Writing Resources

Overview

Historical writing is different from what you do in English or other classes, even though there are some similarities. When you write about history, you need to answer key questions: What happened? Why and how did it happen? What was the background? Who was involved? When did it take place? And how did it affect the future? Good historical writing combines clear organization with lots of factual detail, which makes it a real challenge for both new and experienced writers. It’s not just copying notes from different sources—you also need to explain what those facts mean and add your own thoughts.

Historical Writing

History Essay Tips

Things To Do:

✅ Answer the exact question and stay in the right time period.

✅ Follow the essay structure (intro, body, conclusion).

✅ Include and address counterarguments fairly.

✅ Lead with your strongest evidence, save weaker points for the middle, and end strong.

✅ Stay objective—take a position, not a personal opinion.

✅ Use correct spelling, capitalization, and consistent verb tense.

Mistakes to Avoid: DO NOT NO THIS...DO NOT DO THIS...DO NOT DO THIS...

🚫 Make vague generalizations — always be specific with evidence.

🚫 Argue both sides — take a clear position.

🚫 Use first or second person (“I,” “you,” “we”).

🚫 Use absolutes (“always,” “never,” “completely”).

🚫 Use weak verbs (“felt,” “thought,” “said”).

🚫 Use emotional language instead of evidence.

🚫 Lump groups together vaguely (“The colonists felt…”).

🚫 Use contractions (“don’t,” “won’t,” “couldn’t”).

🚫 Use slang, casual words, or phrases like “stuff” or “a lot.”

🚫 Insert yourself into history (“we” instead of “Americans”).

🚫 Repeat the same words or sentence structures.

🚫 Use “happily ever after” endings that oversimplify.

🚫 Use humor in formal writing.

Lira's Golden Rules:

1. Assume your reader is an idiot... That’s right, a class A imbicile. In other words, spell things out… Don’t take it for granted that “he/she know what I mean/knows what I’m talking about.” You’ve never met the guy/gal who’s going to read & grade your essays.

2. Things, a lot, & stuff… NEVER!

3. Keep your eye on the ball… Are you answering what is being asked?

4. Are you staying in or straying from the time scope of your question?

5. Ditch “Happily Ever Aftersims.” To wit, “…and if the pilgrims had never landed here, we could not have become the great, freedom-loving nation that we are today.”

6. Keep conclusions narrow. Just like the frame of study. You don’t have to go from the beginning of time to the year 5000 in six paragraphs.

7. It’s cool to be P.C. Use “Native Americans” instead of “Indians,” and “African-Americans” instead of “Black.”

8. Tenses: Don’t shift them!!! This is the PAST that you are writing about.

9. Never write conversationally!!!​ Don’t write like you talk, and don’t talk to the reader; NO FIRST PERSON. NO RHETORICAL QUESTIONS.

10. Spelling & Capitalization, Spelling & Capitalization, Spelling & Capitalization!!

11. Along the lines of #9. Stay crisp and professional. Don’t beat around the bush. Write as an expert in the field.

12. Watch out for repetitions… avoid tendencies in word or phrase usage & sentence structure.

13. Stream of Conciousness… unless you’re William Faulkner, don’t just ramble on. Have a specific mental picture, an intellectual starting point & destination for your work.

14. Direct is nice, but jumping right in is not. Give the reader a thesis first—tell the reader what it is you’re going to prove/disprove, advocate/reject, agree with/disagree with, etc…

15. Don’t leave hanging points! JUSTIFY your conclusions. Express facts rather than imply them. In other words, demonstrate to me why I should believe you/your conclusions.

16. Responses should be free-standing: I should be able to read your work and right away know what the question must have been, even if I never say it.

17. No cuteness—leave humor and funnies to the Daily Show, Colbert & Letterman. Always display your scholarship, not your wittiness…

18. Identify your pronouns, and use “Them” sparingly… It’s pretty easy to confuse the daylights out of the reader in no time at all if he/she has to struggle to figure out who “them” is/are/could be…

19. “LUMPING” is as vague as it is inaccurate. Be cautious about placing too much unity into the thoughts & actions of the many, i.e. “The colonists felt… The Indians hated… The Europeans wanted…” Could there be subsets within the groups? Specifically, which groups or sorts of the aforementioned felt, hated or wanted? It’s like saying, “All teens are…”

20. Along the lines of #8. Don’t inject yourself into history by using “WE” when you really mean, “Americans who have been dead for a long time.” WE didn’t evict the Cherokees from Georgia, win World War I, give women the right to vote, build the railroads, land on the moon, etc; THEY/ the U.S. did!

Using Primary Source Documents in an Essay:

• Use the documents as prompts to recall and integrate relevant outside information into your essay.

• Determine the central idea of each document and connect it both to your thesis/argument and to additional historical evidence beyond the documents.

• Avoid citing documents with phrases like “As stated in Document 1…”. Instead, reference the source by including details from its attribution line. The document number is only for your organization—it should never replace the significance of the actual source. Writing that relies on document numbers alone is considered low-level writing. Engaging directly with the source itself leads to stronger sourcing analysis and demonstrates higher-level writing.

• Never let the documents become the focus of your essay. Do not paraphrase or “teach” the document; instead, emphasize its historical importance and how it supports your thesis.

• Quoting documents wastes time and signals weak analysis. Let your own words and reasoning explain the history—not the documents themselves. Think of it this way: historians often rely on endnotes for evidence, while literature essays lean on quotations.

• Ultimately, use the documents to inspire your analysis, connect them to outside information, and show their relevance to the argument you are making.

• When you reference a document, cite it at the end of the sentence like this: [Doc. 1].