understanding standards higher history essay

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19 Standards of Historical Writing

In this chapter, you will learn the basic expectations for writing an undergrad history research paper. At this point in your college career, you’ve likely had a great deal of instruction about writing and you may be wondering why this chapter is here. There are at least three reasons:

• For some of you, those lessons about writing came before you were ready to appreciate or implement them. If you know your writing skills are weak, you should not only pay close attention to this chapter, but also submit early drafts of your work to the History Tutoring Center (at UTA) or another writing coach. Only practice and multiple drafts will improve those skills.
• Those of you who were paying attention in composition courses know the basics, but may lack a good understanding of the format and approach of scholarly writing in history. Other disciplines permit more generalities and relaxed associations than history, which is oriented toward specific contexts and (often, but not always) linear narratives. Moreover, because historians work in a subject often read by non-academics, they place a greater emphasis on clearing up jargon and avoiding convoluted sentence structure. In other words, the standards of historical writing are high and the guidelines that follow will help you reach them.
• Every writer, no matter how confident or experienced, faces writing blocks. Going back to the fundamental structures and explanations may help you get past the blank screen by supplying prompts to help you get started.

As you read the following guide, keep in mind that it represents only our perspective on the basic standards. In all writing, even history research papers, there is room for stylistic variation and elements of a personal style. But one of the standards of historical writing is that only those who fully understand the rules can break them successfully. If you regularly violate the rule against passive voice verb construction or the need for full subject-predicate sentences, you cannot claim the use of sentence fragments or passive voice verbs is “just your style.” Those who normally observe those grammatical rules, in contrast, might on occasion violate them for effect. The best approach is first to demonstrate to your instructor that you can follow rules of grammar and essay structure before you experiment or stray too far from the advice below.

Introductions

Introductions are nearly impossible to get right the first time. Thus, one of the best strategies for writing an introduction to your history essay is to keep it “bare bones” in the first draft, initially working only toward a version that covers the basic requirements. After you’ve written the full paper (and realized what you’re really trying to say, which usually differs from your initial outline), you can come back to the intro and re-draft it accordingly. However, don’t use the likelihood of re-writing your first draft to avoid writing one. Introductions provide templates not only for your readers, but also for you, the writer. A decent “bare bones” introduction can minimize writer’s block as a well-written thesis statement provides a road map for each section of the paper.

So what are the basic requirements? In an introduction, you must:

• Pose a worthwhile question or problem that engages your reader
• Establish that your sources are appropriate for answering the question, and thus that you are a trustworthy guide without unfair biases
• Convince your reader that they will be able to follow your explanation by laying out a clear thesis statement.

Engaging readers in an introduction

When you initiated your research, you asked questions as a part of the process of narrowing your topic (see the “Choosing and Narrowing a Topic” chapter for more info). If all went according to plan, the information you found as you evaluated your primary sources allowed you to narrow your question further, as well as arrive at a plausible answer, or explanation for the problem you posed. (If it didn’t, you’ll need to repeat the process, and either vary your questions or expand your sources. Consult your instructor, who can help identify what contribution your research into a set of primary sources can achieve.) The key task for your introduction is to frame your narrowed research question—or, in the words of some composition instructors, the previously assumed truth that your inquiries have destabilized—in a way that captures the attention of your readers. Common approaches to engaging readers include:

• Telling a short story (or vignette) from your research that illustrates the tension between what readers might have assumed before reading your paper and what you have found to be plausible instead.
• Stating directly what others believe to be true about your topic—perhaps using a quote from a scholar of the subject—and then pointing immediately to an aspect of your research that puts that earlier explanation into doubt.
• Revealing your most unexpected finding, before moving to explain the source that leads you to make the claim, then turning to the ways in which this finding expands our understanding of your topic.

What you do NOT want to do is begin with a far-reaching transhistorical claim about human nature or an open-ended rhetorical question about the nature of history. Grand and thus unprovable claims about “what history tells us” do not inspire confidence in readers. Moreover, such broadly focused beginnings require too much “drilling down” to get to your specific area of inquiry, words that risk losing readers’ interest. Last, beginning with generic ideas is not common to the discipline. Typical essay structures in history do not start broadly and steadily narrow over the course of the essay, like a giant inverted triangle. If thinking in terms of a geometric shape helps you to conceptualize what a good introduction does, think of your introduction as the top tip of a diamond instead. In analytical essays based on research, many history scholars begin with the specific circumstances that need explaining, then broaden out into the larger implications of their findings, before returning to the specifics in their conclusions—following the shape of a diamond.

Clear Thesis Statements

Under the standards of good scholarly writing in the United States—and thus those that should guide your paper—your introduction contains the main argument you will make in your essay. Elsewhere—most commonly in European texts—scholars sometimes build to their argument and reveal it fully only in the conclusion. Do not follow this custom in your essay. Include a well-written thesis statement somewhere in your introduction; it can be the first sentence of your essay, toward the end of the first paragraph, or even a page or so in, should you begin by setting the stage with a vignette. Wherever you place it, make sure your thesis statement meets the following standards:

A good thesis statement :

• Could be debated by informed scholars : Your claim should not be so obvious as to be logically impossible to argue against. Avoid the history equivalent of “the sky was blue.”
• Can be proven with the evidence at hand : In the allotted number of pages, you will need to introduce and explain at least three ways in which you can support your claim, each built on its own pieces of evidence. Making an argument about the role of weather on the outcome of the Civil War might be intriguing, given that such a claim questions conventional explanations for the Union’s victory. But a great deal of weather occurred in four years and Civil War scholars have established many other arguments you would need to counter, making such an argument impossible to establish in the length of even a long research paper. But narrowing the claim—to a specific battle or from a single viewpoint—could make such an argument tenable. Often in student history papers, the thesis incorporates the main primary source into the argument. For example, “As his journal and published correspondence between 1861 and 1864 reveal, Colonel Mustard believed that a few timely shifts in Tennessee’s weather could have altered the outcome of the war.”
• Is specific without being insignificant : Along with avoiding the obvious, stay away from the arcane. “Between 1861 and 1864, January proved to be the worst month for weather in Central Tennessee.” Though this statement about the past is debatable and possible to support with evidence about horrible weather in January and milder-by-comparison weather in other months, it lacks import because it’s not connected to knowledge that concerns historians. Thesis statements should either explicitly or implicitly speak to current historical knowledge—which they can do by refining, reinforcing, nuancing, or expanding what (an)other scholar(s) wrote about a critical event or person.
• P rovide s a “roadmap” to readers : Rather than just state your main argument, considering outlining the key aspects of it, each of which will form a main section of the body of the paper. When you echo these points in transitions between sections, readers will realize they’ve completed one aspect of your argument and are beginning a new part of it. To demonstrate this practice by continuing the fictional Colonel Mustard example above: “As his journal and published correspondence between 1861 and 1864 reveals, Colonel Mustard believed that Tennessee’s weather was critical to the outcome of the Civil War. He linked both winter storms and spring floods in Tennessee to the outcome of key battles and highlighted the weather’s role in tardy supply transport in the critical year of 1863.” Such a thesis cues the reader that evidence and explanations about 1) winter storms; 2) spring floods; and 3) weather-slowed supply transport that will form the main elements of the essay.

Thesis Statement Practice

More Thesis Statement Practice

The Body of the Paper

What makes a good paragraph.

While an engaging introduction and solid conclusion are important, the key to drafting a good essay is to write good paragraphs. That probably seems obvious, but too many students treat paragraphs as just a collection of a few sentences without considering the logic and rules that make a good paragraph. In essence, in a research paper such as the type required in a history course, for each paragraph you should follow the same rules as the paper itself. That is, a good paragraph has a topic sentence, evidence that builds to make a point, and a conclusion that ties the point to the larger argument of the paper. On one hand, given that it has so much work to do, paragraphs are three sentences , at a minimum . On the other hand, because paragraphs should be focused to making a single point, they are seldom more than six to seven sentences . Though rules about number of sentences are not hard and fast, keeping the guidelines in mind can help you construct tightly focused paragraphs in which your evidence is fully explained.

Topic sentences

The first sentence of every paragraph in a research paper (or very occasionally the second) should state a claim that you will defend in the paragraph . Every sentence in the paragraph should contribute to that topic. If you read back over your paragraph and find that you have included several different ideas, the paragraph lacks focus. Go back, figure out the job that this paragraph needs to do—showing why an individual is important, establishing that many accept an argument that you plan on countering, explaining why a particular primary source can help answer your research question, etc. Then rework your topic sentence until it correctly frames the point you need to make. Next, cut out (and likely move) the sentences that don’t contribute to that outcome. The sentences you removed may well help you construct the next paragraph, as they could be important ideas, just not ones that fit with the topic of the current paragraph. Every sentence needs to be located in a paragraph with a topic sentence that alerts the reader about what’s to come.

Transitions/Bridges/Conclusion sentences in paragraphs

All good writers help their readers by including transition sentences or phrases in their paragraphs, often either at the paragraph’s end or as an initial phrase in the topic sentence. A transition sentence can either connect two sections of the paper or provide a bridge from one paragraph to the next. These sentences clarify how the evidence discussed in the paragraph ties into the thesis of the paper and help readers follow the argument. Such a sentence is characterized by a clause that summarizes the info above, and points toward the agenda of the next paragraph. For example, if the current section of your paper focused on the negative aspects of your subject’s early career, but your thesis maintains he was a late-developing military genius, a transition between part one (on the negative early career) and part two (discussing your first piece of evidence revealing genius) might note that “These initial disastrous strategies were not a good predictor of General Smith’s mature years, however, as his 1841 experience reveals.” Such a sentence underscores for the reader what has just been argued (General Smith had a rough start) and sets up what’s to come (1841 was a critical turning point).

Explaining Evidence

Just as transitional sentences re-state points already made for clarity’s sake, “stitching” phrases or sentences that set-up and/or follow quotations from sources provide a certain amount of repetition. Re-stating significant points of analysis using different terms is one way you explain your evidence. Another way is by never allowing a quote from a source to stand on its own, as though its meaning was self-evident. It isn’t and indeed, what you, the writer, believes to be obvious seldom is. When in doubt, explain more.

For more about when to use a quotation and how to set it up see “How to quote” in the next section on Notes and Quotation.”

Conclusio ns

There exists one basic rule for conclusions: Summarize the paper you have written . Do not introduce new ideas, launch briefly into a second essay based on a different thesis, or claim a larger implication based on research not yet completed. This final paragraph is NOT a chance to comment on “what history tells us” or other lessons for humankind. Your conclusion should rest, more or less, on your thesis, albeit using different language from the introduction and evolved, or enriched, by examples discussed throughout the paper. Keep your conclusion relevant and short, and you’ll be fine.

For a checklist of things you need before you write or a rubric to evaluate your writing click here

How History is Made: A Student’s Guide to Reading, Writing, and Thinking in the Discipline Copyright © 2022 by Stephanie Cole; Kimberly Breuer; Scott W. Palmer; and Brandon Blakeslee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Higher History women and the vote full essay

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TO WHAT EXTENT WAS FACTOR X THE MAIN REASON SOME WOMEN GOT THE VOTE BY 1918? It may be argued that factor x was the main reason women were given the vote by 1918, however/this is not/is the case. In Victorian Britain women were considered to be second class citizens with less rights than men, women could have respectable jobs that were powerful such as nurse, teacher, mayor and doctor and still not have the vote while men could be criminals yet have the vote. Furthermore, it was believed that if women were involved in politics, it would neglect their responsibilities at gone. Although factor x was important in getting women the vote there were other contributing factors such as the suffragists, suffragettes, changes to social attitudes and examples of other countries. Overall factor x was/was not the most important factor in women gaining the vote, factor y was in fact the most important reason. Firstly, changing attitudes was not the main reason for some women gaining the vote by 1918, however it did help contribute. The 1880 education act ordered all girls of 5-10 years had to attend school, in addition, the 1902 education act caused an explosion in girls grammar schools, in 1904 England there were 99 secondary girl schools and by 1914 it had...

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Alternative transcript:.

risen to 349. This helped women to get the vote as it took women a step closer to equality and improved/developed their education and understanding of the world around them. This further helped prove that women due to education should be taken more seriously in voting. However changing attitudes may not be seen as an effective factor as girls in education and school were taught and focused on skills like cookery, needlework, and childcare, this shows they were not being taught skills that would prove them worthy of the vote. This strongly suggests that changing attitudes to women was a contributing factor to why some women won the vote by 1918 but was not the main reason. Secondly, suffragist campaign was not the main reason some women claimed the vote by 1918, but was a contributing factor. The suffragists legal and peaceful approach earned the respect of many MPs. This can be seen through parliamentary bills about giving women the vote was regularly introduced by sympathetic MPs before 1914. This helped women get the vote as the NUWSS were successful in winning over the support and respect from many important MPs and were credited for turning opinions in parliament towards woman suffrage. In addition, suffragists believed in moderate, peaceful tactics better known as peaceful persuasion such as organised petitions, distributed pamphlets, and published newspapers to convinced politicians to support their cause and put their message across. This helped woman get the vote because the suffragists impressed many British people including thousands of men and showed that they were intelligent, capable, and trustworthy women capable of organising a successful nationwide and in turn worthy of the vote. However, it may be argued that the suffragist campaign was not a successful factor for some women claiming the vote by 1918 as the campaign was tedious and slow moving, easily ignored by politicians and the suffragists were never able to achieve the publicity the suffragettes managed to claim. This emphasises that the suffragists were a contributing factor to some women winning the vote by 1918 but not the main reason. Thirdly, suffragette campaign was the most important reason to why some women got the vote by 1918. The suffragettes were prepared to break the law to support and promote their cause, they used direct action like smashing windows of important buildings (10 downing street) and pouring acid into letter boxes, soon turned arson attempting to burn down buildings such as Leuchars railway station. This helped women winning the vote as the suffragettes succeeded in their aim of publicity whilst the public did not approve of law breaking, they grew respect of their bravery therefore recognised the seriousness of the cause keeping the movement in the public eye. However, suffragettes may be deemed less effective as many historians have claimed that the suffragettes held back progress for women because they reinforced the idea that women were irrational, irresponsible, immature, and unable to cope with responsibility, this increased violence and pushed people away from suffragettes making them less effective. In addition, the suffragette campaign can be seen effective as they started hunger strikes in prisons, the government force fed the women in a painful and brutal way, this forced the government to pass the cat and mouse act of 1913. This helped some women get the vote by 1918 as it was set up to embarrass the government, force- feeding in prisons gained a lot of sympathy from the British public, many felt sorry for them and therefore recognised the seriousness of their cause which furthermore increased publicity which brought them closer to the vote. This strongly suggests that the suffragette campaign was the main reason for some women gaining the vote by 1918. Fourthly, examples of other countries were not the main reason for women gaining the vote by 1918 however contributed to bringing women closer to the vote. During the 19th century Britain saw itself as the cradle of democracy and one of the most politically advanced societies in the world: Britain empire included around 1/3 of the world - colonies such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand. This helped women get the vote because as the most developed nation in the world and a great power it was embarrassing for Britain that other countries appeared to be overtaking Britain in terms of democracy, this made them give women the vote. In addition, more democratic nations around the world had declared women suffrage much earlier on. New Zealand granted women's suffrage in 1893, Australia in 1902 and Norway in 1907. This helped women to get the vote because the fact that women had been enfranchised abroad particularly in colonies like New Zealand may have added pressure to politicians and given hope and renewed enthusiasm to the suffrage. However, examples of other countries can be seen as less effective as there is no evidence to say that forging influence played any part in the government's decision to extend the franchise in 1918 and no evidence to say it was even discussed by MPs in parliament. This highlights that example of other countries was not the most important factor in some women winning the vote by 1918 however was a contributing factor. Lastly, women war work was not the main reason for women gaining the vote by 1918, however contributed to bringing women closer to the vote. Women's war work was important to Britain's ability to fight and win and women stepped into the gaps where around 3 million men went to fight. This helped women get the vote because work that women did was of major national importance and everyone in Britain was thankful to the nation's women for the role, they played in winning the war, it was then believed Britain couldn't have won it without the women. In addition, Women worked as conductors on trams & trains, 20,000 women worked in government departments and there were 'The Nation thanks the women' billboards across the country. This helped women get the vote because this could be considered evidence that women were given the vote at the end of the war as a reward and thank you for their efforts.. However, it seemed like a 'strange' reward as women given the vote were 30+ whereas most women who war work were in their 20s so not actually rewarded with the vote. In summary all the factors played a part in some women getting the vote by 1918, although the Suffragettes were the most important. Whilst the Suffragists did let people become aware of their cause, that was all they did and they were too easily ignored. The Suffragettes, on the other hand, had violent tactics that forced the government to act. This clearly makes the Suffragists less important. Women's war work was also an important factor, although many women lost their jobs at the end of the war and those who had worked were not rewarded with the vote. This resulted in no further progress to political equality until 1928. This makes women's war work less important than the Suffragettes. The Suffragettes actions had an immediate response from the public which women's war work did not. Although the public was grateful they did not get more than a thank you. In addition, social change was also important to an extent as it showed that women were gaining trust. However there was little response from the government because they only made minor changes to women's rights in the 19th and 20th centuries. Therefore the Suffragettes must be considered the most important because they made real change, and not just gradual change, due to the violent nature of their tactics and not factor x.

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