAYS

The History Handbook contains essential information on writing essays, presenting your work, and avoiding plagiarism. Make sure you read it. It can be accessed at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/history/ug/

This handout addresses important issues that require further attention and thought.

What are the Specific Features of an Essay in HISTORY?

In your life you will write in order to accomplish many different goals. Different tasks will require different writing styles, and different ways of structuring your thoughts. You would for example write a newspaper article in a particular way, summarising the important points of the story at the beginning, to command attention but also to allow the reader easily to skim the newspaper. You would structure a novel in quite another way, to communicate other types of ideas and information, and to meet the specific expectations of readers.

A History essay is another particular form of writing, with its own rules and requirements that reflect the nature and purpose of the discipline of History.

In general, in a History essay you will attempt to convey to the reader your own ideas about a very specific subject, in the form of a reasoned, logical and balanced argument. History as a discipline involves understanding that there are many valid perspectives on any one issue. Different people at the time you are writing about had a range of viewpoints on the world around them. Part of the task of the historian is to exercise powers of empathy and reflect the diversity of those past perspectives. Thus you must write a balanced essay which discusses a range of different viewpoints and interpretations. However, at the same time the historian must acknowledge that she is writing from her own particular viewpoint. Thus in your essay you must make it clear what your own viewpoint is, and argue the case for why this is the most useful way of seeing the subject, supporting your arguments with evidence.

Essays titles are often designed very carefully, and phrased so as to encourage you to argue a case on a particular issue. Titles will often take the form of a question, and will focus on controversial or difficult aspects of a topic. If you are given the opportunity to design your own title for an assignment, then make sure that you set out a question that provokes an interesting, rather than bland and descriptive, answer. It is vital that you answer the question, or address the issues raised by the title, as explicitly as possible.

At all times, your essay should focus on analysis and argument – NOT narrative or a simple chronology of events. Why? Because you are trying to write in the style of a scholarly academic historian. You are NOT trying to write in the style of a popular historian, or attempting to write a section of a textbook, or just telling a story.

You can think of this point in terms of two distinct ways of writing history (‘historiography’) that developed in Classical times:

The Western tradition of historiography was created in a remarkably short time by two men. Herodotus invented the idea that […] history-writing should be analytical, not merely narrating but also searching for the causes of things, and the idea of weighing evidence and recognising that it comes in different categories with different degrees of reliability (what you have seen, what you have read, what you have been told).

Thucydides then […] removed most of the ethnography and geography that Herodotus had included and focused intensely on the study of political and psychological process under the pressure of extreme events, expressed through narrative. He thus created a concept of history that was to predominate until the 20th century; that is, of history as story, with, typically, an emphasis on politics and war. Outside the academy that is still what history means to most people.[1]

Follow Herodotus, not Thucydides.

Your essay needs to be structured so as to make your analysis and argument stand out. It should include three substantive parts:

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

In the Introduction you set out your own arguments and show how you will develop them over the course of the essay. You should ensure that your arguments directly answer the specific question that has been set. You may also wish to use your introduction to define any terms or phrases which are integral to the essay and which may require clarification. Where possible, in a short essay keep your introduction to a single paragraph. If you have multiple paragraphs in your introduction, make sure to answer the question and set out your argument in your first paragraph.

The Body of your essay will be composed of multiple paragraphs, and will develop the ideas set down in your introduction. Each paragraph should in general deal with one main point, which is clearly and logically connected with the paragraphs and points that precede it and follow it, and thus contributes to the overall flow of your argument.

The Conclusion of your essay must show how you have fulfilled the promise of the introduction, how you have supported your arguments, and how you have answered the specific question that was set. You may also use the conclusion to acknowledge any ambiguities or points of debate that must remain unresolved.

You should aim for a clear, concise and accurate writing style. You should avoid using overly complex language, and make sure that you know the meaning of all the words that you use. Short sentences are often better than long ones.

Only include material that is relevant to your argument. Avoid vague, general statements, and include only points and ideas that help you answer the question.  Use just enough evidence (examples, case studies, statistics) to back up your argument, but do not fall into the trap of providing evidence merely for its own sake. 

Quoting, Paraphrasing and Avoiding Plagiarism

In the course of your essay, you will wish to refer to the views and ideas of other historians. This will allow you to bring in the range of viewpoints that a good essay requires. To do this, you will need to read scholarly books and articles. Do NOT rely entirely on textbooks or lectures for your material.

The History Handbook includes detailed guidance on using footnotes and a bibliography to acknowledge where you have referred to the work of other historians and where you have borrowed words and ideas from them. You must use these referencing tools properly to avoid plagiarism.

When you quote, make sure you do so accurately, using exactly the same words, punctuation etc. used by the original author. Include quote marks around the words being quoted. Insert a footnote, and in your bibliography add an entry for the source.

You do not want to quote too much. As a rough guide, you should have no more than one quote per paragraph. Avoid long quotations. Wherever possible, paraphrase – put the ideas of other people into your own words. According to Diana Hacker, ‘A paraphrase reports information in roughly the same number of words used by the source, [but does not borrow] extensive language from a source [...] you must restate the source’s meaning in your own words.’[2] So you should change the structure of the sentence, as well as the words being used.  When you paraphrase, you MUST also include a footnote and an entry in your bibliography, just as you would for a quotation. This shows that you are not trying to pass off someone else’s ideas as your own.

Here are some examples: 

Original Quotation

‘With his treasury overflowing with American silver, the King of Spain could credibly aspire to world domination. What else was all that money for, but to enhance his glory?’^[3]

Unacceptable Paraphrase

According to Ferguson, with a treasury overflowing with American precious metals, the King of Spain could reasonably hope for world domination. Why else did he want all that money, but to give him more glory?

This is unacceptable as a paraphrase, because a) there is no footnote reference to the original source, b) it uses too many of the same words used by the original author, and c) it adopts much the same sentence structure. Using Ferguson’s words and ideas in this way would amount to plagiarism.

Acceptable Paraphrase 1

According to Ferguson, the Spanish King hoped for glory and world domination, as he had grown rich on silver from the Americas.^[4]

This is an acceptable paraphrase, as when you compare it with the original you can see that it uses both different wording and a different sentence structure. It also includes a footnote reference to the original source.

Acceptable Paraphrase 2

The Spanish King had grown rich on American silver, which he saw as a means to increase his political power in Europe and overseas.^[5]

This is also acceptable. Although it is not such a close paraphrase as paraphrase 1, it is clearly coming from the same source and thus needs the footnote.

HISTORY ESSAY CHECKLIST

Have you:

• Included an introductory paragraph? This should avoid vague general statements and instead show the reader how you intend to answer the specific question set, and what your overall arguments are.
• Made sure that every paragraph of your essay is directly relevant to the specific question set, and that you explicitly tell the reader how the material in that paragraph relates to your overall arguments?
• Either paraphrased in entirely your own words the ideas you are citing from books and articles, or used quotation marks whenever you have included direct quotes from these books and articles?
• Included full footnote references BOTH for paraphrased ideas cited from books and articles AND for direct quotes from books and articles? And a bibliography at the end?
• Finished with a full concluding paragraph that explicitly answers the specific question set, summarises your own overall arguments, and points to any further important issues that you think your essay has raised?
• Proofread your essay thoroughly and eliminated all typos?
• Formatted your essay, and particularly your footnotes and bibliography, as specified in the History Handbook?