More writing advice

Spelling and grammar

• Know the difference between there, their, and they're, as well as to, too, and two. Spell-check won't catch these mistakes.
• Similarly, know the difference between it's and its. As a rule of thumb, one shouldn't use contractions in academic papers, so you should never have cause to write "it's."
• Know the difference between "accept" and "except," as well as between "affect" and "effect." You must proofread carefully to catch these mistakes.
  
• "Led" is the past tense of "lead."
• Don't end sentences with prepositions.
• Proofread to make sure you have subject-verb agreement.
• History is a study of past events, so make sure you use the proper verb tense.

Syntax

• Start a new paragraph when you're introducing a new idea.
• Proofread to make sure you're not writing run-on sentences. Reading your paper aloud is a good way to catch that sort of mistake; you should recognize immediately that the sentence just doesn't sound right.
• Reading aloud is also helpful for catching awkward syntax. This was one of my most common critiques. I cannot possibly list all the examples, but I think if you heard them, you would realize that there are some convoluted distortions of English grammar going on out there. Strangely, it seems like a lot of the problems with awkward syntax occur when you think "It will sound more sophisticated if I write it like this..." Sometimes simple is better.
  
• Italicize or underline titles of sources. The occasions on which you put a title in quotation marks include when you're citing an article in a journal, an essay in a book, or a source that was not intended to be published in its own right (such as a letter).
• Use Roman numerals when designating rulers' names. It's Louis XVI, not Louis the sixteenth.
• Do not use the first-person case in academic writing. This means no "I think..." or "We shall see..." You are supposed to be making an argument, so assume an authorial voice.
• Watch overuse of the passive voice. "The Estates General was convoked by Louis XVI." sounds weaker than "Louis XVI convoked the Estates General." When you proofread your papers, check how often you use the words "was" and "were." Sometimes those are absolutely the right words to use, but they are often found in sentences that could be converted easily into the active voice, as in the example above.

Citations

• You must use footnotes, not endnotes and certainly not parenthetical notation. There will be a penalty for improper citations.
• Every word processing program has an "insert footnotes" function. You should not be writing the number of the notes in parentheses after the sentence. The footnote number will appear as superscript.
• Footnote numbers are consecutive starting from 1. Even if you are using the same source in the third note as you did in the first, you do not use the number 1 again.
• Citations should be in the humanities style of The Chicago Manual of Style. If you find this too formidable, you may use the Turabian style guide. No other styles will be accepted without penalty.
• Use the Latin abbreviation Ibid. for consecutive citations from the same source. The word must be capitalized, italicized, and end with a period. For instance, say you have three citations in a row from your textbook. We'll call it Tackett, and a span of pages from 100 to 105. For the first footnote, you would write out the complete citation, including page numbers. If your second footnote was from the same source, say page 101, you would write Ibid., 101 -- that's it. Same for the third note, Ibid. and the page number. (If you are citing from an on-line source, you don't have to worry about a page number.) As soon as you cite from a new source, though, you don't use the abbreviation again. If you had three Tackett citations, a citation from another source, then another Tackett citation, you would have to use the short title form for the fifth footnote (Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 103.) This is all laid out in the CMS and Turabian, but ask me if you're still not clear.
• You do not have to cite my lectures, but you must cite your textbooks.
• When you cite a primary source from Mason & Rizzo, you must start the citation with the author and title of the original source. Again, this is covered in both style guides.
• When citing from on-line sources, start the citation with the author and title of the original source. Remember to cite the website (as explained in the style guides); do not just cite the source from which the website manager got the document. You didn't go look up those texts, so you can't cite it as if you did. You must make it clear that you got the information from a website.

General comments

• Make sure you answer the questions! Many students write about the topic mentioned in the question without actually answering it. Be sure to read the questions carefully. If you don't understand the questions, ask me.
  
• When you're citing facts, whether to prove a point or to establish context, learn to separate the wheat from the chaff. These are relatively short papers and a lot of space gets burned up by facts which aren't particularly germane to the argument. Irrelevant information detracts from your argument.
• Beware of using faulty logic in making your arguments. I've seen a lot of tautologies and straw men used in student papers, which seriously diminish the credibility of your argument.