History 329.01
Spring 2002

Befor you write a draft you should read pp. 149-233 of The Craft of Research. Before you write the final draft, go back and review the revision advice it provides.

As you revise, it may also be useful for you to know some of the questions I ask myself when I read I paper:

1. Does it make an argument? The paper should state a historical problem that requires solution. It should offer a solution. The real test of your thesis is that it should not be descriptive; it should make a point that someone could dispute if their evidence were strong enough.

To accomplish all of these feats, make sure your paper has a strong introduction. You need to state a problem in your introduction (this requires a common ground and a disruption). You also need to have a thesis that offers a solution to the problem: that is, it shouldn't just repeat the disruption. Your paper needs to offer an explanation.

2. Does the body of the paper support the thesis? The paper should present clear sub-claims and the evidence for them.

To accomplish this last point, break your paper into sections. Begin each section with a short introduction. The introduction should explain why you have this subsection (that is, it should present a problem). So include a common ground and disruption (often the common ground for one section may be stated in the conclusion of a previous section). In addition, restate your sub-claim in the conclusion of the section to make sure you get it across.

3. Do the separate sections tie together into a unified whole? That is, the whole should be coherent.

Coherence between sections depends on logic, but the main points of each section should clearly connect to each other. That means you need to have transitions between them. Keywords can help do the job here.

Within each section, there is an easy was to check for focus and coherence. For each section, look at your thesis. Identify the keywords that appear in it. Underline all the paragraph topic sentences for the body of the text and at the beginning of your conclusion.

Do they all have some of your thesis keywords in them? If not, look at the offending paragraph.

Does it have some of the keywords? If so, think about rewriting the topic sentence.

If not, you have to decide whether it is your thesis that seems off topic or the paragraph in question. Rewrite accordingly. If it is the last few paragraphs that don't match up well, you should think about changing the thesis and the first few paragraphs in the body of the text. The last few paragraphs usually tell you where your thinking took you. These paragraphs are usually the most honest reflections of your thinking. They should help you rethink and refocus the ideas you had when you started. As a result, they often contain better ideas than you had when you first drafted the section.

4. Does the conclusion agree with the introduction?

Believe it or not, this is probably the biggest problem I see in papers. Don't let this happen to you. Make sure you compare the introduction against the conclusion.

5. Does it have a bibliography?

The bibliography should indicate both the primary and secondary sources consulted for the paper. Among the secondary sources, there should be a mix of journal articles, monographs, and other sources. Bibliographies are typically single spaced with a space between each entry. You should expect to have at least 15 to 20 different sources.

In addition the paper:
-Should not use "this" as a pronoun.
-Should have a good, one sentence thesis at the end of every introduction. I know this is repitive, but it's important.
-Should not use the passive voice except for very good reason. If you don't know when it is ok to use the passive voice you have not read the The Craft of Resarch closely enough.
-Should be typed, double-spaced, indented at the beginning of a paragraph, and with 1 inch margins on all four sides. Keep copies of all drafts in case something terrible happens.
-Should have a title page. This title page should provide the title, your name, your mailbox, the class and the date. The title should reflect your overall point in this paper, it should be centered on the page one third of the way down and it should not be underlined or within quotation marks unless it is in fact a quote. The rest of the information on the title page should be at the lower right of the page. Title pages are not numbered, the subsequent pages should be, starting with "1." If you do not know how to do this, go to helpdesk documentation.

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Last Modified: 15 January 2002