Writing an Essay

Reading a Primary Source: Step 1• Who wrote this document? In the first place, you need to know how this document came to be created. Written historical records were created by individuals in a specific historical setting for a particular purpose. Until you know who created the document you have read, you cannot know why it was created or what meanings its author intended to impart by creating it. Try to learn about authors as people, what social background they came from, what position they held, to what group they belonged.

• Who is the intended audience? Identifying the intended audience of a document will tell you much about its language, about the amount of knowledge that the writer is assuming, etc. The relationship between author and audience will tell you much about the purpose of the document. Knowing the audience allows you to begin to ask important questions, such as, “Should I believe what I am being told?”

• What is the story line? This has to do with the content of the document. You now know enough about it in a general way to pay attention to what it actually says. To learn the story line, you must take some notes while you are reading and underline or highlight important places in your text. The more often you ask yourself, “What is going on here?” the easier it will be to find out.

Reading a Primary Source: Step 2• Step 1 questions allow you to identify the nature of the document and

its author. Step 2 questions allow you to probe behind the essential facts. Now that you know who wrote the document, to whom it is addressed, and what it is about, you can begin to try to understand it.

• Why was this document written? Everything is written for a reason. You make notes to yourself to remember, you send cards to celebrate and sympathize, you correspond to convey or request information. Understanding the purpose of a historical document is critical to analyzing the strategies that the author employs within it.

• What type of document is this? The form of the document is vital to its purpose. The form or genre in which a document appears is always carefully chosen. Genre contains its own conventions, which fulfill the expectations of author and audience.

• What are the basic assumptions made in this document? All documents make assumptions that are bound up with their intended audience, with the form in which they are written, and with their purpose. Some of these assumptions are so integral to the document that they are left unsaid, others are so important to establish that they form a part of the central argument.

Reading a Primary Source: Step 3• Questions in Step 3 don’t have definite answers. You must use your

critical imagination to develop an argument that can be reasonably disagreed with.

• Can I believe this document? To be successful, a document designed to persuade, to recount events, or to motivate people to action must be believable to its audience. For the critical historical reader, it is that very believability that must be examined. You must treat all claims skeptically. One question you certainly want to ask is, “Is this a likely story?” This is where scientists often go wrong.

• What can I learn about the society that produced this document? All documents unintentionally reveal things that are embedded in the very language, structure, and assumptions of the document that can tell you the most about the historical period or event that you are studying.

• What does this document mean to me? In other words: the “So What?” question. Why should you be concerned with these historical documents? What can you learn from them. You should demand the meaning of each document you read: what it meant to the historical actors – authors, audience, and society – and what it means to your own society (or in our case, climate change).

• Source: Mark A. Kishlansky, Sources of World History, 2003.

Contextualizing Your Argument:Step 1: Background Info

• Write your essay not for your professor, but for a hypothetical reader with little knowledge about your topic.

• No matter how original, your argument won’t mean anything to that reader unless they understand its context.

• Your essay should therefore by giving enough background information for your reader to understand the period and place your argument addresses.

• How much information? For a 15-page paper, aim for around 2 pages, but there is no precise formula for this.

Step 2: Finding and Using Secondary Sources• You want secondary sources that:

• Inform the background information you use to introduce your essay.

• Support the historical information you use to contextualize your primary source (more in a moment).

• Use or make an argument about your primary source, in a way that has relevance for your argument and/or helps you understand your source.

• Explore your topic and make their own arguments about it. • You can find these sources by searching for your topic in

the library catalogue or another database (Google Scholar, for example, or Historical Abstracts). Don’t forget about the Library of Congress!

• Once you find a relevant book or article, look for the footnotes, endnotes, and/or bibliography to find more useful sources.

Creating a Thesis• The most important part of any history paper is the

thesis. • A thesis cannot be merely descriptive. It needs to

argue something. In other words, your essay cannot just be a list of historical “facts.” It must be making a point.

• A good way to test whether you have a thesis is to ask yourself whether somebody could reasonably disagree with your argument, or argue the opposite point.

• What makes a good thesis: • Again, it needs to be debatable. • It needs to be specific. • It should explore some key themes: cause and effect, for

example, or definitions/identities.• For the best papers: creative/original.

Structuring Your Essay

• Title.• Introduction/Background: ~2 pages.• Thesis statement: 1-2 paragraphs. • Sources/methods: 1-2 paragraphs.• Point 1: 3-4 pages.• Point 2: 3-4 pages.• Point 3: 3-4 pages.• Conclusion: ~1 page.• Bibliography.

Writing Tips• Remember: you are making an argument. Not just in

your thesis, but through your entire paper.• Everything in your paper should be about proving that

argument. Do not give information for the sake of giving information, no matter how interesting. Don’t try to impress me with your knowledge.

• Your writing should be specific, focused, supported by evidence, and in your own words. Avoid doing the following: • Writing vague sentences that fill space but add nothing to

your argument. “Since the dawn of time” is useless.• Writing generalizations that cannot be substantiated.• Using too many quotations that take away your voice.• Using informal diction.• More: http://withoutbullshit.com/blog/10-top-writing-tips-

psychology

Good luck!