It can be tempting to answer the question you want to answer, rather than the question you are given. That is a certain recipe for failure. Pay close attention to what the prompt is asking for. Ideally, you should find a clear point to argue for or against.If the question is asking what caused the Civil War and you are just reading books about dramatic battles in the Civil War, you won’t be able to answer the question properly. Instead, you might just try to provide a list of dates and events. An excellent history paper though, does more than just talk about some things that happened in the past.
Pay attention to all parts of the question. The prompt might include follow up questions that point in you in the direction of some arguments you can make. For example, “What caused the Civil War? Was it a conflict over slavery or state’s rights?” In this case, the second part of the question proposes some positions that you could make in your paper.;
, Some teachers have different expectations for a history report. Not all teachers agree about what makes a paper exceptional. Ask your teacher for clarification about what they want. If you find the question to be unclear, talk to your teacher about specifically why that is and ask for further instruction.
 Your response to the question will not be precise if it you don’t use clear terms. The meaning of some historical terms are contested and unclear. You can define them as you wish, as long as you provide a good justification for why you are using the definition you choose.”Socialism,” for example, has meant many things in different places and times, from total state control of the economy to the implementation of even small welfare programs. If, however, you confuse the New Deal with the Soviet Union, your teacher will likely have an issue with your paper.
Similarly, if asked how “democratic” 19th century America was, you need to explain whether you are defining democracy as simply a system in which people vote or a system in which all citizens have equal political and social rights.
 Sometimes, you will be asked to pick your own subject to write about. When doing so, you need to pick a question that can clearly be argued about and that is not too large a subject to cover in your paper.For example, don’t pick a subject that isn’t really a question or a point of argument. “The Civil War” is not a question, but “what caused the Civil War?” is.
You should also pick a topic about which people can and do argue. You can’t really argue, for example, about “Why the New Deal was enacted in the 1930s” because everyone would agree that it was a response to the Great Depression. A more specific question like, “Did Franklin Roosevelt always intend to pass Social Security?” is actually a subject you could argue about.
In general, more focused and specific questions are easier to answer. While you could write about the causes of the Civil War, you might find it difficult to cover the hundreds of books that cover the question. Something more focused like, “Why did the Known-Nothing party rally to the Union cause despite its prejudices?” is easier to cover completely in a short essay.
 There are plenty of systems available for note taking nowadays. You can write notes by hand, but computers now allow you to keep extensive, easily searchable notes. Be sure to record the all of the information for the sources that you are using.


If you record every word you read, your notes won’t be that useful. When reading, think closely about what pieces of evidence might be useful for your argument. You can also underline and highlight quotes that you aren’t sure of, to find them more easily in the future.
Be sure that when you take notes, you include the page number you got the information from, the author, title, publisher and date of publication. When recording quotes, be careful to write them accurately.
There are now programs that allow you to record all of your citations and notes. Computerized notes make it easier to search through your materials quickly and find what you are looking for.
To take full and accurate notes without typing too much, you can also use a copy machine or take a picture of relevant pages. There are now devices that also make it easy to quickly take pictures of pages without missing any material.
Consider having a separate document for each source and possibly organizing sources into separate files, depending upon where they fit into your papers. You can also include a personal reminder of what you think that the evidence recorded is important., It has never been easier to do research, but many websites include inaccurate information. Also, your peers will also be looking at those websites and the last thing you want to do is turn in a paper that sounds like everyone else’s.


Ask a librarian if he can help you find the sort of books that you are looking for.
Pay attention to the publisher of the book. If possible, use books that have been published by a university; the more prestigious the university, the better.
Sometimes you can also use your text book for information. But your teacher will be more impressed if you include outside readings.
Few if any teachers regard Wikipedia as a valid source. Refrain from consulting it during your research.
 Library computers will often have access to specialized websites like JSTOR and EBSCO that the general public can’t access. In these databases you can do quick searches that will allow you access to high quality articles written by academics.


Leading academic journals include the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Environmental History, Social Science History, Journal of Modern History, Journal of African History, Journal of British Studies, Journal of Contemporary History, Journal of Social History, Journal of the History of Sexuality, International Review of Social History, Ethnohistory, English Historical Review, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of Family History, War in History, and the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era., Once you find a book, look through its footnotes for other books that address the topic that you are researching. Oftentimes, encyclopedias will also include a short list of some of the most relevant books on a subject. Now, you can even use the internet to quickly see which authors interact with one another.


Be particularly careful with footnotes when you see that the topic is relevant. For example, when you see a point in the book that is important to you, look to the closest footnote. The books there will likely cover the point that interests you in greater detail.
With Google Scholar, you can type in the name of a book and ask it to search for authors that have cited that book. This way, if you find an important book on your subject that is decades old, you find books that came after it that discuss the same subject.
 Before you can begin work, you need to know what your argument is. Work hard to come up with a sentence that completely summarizes the argument of your paper. The thesis should be clear and everything else in the paper should be evidence that supports this argument. It will usually come at the end of your introduction.


A strong, original, or provocative thesis is the single most important thing for making your paper exceptional.
A truly exceptional thesis must be original. Perhaps it goes against the grain of standard historical interpretations by pointing out some examples of when historians have been wrong or, at the very least, overstated their case.
Alternatively, you can look at a subject from an entirely new perspective. Plenty of people, for example, have written about the American colonies. But, until a couple of decades ago, no one had ever written about how colonists interacted with the environment. When they did it represented a major change in the field.
You can also try to surprise readers with arguments that they would never expect. Successful historians, for example, have argued that pirate ships were extremely democratic societies that passed radical, anti-establishment ideas around the globe. Prior to this, no one had ever really written much about pirates or considered the possibility that they were politically significant.
The thesis should be as precise as possible. To be original when writing about a subject that has been densely covered by other authors, it helps to be nuanced and specific.
From the research to the writing phase, you should always have a working thesis so that you know what you are trying to prove. However, as you come across new evidence and think about how evidence fits together, you will probably want to revise that thesis., Each body paragraph will have a particular argument that helps to prove your thesis. That argument will be your topic sentence, which generally comes at beginning of each body paragraph.
 Your outline should include your thesis statement and topic sentences. Underneath each of these, briefly sketch out the facts will go into each paragraph. Possibly list the books and quotes that will go into each paragraph.


If you took notes electronically, you can copy and paste notes directly into your outline. However, if you are using direct quotes, be sure that you are putting them in quotes and attributing them to the correct author.
How you organize your paragraphs can vary. Sometimes you might want to make each of your paragraphs advance chronologically. Other times, you might want to progress from your weakest to your strongest argument., The key to good writing is rewriting. Write down all of the basic arguments and facts of your case. Structure them to make sure that they follow in a logical way. Don’t be too closely wed to your first draft, because you will probably want to change it after taking some time off.


It is good to draft the paper in advance. If you give yourself time to forget what you wrote, you won’t be so invested in it when you return to it. With less bias, you will be able to more honestly understand what works and what doesn’t work about the essay.
When you return to redraft the paper, you should pay attention to grammatical and spelling errors. However, you should also think more broadly about how your paper works. Is the argument clear? Does your evidence really support what you say? If you didn’t already know about the subject, would you understand the paper? It is best to start with these bigger questions and then move on to writing errors, because if your argument doesn’t work, you might need to rewrite much of the paper., A good title will suggest to the reader the argument of your paper. While it can’t and shouldn’t make the entire argument, it will set the reader in the right direction so that he can understand what is coming. Try to excite the reader with a title that is bold and provocative.Consider incorporating into the title quotes or phrases that are relevant to the subject and draw the reader in.
If it is might not be clear otherwise, consider include a specific date range and location at the end of the title to give the reader a better sense of what you are writing about., The most important part of the introduction is your thesis argument. However, before giving your reader this, you should try to provide him with a reason to be interested. Start out with a provocative quote, a surprising story, or interesting statistics. Alternatively, begin with a quote that sets up the idea that you are trying to argue for or rebut in your paper.For longer papers, the entire first paragraph might be a hook. You can begin with an extended anecdote that will make your reader feel like he is in the period you are writing about. Once you have immersed your reader in the topic and gotten them interesting, you can move into a second paragraph that sets up your argument. If the paper is any less than 10 pages long, however, this will be squandering valuable space that should be reserved for putting forth your argument.
 A good history paper isn’t just a summary of facts. However, it should demonstrate a mastery of those facts by giving specific names and dates. Using generalities like “progressive presidents” does not allow you to make more nuanced arguments about change over time.


Generalities like “since the beginning of time” make your argument implausible.
While a phrase like “the times of slavery” might not be as implausible, they don’t make it clear what time you are referring to. They also make it seem, wrongly, as if slavery did not change over the period that it existed. Instead, you want to refer to specific decades or even precise dates., There are plenty of ways to cite sources and the rules can get complicated in light of all of the different types of sources available. Your teacher should, however, indicate what style of citations he wants you to use. If not, pick one. The most important thing is to be consistent. Always use the same citation style throughout the paper.Citations are important for giving credit to writers and allowing people who evaluate your scholarship to go back to your sources and see if you are using them correctly.
For advanced works in history, footnotes are generally used instead of in text citation. In a footnote, you don’t have to just give the name of the source though. You can also write a short summary of what the source says or how the source fits into your argument. You can also provide additional information that reinforces your case. Footnotes can be a great way to incorporate additional information that is useful, but would bog down your paper if you included all of it in the body of your text.
 Historiography is the study of how historians have argued about past events. Including the opinions of historians can help make a better paper, but you should try to prove your argument with quotes, events, and other facts from the period in question.Historiography is most important when defining how your argument is unique and interesting. For example, writing about political corruption in South Carolinian during the 1870s is, in and of itself, not particularly interesting. However, the subject becomes more important when you note that one school of historians used to argue that the failure of Reconstruction governments during the period proved that universal male suffrage was flawed, but that modern historians now believe it led to important reforms.
On the other hand, it isn’t valid to argue that Reconstruction was a success because a particular historian says it was. Instead, you should try to cite something like the number of new public schools built by Reconstruction governments.
 Quotes are important pieces of evidence. Because of that, you should make sure that you fully explain its significance. Don’t just put the quote in the paper. Either before or after the quote explain why it is significant.For example: "Abraham Lincoln, for his part, provides plenty of evidence that the union had no interested in abolishing slavery, only limiting its advance to the Western territories. In a speech at New Haven, Connecticut in 1860, the future president told his audience that 'We think slavery a great moral wrong, and while we do not claim the right to touch it where it exists, we wish to treat it as a wrong in the territories, where our votes will reach it.'"

, When making your argument, consider how someone might critique it. Answer his critique with concrete evidence showing that it is flawed. Otherwise, make a small concession, acknowledging that the other side has a point, but that it doesn’t diminish your argument.If, for example, you are arguing that the North did not enter into the Civil War to end slavery, you can acknowledge that there had long been abolitionists in the North, but that ultimately they had little bearing on the situation because President Lincoln claimed throughout his administration that the war was not about slavery. This is a concession that does not invalidate your point.
This is another situation in which historiography can be important. When listing possible objections, it can sound like you are making a straw man argument—rebutting a weak argument that no one believes in order to make your argument seem stronger. However, if you can name a particular historian who has argued the point you are trying to rebut, then you should like a serious scholar, engaging with important ideas.
 A good conclusion will wrap up the argument that you have put forward, making how it all fits together clear, if your reader hasn’t already gotten it. However, if possible, you can add to what you’ve already done by concluding with a new point that suggests why your argument is important or how it fits into what other people have argued in the past.
Address the question you are asked.
Talk to your teacher.
Define your terms.
Create a question that you can answer.
Take good notes.
Look for books not websites.
Use the library to find academic articles.
Use your sources to find new sources.
Come up a thesis.
Write topic sentences for body paragraphs.
Write an outline.
Draft the paper with time to spare.
Pick a relevant title.
Bring the reader in with your introduction.
Be detailed.
Cite your sources.
Focus on history not historiography.
Don’t waste your quotes.
Anticipate counter arguments.
Conclude with something of interest.
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