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Saint Louis University Department of History Undergraduate Research and Writing Guide

I. Guide for Writing a Research Paper A. Make sure that you fully understand the assignment. Carefully read the description of the assignment in the syllabus and consult with the instructor if you have any questions. This does not simply pertain to matters of length or formatting. Rather it is imperative that you understand exactly what the instructor wants to see in terms of: parameters, subject, structure, content, and argument. History papers can take many forms that include: research papers, reflection pieces, document analysis, or reviews. None of these formats are the same and each one will require you to take a different approach. B. Start with a good topic that is clearly defined. The best place to start a research paper is by selecting a good topic. Topics should: meet the parameters of the assignment, interest you, and allow you to perform enough research. The best topics are clearly focused on a discretely defined subject rather than something that is too general or vague. The best way to settle on a clearly defined topic is to start by asking yourself what interests you in the most general sense. For example, this could be an era, a country, or a type of history. Once you have settled on a very general idea, start to ask yourself a series of questions that will help you narrow down your topic. If you initially decided that you are interested in the history of France then you could ask yourself a series of questions such as: 1) What era of French history interests me? 2) Do I like a particular field of history such as cultural history or social history? 3) Am I interested in something like the history women or labor history? Depending on the questions you ask and the answers you give, you may decide to write a paper that is a social history of working class women during the French Revolution. Depending on the assignment, you might even choose to break this topic down further by adding things such as specific dates or a region. Before you know it, you might have a working theme that reads Compare and contrast the daily lives of rural and urban working class women from the outbreak of the French Revolution until the coronation of Napoleon. C. The paper should be driven by a clear and coherent thesis. This is central to virtually every single history paper that you will ever write. Most professors want papers that are analytically-driven in which you argue in defense of a coherent thesis. Your argument does not have to be radical, but you need a paper that strives to prove a point systematically and that it is not a boring narrative with no real objective. The best way to arrive at a clear thesis is to A) chose a strong topic and, perhaps, shape it in the form of a question B) do your research and see where that leads you C) craft a thesis statement that lays out

what you are going to prove and, ideally, place your thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph D) use the body of the essay to prove your thesis statement. In this process, it is essential that you are aware of what constitutes analysis rather than simple description or narrative. Analysis is your opinion on the topic and should be based on a combination of research and careful and thoughtful reflection. Analysis needs to appear throughout your paper and should always be working to support your thesis and larger argument. Simple description and narrative is when you tell what happened without any real thought or analysis. Good papers require certain amounts of description and narrative, however, they must be used in conjunction with analysis to help you argue your case. A paper that consists merely of description and narrative is a poor one because it will not expose the reader to anything that is new or thought-provoking. D. Do enough research to answer the question. This is not as obvious as it sounds. You need to consult enough material to write a well-researched essay. The library is a good place to start. Do not be afraid to speak with the librarians. They will help you find the materials that you need and are eager to do so. SLUs library catalogue can easily be searched online by author, title, subject, or keyword. Likewise use Mobius and Inter-Library Loan to order books that SLU doesnt have. Academic journals are a great resource as well. SLU librarys homepage has a number of links to great search engines for academic journals which are available online. You can access numerous databases from the librarys homepage as well. JSTOR is an excellent first stop for databases. The internet can be a useful source of information for your paper, however, it should not serve as a substitute for hard copies of books. Its time to stop when you feel as if youve found enough material to write your paper. Also dont be surprised if your ideas and argument change as you do more research. Such evolution is fine and shows that you are gaining a firm and thoughtful knowledge of the material. E. The Body This is the vast majority of the essay and should be devoted to proving your thesis in an organized and systematic manner. The body should be a combination of narrative and analysis. You should begin with an introduction that presents the topic, includes a brief overview of the essay, and concludes with the thesis statement. You then build the essay section-by-section. Each section should address an important point, should follow logically the point that precedes it, and provide a smooth transition into the section that follows it. You will likely find transition sentences and paragraphs the most challenging to write as they often provide both movement from one point to another and a signpost back to your central argument. You should finish the essay with a conclusion that briefly reiterates your argument and drives home its significance. The conclusion is not the place to introduce new evidence or qualifications of your argument.

F. Style/Presentation The essay should be written in college-level English. Please pay attention to grammar, sentence structure, and spelling. Its always a good idea to get a friend to proofread it or to take advantage of SLUs writing center. Make sure to consult the syllabus for matters of formatting. Many professors will be happy to help you with your writing and are willing to look at rough drafts. G. References If a piece of information is not general knowledge and not your idea, you must reference it. Even when paraphrasing, you should use references. Depending on the paper guidelines this can be done with endnotes, footnotes, or inside brackets in the text. Most of your history professors will require footnotes or endnotes. Consult the department style guide if you are unsure about how to insert or format notes. Always follow the format required by the professor and provide him or her with enough information to locate the reference if they decided to do so. A citation normally includes author, title, date/place of publication, and page number. H. Plagiarism Plagiarism is cheating plain and simple. Punishments vary according to the course and your record, but they can be severe. Plagiarism is an attempt to present someone elses work as your own. Plagiarism can take numerous forms from intentionally submitting an essay that consists partially or totally of another persons work to referencing a source that you used incorrectly. Plagiarizing accidentally can result in the same punishment as plagiarizing intentionally. Cutting-and-pasting from internet sources is a bad idea that can easily result in plagiarism. Err on the side of citing too much and too thoroughly rather than too little or too briefly. The best practice is to avoid plagiarizing meticulously and, if you have any questions about how to reference a source, ask your professor. II. How to Interpret Primary and Secondary Historical Sources Primary Written Sources: Analysis and Reflection No primary source is self-explanatory. Even if we are studying a document recently produced in our country and in our language, we should be aware that its context and purpose might be extremely different from anything with which we are familiar. Every primary source represents just a fragment or an echo of a more complex and often remote reality. To understand it, we must become acquainted with the circumstances that produced the document, with the world of its authors

and intended public. The more numerous the elements and factors are that we include in our analysis, the wider the window we open on a specific historical period or phenomenon. Nonetheless, as accurate as our analysis may seem, we will never obtain a definitive and complete historical picture; we will have to admit that our conclusions have probably been conditioned by our particular points of view, biases, backgrounds, and skill-sets. Our theses are likely to be refined, improved, or refuted by further analysis. For these reasons, the most permanent gain of a fruitful historical inquiry is not about the past, but about ourselves and the way we relate to the other. Throughout the different phases of a research project we are compelled to broaden our horizons in order to comprehend the various factors of a specific historical phenomenon. We learn to articulate complex questions, while constantly re-evaluating our expectations, perspectives, and values. At the end of such a process, we know more about ourselves, more about the way we think. We improve our skills in expressing our ideas eloquently and become more receptive and open towards others. We explore what might be distant in time and space and learn how to see what is close and present so that we can interact with it in a more efficacious way. What follows is a list of elements and factors that you should consider in approaching a primary source. It is not definitive and you can complement it with your own questions, according to the specific issues you might want to address.

1) ANALYSIS A. Type of Document 1. Consider the genre or the distinctive features of the document: i. Is it a funerary or commemorative epigraph? An imperial edict? A trial document? The record of a commercial transaction? A structure such as a castle or school building? An official chronicle? A newspaper article? A divinatory or religious text? A spell? An epic poem? A city plan? A law code? An object such as a cooking implement or piece of ceremonial jewelry? A personal diary? A private letter? A technical manual? B. Authorship 1. Who produced the document? i. A professional historian? A ruler? A government official? A divinely inspired prophet? A committee? A poet? A member of an educated elite? A merchant? A commoner? An outsider? Or is the document the result of the compilation and editing over time of oral traditions? C. Intended Audience or Readership 1. For whom was the document produced? i. An illiterate audience? An elite of government officials? A particular ethnic, social, professional, or religious group? A deity? D. Context 1. Where and when was the document produced?

i. What specific cultural, economic, and social circumstances shaped the production of the document? What elements can help us attribute it to a specific time and place? E. Style 1. How was the document written? i. Is the style poetic or prosaic? Is it inclusive or exclusive? Explicit or allusive? Descriptive or normative? F. Purpose 1. Why was the document produced? i. To enforce or explain particular laws, rules, or customs? To record meaningful events? To interpret meaningful past or present events? To legitimate or counter a particular institution or behavior? To establish a dialogue with divine beings? To ward off evil spirits or influences? To accuse or defend a particular individual or group during a trial? To teach a particular set of skill or discipline? To express a specific individual or group point of view on a specific matter? To expound philosophical theories? To entertain? To appease? To convince? To provoke?

2) REFLECTION Context, Reliability, and Usefulness After considering the elements mentioned above, how would you use the document to build your argument and prove your point? What do its possible limitations and biases tell us about the culture that we are studying? Are there any specific elements, behaviors, ideas, or ways of thinking expressed in the document that cannot be fully comprehended by a contemporary reader? Are there any specific factors that would prevent a contemporary reader from engaging the document objectively and fruitfully? What specific aspects of past and present times does the document help us better understand? How does the reality depicted in the document make us more aware of the way we think and live? 3) SECONDARY SOURCES In writing a history paper, we may also analyze so-called secondary documents, which are articles or books written by specialists on a specific topic or period. We choose to read secondary sources that can help us gather fundamental information on which to build our history paper. Secondary sources also show how professional scholars interpret specific historical issues, handle primary documents, and organize their inquiry. Although the authors of these works often belong to a world that is not too remote from ours, it is important to recognize and understand the elements and the factors that shaped their research. The thorough analysis of secondary sources is an

essential step in the process of writing a cogent history paperthe effective writer is first of all a careful reader. * Note that a secondary source can be considered a primary one, if the topic of our paper is the history of different approaches to the study of the past. A. Title, Topic, Argument, and Structure 1. Often titles are conceived to convey the fundamental information: What the secondary source addresses (the topic) and what the author is trying to prove (the argument). In analyzing a secondary work it is important to keep its title always in mind. Together with the foreword, introduction, and table of contents (in the case of a monograph), the title can help us keep track of how an author organized his or her project (the structure) and achieves his or her announced goals. B. Subjects 1. Who or what are the main characters of the story? i. A specific individual, the members of a particular lineage, a social group, an economic or political class, the protagonists of one or more important events, minorities or marginalized groups,rebels, indistinct crowds? Ideas or attitudes? C. Sources, Field(s), and Methodology 1. What kind of documents is the author relying on?What is the author interested in?What are the authors specific tools or expertise fields? i. Is the author relying mainly on written sources or on material evidence? Is the author focusing on political, cultural, or economic factors? What kind of data is he using? How? D. Time Span 1. What is the period taken into account by the research? To what specific time and circumstance does the authors thesis apply? E. Ideological, Religious, or Political Engagement 1. Does the authorimplicitly or explicitlyfollow a recognizable academic school, trend, or approach? Does the author have an agenda that is not specifically historiographical? Is the author trying to advocate for or to counter a specific cultural, political or economic behavior? F. Lacunae 1. Is the authormore or less justifiablyleaving out some specific elements or data? i. For example, material or economic factors, religion, women, lower classes, and so on. G. Audience 1. To whom is the author is speaking? i. An academic elite? A broader public of readers?A specific cultural or ethnic group? H. Style

1. Does the author put a special effort into making her or his style more effective and engaging? Does her or his language seem to be conceived to address a specific academic readership or to reach to a broader public? I. Final Considerations 1. Did you find the reading effective? Engaging? Why? Did the author finally achieve the goals announced in the introduction? Did the author present the evidence convincingly? How was the essays structure instrumental to the development of the argument? Was it convincing? Why? If not, was it because of some internal contradictions or inconsistencies or because of other data or factors the authors did not account for? How does the work under consideration compare to similar works? Is it surpassed or outdated? Was the authors intellectual and ideological stanceprovided that the work showed one transparent? Did it hinder the effectiveness of the research? What elements of the work were important for your own research? What did you learn? What would you do differently if were you the author?

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