Writing history essays july 2011 - Victoria University of Wellington

Writing History Essays
July 2011
Contents
How to use this booklet 1
1. Reading 6
2. Note Taking 12
3. Planning Your Essay 14
4. Drafting 17
5. Grammar, Spelling, and Other Technical Bits 31
6. Footnotes 38
7. Bibliographies 50
8. Presentation and Style Guide 52
9. Assessment 55

HOW TO USE THIS BOOKLET
This booklet is a guideline for history essays. It offers advice for preparing assignments and gives
particular advice on referencing and presentation techniques. While the ideas and tips it contains may
be useful for writing in other Programmes, each Programme will undoubtedly have different
formatting, layout and style requirements. If in doubt, ask.
This booklet is designed to be used by history students at all levels. It contains information on the
‘hows’ and ‘whys’ and offers examples to clarify points. We suggest that students new to history at
university read this guide before writing their first essay. As you become familiar with essay writing
you can use this as a reference booklet, looking up the sections you need for further information by
using the table of contents.
We have included a One Page Summary (p.2) that contains the basic principles in Writing History
Essays. This summary is not a substitute, however, for reading the whole text. Your essays will be
assessed and marked on the assumption that you have read and applied the advice in this booklet. If
you would like further information, talk to your tutor or lecturer.
1

Summary
First, ask yourself: ‘What is the question actually asking?’
Read widely, but also read critically and selectively.
Consider your sources carefully. Of what are they trying to convince you? What are they
trying to explain or argue? When were they written, and by whom?
Take notes in your own words as you read.
Note all the necessary bibliographical information from each text.
Quotes should be taken sparingly and accurately.
Avoid plagiarism.
Plan your argument.
Give your essay a logical structure that develops your argument.
Write a draft, and take time to improve the final product.
Your essay should be your argument based on informed reading.
Your essay’s argument should answer the question, be supported with evidence, and be
written clearly.
An essay is a structured answer requiring an introduction, a main body and a conclusion.
Your introduction should present the argument of your essay to the reader.
Your conclusion should sum up the argument of your essay.
Your essay requires well structured paragraphs with complete sentences.
Submit your work on time.
Late essays have valuable marks deducted.
Correct spelling and grammar are important.
Quotations should be accurate and be placed in quotation marks.
Footnotes show your use of evidence.
You should footnote quotes, figures, statistics, and your paraphrases of factual material or
another author's argument.
Your bibliography lists the sources you have used to construct your argument.
Your essay should be printed in a readable typeface, double spaced, with a wide left margin,
paragraphs indented, and each page numbered.
Finally, read the marker’s comments. Just before you start your next essay, re-read the
marked essay and the comments. Try to improve your essay technique and your
understanding of history.
2

Why we write history essays
History courses require you to submit written essays as part of your assignment work. Essay writing
helps develop abilities that will enable you to participate in the continuing discussion about the past,
including developing and stating a reasoned argument, quickly and effectively analysing and
summarising texts, and presenting a scholarly, well documented final product. Such skills have wide
application in many areas beyond history.
What is a history essay?
The word ‘essay’ is derived from the French, essayer, which means ‘to try, to attempt, to test’. An essay
is an attempt to establish a case or test a hypothesis. Specifically for our purposes, an essay is a
reasoned and orderly argument with properly acknowledged supporting evidence. The argument in
your essay should be your coherent explanation for ‘Why?’ or ‘How?’ events and processes happened,
supported by evidence in the form of the ideas and writings of other historians, people of the time, and
other historical sources. The material you find and read on the question will constrain your argument
and its supporting evidence.
Not all questions are valid history questions. ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’ is not an
appropriate historical question. It does not have ideological, social or historical importance (except
perhaps in the field of comedy).
‘Why did Julius Caesar cross the Rubicon?’ ‘Why was Captain Cook sent to explore the Pacific
Ocean?’ ‘What was the importance of Nixon’s visit to China?’ These questions ask something deeper.
The motives and reasons behind these crossings go beyond the individuals, and involve complex
national ideologies, political struggles, and were part of much larger historical events. The complexity
of such events means that new insights and analyses are offered constantly.
What is the question?
Every research essay has a question (or topic), and your task is to respond in a series of logical
paragraphs. It sounds simple, yet one of the most common essay problems is not answering the set
question. Often essays do not answer the question posed and so do not get the desired grade. Essay
questions use specific language, and so understanding the question before you start is the first step in
the essay writing process.
Identify the key concepts in a question. Questions will ask you to examine, account for, evaluate,
3

assess, discuss, compare, contrast, or consider the relative importance of, etc. etc. You will not be
asked to describe a sequence of events or simply write down everything you can find out on a topic.
For example, you will not be assigned a question such as, ‘What happened in the Industrial
Revolution?’ Rather, the question will focus on an area of debate, so that you can contribute to
that debate. So, for example, a more likely question would be, ‘The Industrial Revolution was
not at all revolutionary. Discuss.’ In response you could find many sources that argue against
the premise and many that support it. Your task would be to present both sides, assessing their
strengths and weaknesses and come to your own conclusion regarding the debate.
Stay focused on the question. Do not wander far away from your essay-writing task.
For example, when answering the question ‘Assess the impact of the Reform Bill of 1832 on the
working class in Britain’, devoting half your essay to the French working class is not a good
idea.
Be sure you cover the topic. Answer the entire question, not just a section of it. Topics may be very
broad.
For example, if you are answering the same question ‘Assess the impact of the Reform Bill of
1832 on the working class in Britain’, then an essay that discusses only English children in
poverty is not answering the whole question. What about men and women? What about
workers living in other parts of Britain?
You might be given a seemingly simple question or statement, yet under the surface may lie complex
issues that need to be explored.
For example, take the question ‘Did the state simply ignore Māori health before 1936?’ There
appears to be an obvious single word answer: ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. However, the question requires a
more considered response. Within the given question there are more questions to be explored
and answered. For instance, ‘Did the state devote adequate attention to Māori health before
1936?’ ‘Did the state have a policy (official or unofficial) regarding Māori health before 1936?’
‘What efforts, if any, were made to bring the issues of Māori health to the state before 1936?’
‘Why did the state ‘suddenly’ devise a policy in 1936?’ ‘Why is 1936 an important date for
Māori health?’ These and other questions need to be answered in any essay that tackles
what—at first glance—seems to be a straightforward question. The key words in the question
are ‘simply ignore’. What does this phrase mean?
Another common problem is the ‘blind’ selection of familiar or ‘cool sounding’ topics, questions that
seem to be about something in which you may be interested.
4

For example, First World War questions are very popular, and you may have studied this broad
topic in high school. An essay answering the question ‘What was the demographic impact of
the First World War on European societies?’ should not contain a summary of the major battles
or a discussion of who won the war. Rather, it should comment on population movements and
trends, comparing pre-war and post-war European societies.
If you do not understand the nature of the question, the chances are that you will not answer the
question adequately. Think about what you are being asked to do, and if you want clarification ask
your tutor.
Essays are NOT...
The study of History at university is not designed to teach you ‘facts’, which you can learn by heart.
You will not be asked to memorise large lists of names, places and dates. Specific points of
information, data, chronologies and other forms of factual detail can be located in the sources you use
to research your topic, so there is no excuse for getting them wrong in your essays.
While there is room in an essay for imagination and creativity you cannot fabricate information. You
are being asked to present your argument and your ideas; however, these must be based on careful
research and informed reading.
History questions are not ‘true’ or ‘false’ tests. There is no one right way of answering a history
question. Rather, a history essay is an opportunity to enter an ongoing debate, to read and think
about questions that may never—indeed often cannot—be finally resolved. There are always new
ways of looking at material, new methods to apply, and new ideas to incorporate.
5

1) READING
1.1—Before You Start
Reading for a history essay is not the same as reading for leisure. The first difference is that you
should take notes as you read (see section (2) Note Taking below).
The second difference is that you should read with discrimination. Read extensively, but read wisely.
Concentrate on material that is relevant to the question. You should normally start with a general
book or website, to gain an overview of your topic, and then move to more specialised books and
articles.
Use tables of contents and indexes to find the sections that apply to your topic. Often books and
articles have abstracts, prefaces, introductions and conclusions, which summarise the argument.
Read these first, and use them to guide you to the key parts of the text.
The third difference is that you should read with specific questions in mind. It is important to read
critically. Weigh the evidence each author uses, compare texts, think about what each author is
trying to argue and why. Historians try to convince you of why particular changes occurred in the
past, and they also suggest ways for us to think about the past. Reading a historical text is always a
challenge; you should try to see the assumptions behind the argument. Who made the source? Why?
When? Is it supported by other sources?
1.2—Sample Reading
On the following page is a short excerpt from a journal article about livestock husbandry in colonial
Maryland and Virginia. There is no need to study or fully comprehend this text, only to note how it is
used in examples later in this guide.
The excerpt derives from the following article:
Virginia DeJohn Anderson, ‘Animals into the Wilderness: The Development of Livestock
Husbandry in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake’, William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 59, no. 2,
April 2002, pp. 377–409, p.379.
6

Sample Reading
Source: Virginia DeJohn Anderson, ‘Animals into the Wilderness: The Development of
Livestock Husbandry in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake’, William and Mary Quarterly,
Vol. 59, no. 2, April 2002, pp.377-408.
7

1.3—Types of Sources
You will encounter a wide variety of sources in the course of studying history: books, periodicals (or
journals); book reviews; newspapers; photographs; interviews; microfilms; CD-ROMs; videos;
databases; websites; and a range of digitised material available through the internet. Historians
classify these sources into two broad categories: primary and secondary material.
Primary sources are the documents, papers, articles, books, personal recollections, archaeological and
visual remains produced by people at, or very near, the time of the historical actions in question. They
are first-hand evidence, sources immediate to the historical actors and actions. Often they are
personal materials, such as diaries, letters and memos; however, they can be more public documents,
such as newspapers, magazines, television programmes and songs.
For example, Captain James Cook’s journals (written during or shortly after the actual events)
are considered primary sources of information for study of Cook or his times. The brief
quotations from Governor Francis Wyatt in the sample reading (1.2) are primary quotations, as
they were written in the time being analysed.
Secondary materials are documents written or created at some time removed from the events they
discuss. They are sources subsequent to the historical actors and actions. A secondary text uses a
mixture of primary and secondary material to create a new interpretation of the source material. Any
essay you may write on a historical subject is a secondary piece.
For example, Richard Hough’s biography of Cook, Captain James Cook, written in 1994 (well after
the events, and drawing on many sources including Cook’s personal journals), is a secondary
source. The sample reading (1.2) is also secondary material (containing some primary
quotations as noted above).
As you progress in the study of history, primary material will become increasingly important. First
and second year courses will mainly be concerned with secondary readings. Do not be afraid to use
primary sources. Material from the time provides strong evidence in an essay.
You should examine sources critically (1.1). There are some extra questions you can ask of a primary
source. Why has it survived? Is the source authentic? Has it been corrupted? What have other
historians written about the source?
Be wary of older secondary texts. History is not a fixed interpretation of events: it is an ongoing
8

debate on the ‘whys’ of past events. Debates move on and scholarly opinions change. At least
consider the most recent secondary sources you can find.
Be wary of what are sometimes called ‘tertiary’ sources, or school textbooks. These are very general
works written from secondary sources and usually contain limited scholarly value. Often they are
little more than a source of dates and names, with little interpretation of events. While encyclopaedias
(including Wikipedia) are very important reference tools—they can give you important definitions,
‘facts’ and dates—they do not usually contain historical analysis.
1.4—Where to Find Sources
Most courses require you to purchase a Book of Readings, which will contain selections of books,
articles and documents carefully compiled by your lecturers as well as recommended reading lists.
A wide variety of sources is available in the Victoria University Library: books, periodicals (or
journals), newspapers, microfilms, CD-ROMs, slides, DVDs and electronic databases. Take advantage
of the library tours to introduce yourself to the computer catalogue and to the variety and location of
the materials.
The university library provides reading areas and study rooms. It also has photocopying facilities that
can be useful if you need only a few relevant pages in a text. Remember: when photocopying
material, ensure you take down all the relevant bibliographical details (2.2 and 7).
Wellington has the distinct advantage of being the location of the National Library of New Zealand—
Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa and the Alexander Turnbull Library. Sources housed here include
Photographic and Portrait collections, the Oral History Archive, Newspaper archive, the New Zealand
Manuscript Collection, and vast microfilm sources, including all books printed in Britain from 1475 to
the eighteenth century. Wellington also has Archives New Zealand—Te Rua Mahara o te
Kāwanatanga, which contains government records, The Treaty of Waitangi, business records,
personal documents, and more.
You also should consider the Wellington Public Library as a further source, especially if the
University Library shelves empty out before you find all you need. Especially useful is the New
Zealand reference collection located on the second floor.
While the internet contains a vast array of historical information, care is needed in utilizing material
from the web. There are a number of strange, eccentric sites that pose as academic but are not
9

necessarily reliable. Articles in scholary journals and books have been reviewed before publication by
experts in the field. They meet academic standards of evidence and argument. In contrast, anyone can
create a website. Think carefully about the reliability of a site by asking:
Is the author of the material named?
Are his/her credentials given?
Is the owner of the website named? Does it appear to be promoting a particular agenda?
Are the views presented on the site consistent with what you have read in books and articles?
Remember, authoritative information is able to be verified. It is more than a personal opinion.
Is the website up-to-date?
Is the website maintained by a university—and hence the URL ends in ‘ac.nz’ or ‘ac.uk’ or
‘edu’?
1.5—Searching for Printed Sources
There are many ways to search for texts, and it can be confusing at first. Most library catalogues allow
you to search by title, personal name (author or editor), and subject. Searching also can be done by
keywords, either in titles or subjects.
For example, to find books on the Cold War, once you have exhausted the obvious searches for books
with ‘cold war’ in the title or subject field, you could try searching in the subject field for ‘united states
foreign relations’, or ‘united states soviet union’.
How do you know what keywords to search? If you can find one book on the subject in a catalogue it
will help guide you to others, as it will tell you what subjects it is classified under. Try it. Find a book
on a specific subject, scroll through the catalogue listing until you get to subject, then use those listings
to search for more books. This is a far more efficient way of finding keywords than trying to think of
them yourself.
Browsing the shelves can also be useful, as books and periodicals are grouped together by subject.
10

1.6—Searching for Web-based Sources
There are thousands of useful historical sites and with valuable historical information on the internet.
To find material of interest quickly you must use effective keyword searches. Google, the most
common search engine, deploys a mathematical ranking system to ‘order’ your search results. Since
historians are not the biggest users of Google, the results you retrieve in your searches may instead
point you to tourist sites or marketing sites or other consumer-related sites.
For example, suppose you are researching the question on slave societies in eighteenth-century
Jamaica.
Typing Jamaica slaves
into the Google search box would retrieve
hundreds of sites without useful historical information.
More effective keyword searches:
include words in quote marks
include unusual, often historically-specific, keywords
include time references—even a ‘random’ year is a useful keyword
include archival references
include database acronyms, such as JSTOR (for Journal Storage)
include university URL references, such as ac.nz or ac.uk or edu
exclude keywords linked to business or tourism or corporations
exclude corporation URL references, such as .com or .org
Use the Advanced Google search feature to enter information on keywords, the URL’s domain, or the
file type of the digitalised source (Word or PDF or Excel)—or use Advanced Search to exclude words.
You also may replicate the Advanced Google features in the standard Google search box by typing
‘site:’ (as in site:ac.nz) or by typing ‘–‘ to exclude words (as in –beach –tourism –hotel –sun).
The following are effective Google searches to find information about Jamaican slave societies:
Jamaica ‘slave societies’ 1751
[now type] -beach –tourism site:edu
[now type] JSTOR CO142
retrieves sites with exact phrase ‘slave societies’ and ‘1751’
11
reduces further your search results without words ‘beach’
or ‘tourism’ but from educational (edu) sites
now locates articles from JSTOR database that cite, in
footnotes, the reference CO (Colonial Office) series 142

2) NOTE TAKING
2.1—Why we Take Notes
Notes are necessary to ensure that you have the information you require from the text, when you want
it. You need to take notes from the texts you read so that you can use the information from these
sources clearly, accurately, and in a scholarly manner. Remember that a history essay is a reasoned
and orderly argument with properly acknowledged supporting evidence. The notes you take as you
read will be the source of evidence for your argument and will allow you to create footnotes (6) and
your bibliography (2.2 and 7). Clear and precise notes also will help you avoid plagiarism (4.6, 4.8).
You will read many texts in a trimester of study, and remembering all the arguments, strengths, faults,
and specific page references, is not practical. If you take good notes, you may only need to read a text
once. However, do not hesitate to re-read a text, especially one that is important to your topic.
2.2—Starting your Bibliography
You should complete the bibliography first, before writing a word of the essay. A bibliography lists
the sources you use in the essay. Before taking notes from any source, it is most important to record
all the information about the source required for your footnotes and bibliography.
Bibliography format
For books:
Author last name, author first name, Title (Place of publication: Publisher, year of publication).
For journal articles:
Author last name, author first name, 'Title of Article', Title of Journal, Vol. X , no. X , year of
publication, pp.XXX-YYY [full page range].
For chapters in edited collections:
Author last name, author first name, 'Title of Chapter', in Editor1 first name last name, Editor2
first name last name, and Editor3 first name last name (ed. or eds.), Title of Collection, X ed.
(Place of publication: Publisher, year of publication), pp.XXX-YYY [full page range].
See section 6.3 (the style of footnotes) and 7 (bibliographies) on the styles to use and examples.
Now is the time to format the required information correctly. Paying attention now to citation style
will free time at the crunch stage to focus on your writing and ideas.
12

2.3—How to Take Notes
There are many ways of taking notes, and you may have developed your own style that works for
you. Some guidelines are offered below.
Organisation is the key to note taking. Nothing is worse than spending valuable time searching for a
lost scrap of paper containing vital information. Use a ring binder, a laptop, a bound exercise book, or
a card index rather than random, loose (easily misplaced) pages.
Your notes should enable you to construct footnotes (6) and bibliographical entries, so it is important
to record the details of each text (2.2). You must note from which page or pages the information came.
Arrange notes by subtopics. A single text may have widely different ideas and arguments. Several
different texts may all comment on the same aspect of your topic. By keeping all the notes from
separate books on the same subtopic together you can see where authors agree and disagree with each
other.
Tip to avoid plagiarism: Quote now, paraphrase later. Be sure to use quotation marks.
Keep the question in mind. Only take notes that relate to the question you are answering.
Photocopying is no substitute for good notetaking.
For example, here are some possible notes from our sample readings (1.2) for a question such as
‘Discuss the assumptions of the first English arrivals to Virginia.’
Firstly we must record the details we will need for footnotes and bibliography entries later (2.2).
So we note in bibliography format,
Anderson, Virginia DeJohn, ‘Animals into the Wilderness: The Development of Livestock
Husbandry in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake’, William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 59, no. 2,
April 2002, pp.377-408.
Specific notes from the reading may fall into separate subtopics. For instance, we might take
notes under the subtopic ‘Animals in the Virginia colonies’.
Animals in the Virginia colonies
Anderson , ‘Animals into the Wilderness’.
p.379 'Two years after the first ships landed, the colony had "6 mares and a horse, 5 or 600
swine, as many hens and chickens; some goates [and] some sheep"'.
Be sure to include page numbers of your sources (6.4). Page numbers enable you and your readers to
quickly relocate any material you cite, and are important in constructing your footnotes (6).
13

3) Planning your Essay
3.1—Remembering the Question
It is all too easy to lose sight of the question during your reading and note taking. Remind yourself of
the exact question you are answering before you start planning your essay. One of the keys to essay
writing is staying focused. There are many interesting tangents to the topics you will study, and you
must be careful not to stray from the question.
3.2—Why write an Essay Plan or Outline?
In order to answer a question effectively an essay needs to be structured carefully. An essay must
persuade and convince the reader (and marker). Every sentence (4.3) and every paragraph (4.4)
should be relevant to the question, and provide a step by step link in the development of the
argument. Without planning, an essay will not stay coherent and focused.
A history essay should have a definite structure, with an introduction (3.3, 4.2, 4.12), a main body
(3.4) containing your argument and evidence, and a conclusion (4.2, 4.11). You should sketch out
these components and make sure they will add up to a comprehensive answer to the question.
3.3—Planning your Introduction
An introduction is a clear one-paragraph roadmap of your essay. It tells the reader what you will
prove in the essay (the destination) and the subtopics you will cover (the route to the destination—the
stops along the way). After reading your introduction the marker should know exactly what you
intend to argue.
Your plan need not be complete, as during the drafting of your essay you may refine your ideas.
However, it is useful to note down what you think you are going to prove, and you can use your
introduction plan to ensure that you do not forget to include important points as you go. Your
reading (1) and note taking (2) should give you a sufficient number of ideas with which to start.
For example, an introduction plan to a question such as ‘Discuss the assumptions of the first
English arrivals to Virginia’, might contain the following sketchy ideas:
Introduction plan:
What did the first English arrivals to Virginia assume about:
what they would find (what sources of information did they have?)?
inhabitants? climate? plants/animals?
14

what they could accomplish (things possible in Virginia, not in England?)?
how Virginia would differ from England?
the obstacles they might face in Virginia?
3.4—Using Notes: Planning the Main Body
The body of your essay provides the in-depth argument and analysis that you have outlined in your
introduction plan. The plan of the body of your essay needs to offer a coherent structure for your
evidence and argument. Develop your argument in clear steps. The most effective way to construct
an answer is to support each major step in your argument by reference to supporting evidence and/or
examples.
Taking the ideas from your introductory plan (3.3), add in the notes (2.3) that you have taken and any
of your own ideas and deductions. Your notes should help you plan your essay, and your plan should
help you see any gaps in your notes.
For example, using the same question as (3.3) above, ‘Discuss the assumptions of the first
English arrivals to Virginia’, you could expand the introduction plan into an outline of the
entire essay. Here is a small sample, which could become a partial or whole paragraph in your
final copy. (See (4.4) for further details).
Assumptions about animals (IDEA OR PARAGRAPH TOPIC FROM INTRO PLAN)
They thought food alone limited how (OWN IDEAS ON SUBJECT
well familiar animals would thrive. BASED ON READING)
Barber, Jamestown Voyages, p.161, in (NOTES THAT RELATE
Anderson, 'Animals ,' p. 379 DIRECTLY TO THE TOPIC;
Francis Perkins noted 'an abundance of fresh fodder, EVIDENCE)
for any kind of livestock . . . even if there were a
million of them'.
Anderson, 'Animals', p. 379
Governor Francis Wyatt asserted that livestock
would flourish in Virginia, and so the colony (MORE EVIDENCE)
would succeed.
Anderson, 'Animals', p.379 (MORE EVIDENCE)
By 1609, the colony already supported 500 pigs,
500 chickens, and 7 horses, as well as goats and sheep.
15

When taking notes you may start thinking of useful sentences to include in your essay. Thus consider
the note-taking process and the writing process as often going hand-in-hand.
Taking notes and writing topic sentences
Topic sentences (4.4) appear in sentence one of the paragraph, and, to help your reader, they should
state the main point of the paragraph. These topic sentences are thus important points that you want
to make in your essay, and each topic sentences tells your reader what you will prove in that
paragraph.
For example, in researching the English colonists’ animal husbandry in colonial Maryland and
Virginia, you may find primary source evidence from settlers or indigenous peoples about the cold
winters in the Chesapeake Bay region. You might think to yourself: ‘English settlers were unprepared
for the cold winters in the Chesapeake’. If you wrote down such a thought in a complete sentence, you
may find that your thought/sentence becomes a topic sentence to a paragraph discussing colonialism
and the environment.
16

4) DRAFTING
4.1—Why Write a Draft?
Effective essay writing is much more than knowing what you need to say, sitting down, and writing it
all in one go. Even with a good set of notes (2) and an effective plan (3) you can never be sure how
your argument will evolve. You may discover a logical inconsistency in your structure, come across
new information, or have a blinding insight in the middle of the night. Thus drafting is important.
Drafting is a process of discovering what you really need to say. Writing a rough draft is an essential
step towards producing a coherent, logical and complete essay. Start your draft as soon as possible.
Do not delay beginning a draft because you are not completely sure of your arguments. Drafting—
actually writing your ideas down and trying arguments out—is the best way to make progress.
4.2—What to Consider While Drafting
When drafting it is important to keep the end product—your final submitted essay—clear in your
mind. You will need footnotes (6) and a bibliography (7) in your final copy, so ensure you include all
the necessary information for these as you go.
Introduction as Road Map
The introduction functions as a one-paragraph road map for the reader. It tells the reader where the
essay is going (the argument, or thesis statement) and the route it will take (the subtopics). Start by
drafting your thesis statement. What will you prove (thesis)? What subtopics will you cover to prove
it? Check that your thesis addresses the essay question.
Thesis test: can somebody argue against your thesis statement?
Yes: develop further
No: rethink your thesis or argument.
For example: the thesis statement or argument ‘World War Two devastated Europe’ is not arguable
(could anyone disagree?), whereas ‘During World War Two the Soviet Union suffered the most of any
nation‛ is arguable.
Body See 4.3–4.8.
Conclusion
The conclusion briefly summarises your whole argument and position in one paragraph. It relates
closely to your introduction, although it should not be exactly the same. Rather a conclusion should
express similar information in a more developed form and bring the essay to an end.
In general, no new evidence should appear in a conclusion.
17

If you can, allow yourself a break in your essay writing between the draft and the final copy to let
your mind absorb what you have done and what needs to be added. Let the essay have time to ripen.
Most essays have a word limit, plus or minus ten per cent. Keep the word count in mind while
drafting. If you find yourself below the word count, you may need to do some more research and
thinking about the topic. If you find yourself well over the limit, then edit your draft down by
summarising or shortening your text. Rewrite rather than randomly deleting or adding sections.
4.3—Effective Sentences
(a) Structure: A sentence expresses a complete thought and contains a subject and a verb. The
subject is the word or phrase that the sentence is about. The verb is a word that shows an
action or state of being.
For example, ‘Curly ran away’.
(SUBJECT) (VERB)
‘The professor thought about the essay’.
(SUBJECT) (VERB)
A sentence is not the same as a phrase or clause.
For example, Printers produced more books than ever before. On all sorts of topics.
The phrase ‘On all sorts of topics’ is not a sentence. It has no verb.
A more correct construction would be
‘Printers produced more books than ever before, on all sorts of topics’.
Ordering of Elements: A good order to follow when writing sentences for history essays is
time–manner (subject/verb)–place. The sentence then answers the following questions in a
logical order. When did it happen? Who did it? What action occurred? Where did it take place?
A sentence may occasionally work better with these components in a different order.
18

(b) The verb to be: Avoiding reliance on the actionless verb ‘to be’ will improve your essay writing
dramatically. The verb ‘to be’, in its conjugated forms: am/is/are/was/were/be/been/being.
(i) The verb ‘to be’ indicates equivalence, and often between a subject and adjective.
For example, ‘The All Blacks were triumphant’.
=
(SUBJECT) (ADJECTIVE)
‘Napoleon was short’.
=
(SUBJECT) (ADJECTIVE)
Such a construction is an acceptable use of ‘to be’, but note how minor editing creates a more
elegant sentence: ‘The All Blacks, triumphant in 1987, returned to form

(c) Precision: reducing your reliance on the actionless verb ‘to be’ is one way to add precision to your
essay writing. Your aim in History essay writing in to convey information clearly and
effectively.
Avoid vague words
Conveying information clearly requires you to avoid vague words, such as ‘this’ or ‘these’ or ‘those’,
or weak verbs such as ‘to involve’ or ‘to deal’ or ‘to effect’. ‘This’ is probably the worst essay-
writing work in the English language, and generally should be used only in a construction such
as ‘This essay argues that ....’
For example, consider the following two sentences.
‘Columbus decided to eliminate Indian slavery, even though few Spanish farmers had
emigrated to the Caribbean. This brought the Spanish colonists out in protest’.
Does This refer to the elimination of slavery or to the few Spanish farmers?
In particular, avoid ‘this’ in topic sentences, as you will force your reader to re-read your previous
paragraphs to figure out to what ‘this’ refers.
Using weak verbs force your reader to imagine the action taking place in your sentence.
For example, notice how the italicized sentences use action verbs to add clarity:
‘Many crew were involved in a mutiny’ uses the weak verb ‘to involve’
‘Many crew seized control of the ship’ uses the action verb ‘to seize’
‘The captain dealt with the mutineers’ uses the weak verb ‘to deal’
‘The captain flogged the mutineers’ uses the action verb ‘to flog’
‘Captains involved themselves in sailing the ship’ uses the weak verb ‘to involve’
‘Captains navigate ships’ uses the action verb ‘to navigate’
Tip: reducing your reliance on vague words will improve your essay writing dramatically, and it is
much harder to write essays without ‘this’ and other vague words than you may think.
20

(d) Formal language: Remember, an essay is a formal piece of writing. Read your sentences aloud and
ask yourself if the language is appropriate.
For example, ‘Seddon worked tirelessly to promote New Zealand interests’ is more appropriate
for a scholarly piece of writing than ‘Seddon worked really hard and did his bit for New
Zealand’, which may be okay for Campbell Live.
(c) Streamline: When proofreading your essay, read each sentence aloud to check for 'wordiness'.
Beware of long sentences, especially those more than three lines long. They are probably
unbalanced or tangled. Avoid interrupting elements between a subject and its verb: it is better
to place the subject as near to its verb as possible. Follow the tips below to streamline your
sentences:
(i) Three-preposition test: A quick way to check for wordiness is to 'count prepositions'. In
general, readers have difficulty following sentences that contain more than three prepositions.
The most commonly used prepositions are:
after at by for from in of on since to with
For example, the following sentence is difficult for your reader to absorb, because it
contains eight prepositions.
In 1815 Emperor Napoleon I returned from exile on Elba and led his forces to the
Battle of Waterloo where he was defeated by an Anglo-Allied army under the
command of the Duke of Wellington.
(ii) Redundancy: To further streamline your sentences avoid redundancy. A redundancy is an
expression that conveys the same meaning more than once.
Redundant Concise
adequate enough adequate
advance planning planning
both together both
but yet but
contributing factor factor
equally as far as far
few in number few
final outcome outcome
large in size large
past experience experience
past history history
share in common share
two different two
21

4.4—Coherent Paragraphs
A paragraph is a coherent collection of separate sentences that form one major idea and a group of
lesser related ideas. A paragraph should contain only one major point, and all the minor elements in
a paragraph should be connected. If the major point appears in the first sentence, it appears in the
topic sentence. Writing topic sentences as major points is useful, as your reader sees this sentence first
in the paragraph. In general, your paragraphs should total 100-175 words. If they are less than 100
words, the information may not be sufficiently important to warrant a paragraph; as paragraphs begin
exceeding 175 words, they begin to discuss more than one major point or topic. In the sample reading
(1.2), Anderson’s top two paragraphs on p.379 are well-sized: they total 163 and 121 words,
respectively.
Think of a paragraph as a micro-essay containing an introductory sentence that states the topic, then
further sentence(s) that develop that argument and support it with evidence, and then bring the idea
to some closure.
For example, in the sample reading (1.2) the first paragraph starts by stating that Virginia
colonists celebrated the discovery of hay. Then Anderson provides specific details. The second
and following sentences offer examples, and the whole paragraph is footnoted, showing the
sources Anderson used to help construct the point. The final sentence elaborates the main idea.
4.5—Paragraph Transitions
Your paragraphs should link into each other conceptually, so that your essay flows and develops
logically.
Logical Development: One hint for checking the structure of your essay is to read just the first
sentence in each paragraph and see if you can still understand your essay’s argument. If not
then you may need to re-write some paragraphs or change your structure.
For example, Anderson’s three topic sentences (1.2) read:
Whatever visions of gold or other riches inflamed their imaginations, the first English colonists
in the Chesapeake celebrated the discovery of a very different resource: hay.
The Virginia Company aimed to supply its fledgling colony with all the ‘domesticall’ beasts it
needed.
English colonization of the Chesapeake took place just as the region’s climate experienced
severe fluctuations that imposed unexpected hardships on animals weakened by lengthy
voyages.
22

Using ‘whereas’: There are other methods to link ideas between paragraphs. The word whereas is
useful for making neat transitions between paragraphs that contrast two ideas on the same
topic.
For example, after a paragraph on the ease of livestock farming in the English climate:
Whereas cattle thrived in the temperate English climate, livestock farmers struggled
in the tropical Australian north.
Using a linking adverbial clause: Start the new topic sentence with a adverbial clause that repeats
words from the immediately preceding sentence:
For example, write a new topic sentence to follow the first paragraph in the sample (1.2):
'Colonists had little reason to expect anything other than the easy transfer of animal
husbandry to the Chesapeake, for the region appeared to be nothing less than an earthly
paradise for livestock'.
As the colonists expected animal husbandry to transfer easily, the Virginia Company
[Adverbial clause that looks back] [new idea starts]
sought to furnish them with sufficient livestock.
Useful Subordinating conjunctions to begin a sentence in a transitional paragraph: as, after,
before, when, while, until, whereas, although, unless, if, since, because, as if, as long as, as
soon as, as though
Using ‘Echoing’: Echoing a verb from the previous topic sentence (by changing its conjugated form,
usually from –ed to –ing), is another method to link paragraphs.
For example,
Topic sentence 1: Between 1886 and 1890, the Evening Post reported 200 stories on
‘sweating’ (the use of sweat shop labour) in New Zealand.
Topic sentence 2: Newspaper reporting stimulated the Atkinson Government in late
1889 to establish a Royal Commission on Sweating.
23

4.6—Paraphrasing Evidence
Remember to footnote (6) your paraphrase. To paraphrase, rewrite information in your own words.
Historians often paraphrase in order to briefly summarize some aspect of a complex idea; most
paraphrases will be significantly shorter than the original text.
Students frequently paraphrase incorrectly. Paraphrasing requires a complete rewording of the
author’s ideas. Consider a sample text,
By 1850 there was hardly a trading or a manufacturing town in England, which was not in
some way connected to overseas markets. The profits obtained from overseas trade
provided one of the main streams of that accumulation of capital in England which
financed the Industrial Revolution.
The text below is not paraphrased, but plagiarized, as the writer has only substituted a few synonyms
into the sentences, and hence has stolen the author’s sentence structures:
By the mid-1800s there was hardly a commercial or a manufacturing city in England,
which was not linked to overseas markets. The profits obtained from overseas trade
provided one of the principal streams of capital in England, which funded the Industrial
Revolution.
An acceptable paraphrase might look like this:
In the first half of the nineteenth century, foreign exchange earnings provided sufficient
capital to sustain England’s industrial revolution.
Tip 1: If you read the source sentence(s) aloud and then your sentence(s) aloud, and they sound the
same, then you probably have not paraphrased sufficiently.
Tip 2: Try to write sentences without looking at your sources.
Students found guilty of plagiarism can be given zero for the essay. See sub-section 6.2, 'When to
Footnote?', for further advice; see 4.8 regarding plagiarism.
24

4.7—Using Quotes as Evidence
As in our sample reading (1.2), judicious use of quotations can effectively support your argument.
Place the words in quotation marks (‘ ‘) and footnote (6). Use quotes sparingly and accurately.
Primary material (1.3), or key secondary material, makes for the best quotations. The sample reading
(1.2) is a good example. Anderson quotes only from primary sources; she paraphrases the arguments
of her secondary sources.
Use an author’s words in your final essay only when they say something in a particularly striking
manner or summarise their thesis succinctly. There is almost no need for long quotations, and
quotations should not dominate your own words.
For example, when using the sample reading (1.2) for the question, ‘Discuss the assumptions of
the first English arrivals to the Chesapeake’, most of the ideas contained in the text are easily
paraphrased (4.6). However, at the end of her first paragraph, Anderson neatly summarises
early colonists’ assumptions about the similarities between livestock farming in Britain and
Virginia. So we might use the following quote in the final essay:
Anderson, ‘Animals into the Wilderness’, p.379,
‘Colonists had little reason to expect anything other than the easy transfer of animal
husbandry to the Chesapeake’.
Try to integrate quotations into your argument. One way is to introduce the source and context
immediately before the quotation:
In exploring colonists' assumptions about livestock farming, Anderson observes: ‘Colonists had
little reason to expect anything other than the easy transfer of animal husbandry to the
Chesapeake’. 1
Quotations must be accurate. Reproduce the words, spelling, capitalisation and punctuation of your
source, exactly. If you use a quotation that contains an obvious misprint or mistake you must not
alter it yourself. It is assumed that all quotes are reproduced accurately; however, if you want to
stress that any mistake or error is not yours but your source's, you can place the word ‘sic’ in square
brackets immediately after the incorrect item. Sic, a Latin word, means ‘thus’ or ‘so’. In its essay-
writing usage, a good meaning is ‘intentionally so written’.
For example, Abbot notes that ‘there is no single winning formula four *sic+ a suck-cessful [sic]
academic argument’. 2
When quoting primary sources, as does Anderson in the sample reading (1.2), avoid inserting [sic]
25

when your reader knows that spelling varied earlier, as in the seventeenth century.
Occasionally you may need to add in your own words or letters to a quotation. Additional material
must be enclosed in square brackets to distinguish it clearly from the quotation. You can use this
method to replace a capital letter with the lower case equivalent, or to add in clarifying phrases that
give context to the quote.
For example, taking some quotes from our sample reading (1.2) you can replace a capital letter
with a lower case equivalent;
Anderson states that ‘*t]he Virginia Company aimed to supply its fledgling colony with all the
"domesticall" beasts it needed’.
Or add in a descriptive and clarifying phrase,
‘These animals arrived in a land [Northern Virginia] with seemingly limitless amounts of
natural meadow and a temperate climate roughly similar to England’s.’
However, it would not be acceptable to change the meaning of the quote by additions such as,
‘These animals arrived in a land [the Waikato] with seemingly limitless amounts of natural
meadow and a temperate climate roughly similar to England’s.’
Long quotations, more than four or five lines, are seldom justified: as quotes increase in length they
increase in complexity and in amount of information they contain. So your reader may have difficulty
understand the main point of the quote.
If you cite long quotations (more than three lines) then the accepted format is to indent the quotation
(left and right margins) and omit the quotation marks. You also may indent quotations of particular
importance, to highlight the words for your reader.
For example, The Deputy Prime Minister, J. R. Marshall, chose to emphasise other reasons for
the New Zealand commitment in the House of Representatives:
Quote-splitting
The crux of the matter for us is that Communist aggression in Vietnam is a threat
to us. If South Vietnam is overrun and becomes a Communist State it becomes the
base for the next move in the Communist plan for world revolution.... Our
security and way of life are at stake and we cannot stand aside. 3
Splitting long quotes adds elegance to your writing. For example, in the sample reading (1.2)
Anderson inserts her own words to split the long quote ‘healthfull and prosperous estate of this
Colony depends upon nothing more, then the plentifull increasing and preserving of all sorts of Beats
26

and birds of domesticall or tame nature’:
The ‘healthfull and prosperous estate of this Colony’, he announced in 1623, ‘depends upon nothing
more, then the plentifull increasing and preserving of all sorts of Beats and birds of domesticall or
tame nature’.
4.8—Reference to Avoid Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is copying without proper acknowledgement. It is the use of another person's words, ideas
or specific information without referencing. It is passing off someone else’s work as your own.
Plagiarism is academic dishonesty and incurs serious penalties in all university departments. The
following is Victoria University’s official policy regarding plagiarism:
Academic integrity and Plagiarism
Academic integrity is about honesty – put simply it means no cheating. All members of the University
community are responsible for upholding academic integrity, which means staff and students are
expected to behave honestly, fairly and with respect for others at all times. Plagiarism is a form of
cheating which undermines academic integrity. Plagiarism is prohibited at Victoria.
The University defines plagiarism as follows:
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as if it were your own, whether you mean to or not.
‘Someone else’s work’ means anything that is not your own idea, even if it is presented in your own style.
It includes material from books, journals or any other printed source, the work of other students or staff,
information from the Internet, software programmes and other electronic material, designs and ideas. It
also includes the organization or structuring of any such material.
Plagiarism is not worth the risk.
Any enrolled student found guilty of plagiarism will be subject to disciplinary procedures under the
Student Conduct Statute (www.victoria.ac.nz/policy/studentconduct) and may be penalized severely.
Consequences of being found guilty of plagiarism can include:
• an oral or written warning
• suspension from class or university
• cancellation of your mark for an assessment or a fail grade for the course.
Find out more about plagiarism and how to avoid it, on the University’s website at:
www.vuw.ac.nz/home/studying/plagiarism.html.
Writing a history essay requires you to use the words and ideas of other authors, and there is nothing
wrong with this use, if they are referenced correctly. Referencing, in the form of footnotes (6) is the
method of acknowledging your use of other people’s ideas and phrases. If you use the words of
anyone other than yourself, you must use quotation marks.
For example, if you were writing an essay that used ideas from our sample reading (1.2), then
you would need to reference it with a footnote, even if it is paraphrased (written in your own
words) (6). If you were to use words directly from the sample reading in a sentence then they
must be placed in quote marks, such as: Anderson states that ‘the first English colonists in the
Chesapeake celebrated the discovery of a very different resource: hay'. 4
27

4.9—Steps to the Final Copy
Revision is not simply checking your spelling and punctuation. Rather, revising means checking the
logic and consistency of your argument and making sure that you have answered the question. 'Re-
vision' or 're-seeing' your draft leads to substantive changes in structure, argument, and phrasing. To
be useful, revision needs to be thorough. After revision, proofread to check your spelling and
punctuation.
Ask others to read your draft if you can. A new set of eyes can pick up errors you may miss. If a
reader has trouble with a sentence, rephrase it. Rephrasing uses your limited time more effectively
than trying to understand the reader's difficulty. Support, suggestions, proof-reading and debate are
all useful to the essay-writing process.
4.10—Questions to Ask of your Draft
Have you answered the question? This is the first question that you should ask of your work. This is,
after all, the purpose of the assignment.
What is the answer you have given? Could you easily explain it to a friend or flatmate? Is the
argument obvious? Do not hide your argument under facts. Support it with the most striking facts
only. Omit all facts that do not make a significant contribution.
Is your essay well organised? Make sure that your paragraphs are arranged logically, and that there
is no needless repetition. ‘As has been discussed earlier’ or similar phrases are red flags for repetition.
Reorganising your structure can sometimes improve the impact of your argument. Reorder the list of
subtopics in your introduction after reorganising.
Have you supported your arguments with evidence? While your essay should be your own argument,
in your own words, you cannot create it solely from your imagination. Your ideas and argument
must come from informed reading and analysis, and you must show your sources, in the form of
footnotes (6), in your final copy.
Is your essay interesting? While this booklet stresses the use of sources and the marshalling of
arguments from other authors, your writing does not need to be dull. You can use your ideas and
imagination as long as you are guided by informed reading. The past is a foreign country, and to visit
it you must use your imagination.
28

Is your writing clear? Avoid jargon when you can, explain jargon when you cannot. Do not bombard
the reader with obscure allusions. In other words, write considerately. Your task is to explain and
convince the marker of your argument, not to confuse her/him.
Use the tips in Paragraph Transitions (4.5) to improve the flow of the essay.
4.11—Polishing Your Conclusion
Ask yourself the following questions:
‘Does my conclusion relate closely to the topic and sum up the argument satisfactorily?’
‘If my conclusion was all that a reader read of my essay, would they understand not only my
answer, but my question?
Check that no new evidence (nothing requiring footnotes) appears in the conclusion.
Avoid using the words of the question directly in your conclusion (or introduction). Instead, try to
answer the question in a way that makes the nature of the question obvious.
4.12—Polishing Your Introduction
While you write the introduction first (4.2), revise it last. Since we learn through writing, the thesis
proved in the body of your essay may differ from that stated in your introduction. Similarly, you may
need to add or remove subtopics or change their order. Revise to make the introduction an accurate
roadmap of the essay. Polishing your introduction pays.
Questions:
‘Does my introduction succinctly state my argument in response to the question?’
‘If I did not know the essay topic would I be able to figure out its essence from my introduction?’
Ask someone else to read your essay and tell you what you have argued and answered.
4.13—Due Dates and How to Keep Them
Essays are due on a certain date. Start your reading and note-taking as early as possible. Even if you
then need to put aside the essay in order to do other work, an essay that has been started will let your
mind ponder the topic and notice unusual connections. Starting early gives you time to negotiate
unexpected roadblocks, such as trouble finding sources, or realizing that the question confuses you.
Essays must be handed in to meet the mandatory requirements of any course. You must fulfil the
mandatory requirements of a course in order to be allowed to sit the final examination or be assessed
29

for a final grade. Therefore, it is better to hand something in for marking than hand in nothing and
either get a zero or fail to meet the mandatory requirements. Be aware that there is usually a
minimum standard or average mark to be achieved in most courses in order to be satisfy the
mandatory requirements. The Book of Readings for a course will contain specific information
regarding that course’s mandatory requirements.
Plan ahead, and if you are having problems talk to your tutor or lecturer as soon as the problem
becomes known. Sickness extensions are available (with documented medical practitioners’
certificates), and there are provisions for extensions in case of family bereavements and crises.
30

5) GRAMMAR, SPELLING, AND OTHER TECHNICAL BITS
5.1—General Grammar
Correct grammar helps your essay flow smoothly and makes your meaning clear. Poor grammar is
distracting and frustrating to the reader. If you doubt the punctuation and grammar of a sentence,
then re-write it in a simpler manner.
(a) Sentence construction: Remember that a sentence (see 4.3) requires a verb, not just a
subject, and should be a complete thought. If a sentence is hard to punctuate, re-write it in a
simpler manner.
(b) Do not use contractions. Do not use 'don't'; contractions are not formal language, and are
best avoided in an essay. Write words out in full: 'cannot' not can't; 'have not' not haven't; 'it
is' not it's.
Contraction masquerading as a preposition: 'could of' and 'might of' are really the
contracted verbs 'could've' and 'might've'. In a formal essay, use 'could have' and 'might
have'.
(c) No abbreviations or symbols. Write: 'for example' not e.g.; 'that is' not i.e.; 'and' not &;
'percent' not %; 'New Zealand' not N.Z. Spell centuries out in full: 'the seventeenth century'
not the 17th century.
(d) Plurals: Normally English plurals simply require an 's', so that 'ship' becomes 'ships'. For
words ending in 'y', the 'y' is changed to 'ies' 'colony' - for example, becomes 'colonies'. A
small group of nouns, such as the military term 'corps', retain the same form in both singular
and plural. Remember that the plural of Māori is Māori, not 'Māoris', and of Pākehā is
Pākehā, not 'Pākehās'.
(e) Apostrophes: Apostrophes are only used to indicate possession and contractions (not to
make a word plural). As noted above, history essays should not use contractions. Below are
guidelines for the use of the apostrophe to indicate possession.
(i) Possession may be expressed equally well by 'of' or by using the apostrophe and
shifting the word order
the dress of the girl the girl's dress
So too for a plural possessor
the dresses of the girls the girls' dresses
31

(ii) The rule is to put the apostrophe after the possessor and add an 's' if the possessor is
in the singular
the girl's dress this class's teacher the quiz's difficulty
(iii) If the possessor is in the plural simply put the apostrophe after the plural possessor
all the girls' dresses all the classes' teachers
The rule for a plural possessor remains the same with both a singular and a plural
object of possession. So
the idea of all the students and the ideas of all the students will both be expressed
with an apostrophe as
all the students' idea and all the students' ideas
(iv) The only exception to these rules for the use of the apostrophe indicating possession is
for personal pronouns, which do NOT have an apostrophe
his hers theirs ours yours its
Note: ‘It's’ is a contraction from ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ and is not the possessive.
(v) Proper nouns (names of people, places, etc and usually capitalised) which end in 's'
are treated like singular nouns ending in 's'. Add an apostrophe and an 's' to form the
possessive.
Keats's poetry Jesus's life
(f) Commas: The comma has more uses than any other punctuation mark. We include here the
uses that often bemuse students.
(i) A comma and conjunction together can join two independent clauses, clauses that
could each stand on their own as sentences.
Incorrect Congress passed the law, the president vetoed it.
Correct Congress passed the law, but the president vetoed it.
Coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but, nor, for, so, yet
Subordinating conjunctions: although, because, while, since, if, as, until
(ii) After an introductory element, a comma signals the subject of the sentence:
Introductory Subordinate clause Since you asked, I will admit that I am exhausted.
Introductory Modifying phrase In a wave of enthusiasm, the audience rose to its feet.
(iii) A comma separates the items in a series: bananas, cherries, and peaches
Test: Comma before and ( , and ) : What follows the and?
an independent clause keep the comma
the final item in a series keep the comma
anything else remove the comma
32

(g) Semi-colons The semi-colon creates a pause longer than a comma and shorter than a full
stop.
(i): The semi-colon ';' is a punctuation mark that separates clauses that could function
independently as sentences. No conjunction is necessary. It keeps two closely related
statements within the same sentence.
For example, Some of those painters influenced Cézanne; others were influenced by
him.
Semi-colon Test: Replace the semicolon with a period. Do you have two complete
sentences? If not, use a different punctuation mark.
(ii): The semi-colon ';' also separates items in a list, when the items themselves contain
commas.
For example, The company has offices in San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon;
and Vancouver, British Columbia.
(h) Colons: The colon ':' shows an equivalence between the items on either side of it. It
introduces a restatement, a list, or a quotation. Make sure you have a complete statement
before the colon.
For example, Lunch arrives: a tuna fish sandwich and a cup of tea.
The mosquito has four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult.
George Percy enthusiastically reported: 'I have seene many great and
large medowes having excellent good pasture for any Cattle'.
Test: To test a colon, insert namely after it:
The results of the poll were surprising: 7 percent in favour, 11 percent
opposed, and 82 percent no opinion.
Namely works, and so does the colon.
We slaved for years: we remained as poor as ever.
Namely does not fit, because the second clause makes a new point.
Use a semicolon.
(i) Parentheses: '( )' are used to enclose remarks not intended to be in the main statement, or to
insert a phrase or explanation not belonging to the main statement. It is important to open '('
and close ')' parentheses. Parenthetical statements should be used sparingly. If something is
important it should be in your main text, if it is unimportant then consider deleting it.
33

For example, From Grimm’s tales the child (or adult) learns that wishing is not a
substitute for action.
Larry (to Moe and Curly): ‘You knuckle-heads!’
(j) Dash: There are two types of dash in common usage: the en dash (–) and the em dash (—).
Beware of using either where other punctuation will do. To insert them in a Microsoft Word
document, go to Insert, Symbol, Special Characters. Alternatively, the'F1' key will generate
an en dash (–).
The en dash (–) is used between numbers expressing a range (pp.3–5, 1998–2002). Where you
can use the word 'through'(Pages 3 through 5, years 1998 through 2002), use an en dash. The
en dash also shows a relationship between two entities (the Liberal–Labour coalition).
The em dash (—) is shows a break of thought. It provides a longer break than those provided
by commas or parentheses. When using it this way, it is important to open and close the
dashes, as you would commas and parentheses.
For example, ... In post-colonial Nigeria the largest ethnic groups in each region—the
Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo in the Northern, Western, and Eastern regions respectively—
therefore came to dominate local politics and to contest for power at the federal level.
(k) That vs. Which: That and which are commonly considered interchangeable, yet there is a
subtle difference in the way they should be used. That introduces a restrictive clause, while
which introduces a non-restrictive clause. Use the following test to determine whether a
clause is restrictive or non-restrictive.
Test: Can you remove the clause without changing the meaning of the sentence?
(l) Capitals:
No The clause is restrictive: it restricts the meaning of the sentence.
Use that with no preceding comma to introduce the clause.
Example: Sports that involve physical contact should not be played at school.
Yes The clause is non-restrictive. Introduce it with a comma and a which.
Example: Contact sports, which are played in schools throughout New Zealand,
Remember: no comma before that
often cause preventable injuries.
comma before which
(i) Should be used for names and titles of persons, for political and legislative terms, and
34

for many historical terms. Capitals show that the named entity is specific.
For example, the New Zealand Government; the Ross Dependency; the Province of
Quebec; Labour Party; Copyright Act; Minister of Social Welfare; Mr Speaker; First
World War; Indian Mutiny; the Reformation; the Depression; ANZUS Pact.
(ii) In titles and subtitles of books and articles, capitalize the first word. Capitalize every
subsequent word that is not an article (a, an, the), a coordinating conjunction (and, or,
but, nor, for, so, yet), or a preposition (of, by, from, after, etc.).
The Mismeasure of Man
'Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914'
(m) Foreign words: (i) do not translate well known terms such as raison d'etre, coup d'etat,
Realpolitik. The French parlement, for example, is entirely different from the English
'parliament', and should not be translated. (ii) Foreign words should be put in italics or
underlined (see (8.5) for more details). Māori words are not considered foreign, and should
not be italicised.
(n) Past tense: As a rule it is a good idea to keep the past in the past tense. Avoid confusing
statements such as ‘Reading is slow as scribal Latin can be difficult to understand’. Keeping
the past in the past tense avoids confusion, so a more appropriate version would be,
‘Reading was slow as scribal Latin could be difficult to understand.’
(o) No offensive language: There is no excuse for offensive, racist, sexist or insulting
stereotypical language in your essays.
(p) Avoid mixed metaphors, as they are usually impossible, and at best silly.
For example, you cannot ‘Grasp the nettle firmly in one hand, and take the bull by the
horns’, unless you have three hands, or want to get gored by the bull. Similarly, ‘To
stand firmly together while forging ahead in new directions’, is just ridiculous.
Metaphors can add interest to your writing, but use them wisely, and one at a time.
(q) Avoid journalese, or hackneyed phrases such as 'meaningful' or 'credibility'. These only
obscure meaning and make a critical reader suspicious.
(r) Avoid colloquial expressions. Remember an essay is a formal piece of writing. Use formal
language, not everyday street talk.
35

5.2—Spelling
Avoid mis-spelling words in your essays. If you are in doubt as to the spelling of a word there are
dictionaries available in the university library and on the web.
For example, some commonly mis-spelt words are: fief; feudal; naval/navel; woman/women;
there/their; sort/sought; government; Parliament; independent; prerogative; separate.
Ensure the language on your computer spelling checker is set to ‘English (New Zealand)’ by setting
English as the default language for all documents (refer to your software manual or on-line tutorial for
help). However, be cautious of computer spelling checkers accepting correctly spelt words in the
wrong context.
For example, ‘Two bee ore knot too bee’ is 'correct' as far as a spelling checker is concerned.
Another problem with word processing programmes is they do not recognise many correctly spelt
academic words and names, and if you are not careful the checker may change them to a correctly
spelt but inappropriate word.
For example, the suggestion my spelling checker gives for the name 'John Ballance' is 'John
Balance'. A simple press of the 'change all' button and all versions of this name in an essay
would be incorrect, yet not to the spelling checker. Nothing is more embarrassing than finding
that your 2000 word masterpiece on the importance of John Ballance to pre-First World War
New Zealand politics, is actually an essay about some unknown called John Balance.
Nothing beats checking your work yourself, and if you can find someone else to check it as well, all
the better. It is often useful to read your writing aloud, as the act of reading aloud forces you to
examine every word on the page.
5.3—Ellipsis to show omitted text (...)
Sometimes a quotation can be shortened by omitting phrases or sentences that do not contribute to
your argument. Be careful that such omissions do not alter the sense or emphasis of the author's
words. If in doubt, do not omit anything, and if the quote is too long and obscure, then consider
omitting it.
Omission from a quotation is shown by an ellipsis, three unspaced periods '...' preceded and followed
by a space. If the omission contains a full stop then four periods ' ....' followed by a space are used, the
first period right next to the last word. Omissions from the end of a quote do not need to be
acknowledged.
36

For example, you need to shorten the following quote:
'The crux of the matter for us is that Communist aggression in Vietnam is a threat to us. If South
Vietnam is overrun and becomes a Communist State it becomes the base for the next move in
the Communist plan for world revolution.... Our security and way of life are at stake and we
cannot stand aside.'
You could insert the following ellipses:
‘... Communist aggression in Vietnam is a threat to us. If South Vietnam ... becomes a
Communist State it becomes the base for the next move in the Communist plan for world
revolution.... Our security and way of life are at stake’.
5.4—Word Count
Most history assignments have a word limit. Part of the set task of an essay answer is to keep close to
this limit, and yet fully answer the question. As a rough guide, you should try to stay within ten
percent of the word limit. Specific assignments may require more precise limits, so be sure to check
any instructions.
The key is to be concise yet informative, brief yet explanatory. When drafting your essay keep the
word limit in mind, and aim for about the limit, or maybe a little more. When revising, you can
tighten your text, deleting less effective portions of your writing and bringing your essay closer to the
word count.
5.6—Miscellaneous Technical Points
Since it is your essay that you are submitting, it is understood that all the opinions in the essay are
yours alone, except those you attribute to another author by way of footnotes (6). Therefore there is no
need for expressions such as 'I think' or 'in my opinion'. It is better to use neutral phrases such as 'it
follows' or ‘the evidence suggests’. Do not use 'we' or 'our' since others may not share your opinion.
Also avoid 'the writer thinks'; when stating the author's opinion, use a less emphatic verb.
For example, ‘Evidence suggests that in the Middle Ages reading was laborious’ is more
appropriate than ‘I think that in the Middle Ages reading was laborious’.
‘Anderson states that ...’ is better than ‘Anderson thinks that ...’. For all we know Anderson
may now have changed her mind.
If you use phrases such as 'some historians' or 'many historians', be sure to back up the point with a
footnote that lists some or many historians with that opinion. One or two is not many.
37

6) FOOTNOTES
6.1—What is a Footnote?
Footnotes are linked numbered references that point from a particular sentence (or sentences) of your
essay to the location of the sources of your direct quotations, figures and statistics, factual material,
and ideas or arguments you have taken from other authors. They are placed at the 'foot' of the page,
in contrast to ‘endnotes’, which appear at the end of your document. In your history essay writing, use
footnotes rather than endnotes or in-text referencing. In-text referencing, in which the source appears
between parentheses at the end of a sentence, is a type of referencing used only in a few specialised
economic history or history of science journals, and thus is not standard historical practice.
Footnotes are an important craft to master as they represent expertise, rigour and accuracy in your use
of evidence. They provide a basis for your essay's argument, and should provide sufficient
information to allow the reader to find your sources. The key to footnoting, as with so many other
aspects of essay writing, is accuracy and consistency.
The sample reading (1.2) has footnotes at the bottom of each page. Each footnote is related to the text
by a small number, which is also inserted at the end of a sentence.
6.2—When to Footnote?
You must provide footnotes for direct and indirect borrowing. Specifically, whenever:
(i) you quote another author (4.7).
For example, to use a quote from the sample reading (1.2), you must give a footnote.
'Anderson states that ‘[t]he Virginia Company aimed to supply its fledgling colony with
all the "domesticall" beasts it needed.’ (FOOTNOTE REQUIRED HERE)
(ii) you present figures, number, percentages, or other statistics.
For example, In 1851 Governor Grey estimated that the Māori population of the colony
was 120,000. (FOOTNOTE REQUIRED HERE)
(iii) when summarising detailed factual material from your sources.
For example, Over the course of his life Francois Viète correctly expanded the estimation
of pi out to thirty five places, the value of which his wife placed on his tombstone.
(FOOTNOTE REQUIRED HERE)
Note: this is not a summary of an argument, it is a summary of factual material that is all
easily verifiable, yet you must still indicate the source.
38

(iv) to acknowledge a summary of an argument or opinion of an author, even when the exact
words are not used.
For example, Anderson argues that lengthy voyages between England and America
weakened livestock shipped on board. (FOOTNOTE REQUIRED HERE)
Note: this is the summary of an argument, not factual material, as Anderson is not merely
stating verifiable facts, but rather making an argument about a subject and supporting it
with evidence.
Hint: if you find that most of your footnotes are of type (i), it indicates that you are over-
quoting or not recognising your use of other authors' ideas. You should do more
summarising of others' ideas in your own words, so more of your footnotes become type
(iv).
You do not need to footnote matters of common knowledge.
For example,'The Normans invaded England in the year AD 1066', does not require a footnote
as it is common knowledge. However, a more controversial or debated point always needs to
be footnoted. So, 'The Normans would have invaded England in AD 1065 if it had not been for
bad omens', would require some evidence in the form of a footnote to a source (or sources) that
contains this analysis.
You do not need to footnote your own opinions and ideas. This is often the hardest part of footnoting
to work out, as your ideas often come from your reading. However, new connections and concepts
that you have made regarding the topic, even though they are based on your reading, are considered
your own. If in doubt it is better to over-footnote, rather that under-footnote.
Be wary of using material that requires footnotes in your introduction and conclusion (4.2), as these
should not introduce new evidence. An exception would be if you launch your introduction with a
historical story, as in ‘In 1610 Jesuit Priest ... travelled from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. During his trip....’
6.3—The Style of Footnotes
The main requirements for your footnotes are consistency and clarity in identifying a text. The
specific information required in each footnote depends on the material being referenced. In general
this is the author name, text title, publisher, place and year of publication, and the page number(s) of
the text to which your writing refers. The various details of footnotes for specific sources are detailed
39

elow.
Note: Your footnotes should be numbered continuously throughout your essay. (1,2,3,...,n).
Place the referring footnote number slightly above the line of text, a little smaller than the main text
(Microsoft Word does this automatically). The referring footnote number should be placed after the
fullstop of the sentence to which the sources relate.
For example, a sentence from the sample draft paragraph from (4.4) might have a referring
footnote number as shown:
Most livestock shipped by the Virginia Company in the 1620s died on the Atlantic voyage,
exacerbating food shortages in the colony. 6 [This would refer to the sixth footnote of the essay.]
The footnotes themselves are placed on the same page as the corresponding reference number. It is
always best to use auto-numbered footnotes that will automatically change the numbers if you add or
subtract footnotes as you go.
There are different conventions for citing books, periodicals, edited collections and translations, et
cetera.
Footnote vs. Bibliography Style: Footnotes First name Last name,
Citing Secondary Sources
a) Citing books:
Bibliography Last name, First name,
Author First Name Last Name, Book Title (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of
publication), pp.XX. Cite the exact page(s) where you found the material.
For example,
(AUTHOR) (TITLE) (CITY)
6 Mark Alrich, Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1828-1965 (Baltimore: The
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006) pp.134-5.
(PUBLISHER) (YEAR) (PAGES)
b) Citing printed journal articles:
Author First Name Last Name, 'Article Title' (in single quotation marks), Journal Title (in
italics), Vol. x, no. y, Month (if there is no month provided give whatever information listed,
such as a season) year, pp.XX.
40

For example,
(AUTHOR) (ARTICLE TITLE IN INVERTED COMMAS)
Erik Olssen, 'Mr Wakefield and New Zealand as an Experiment in Post-Enlightenment
Experimental Practice', The New Zealand Journal of History, Vol. 31, no. 2, October 1997, p.210.
(JOURNAL TITLE) (VOLUME) (NUMBER) (DATE) (PAGE)
Although most printed journal articles now have been digitalised and are sourced from the
University Library’s online databases, you need not list a database URL in your footnotes or
bibliography so long as you follow the above rules. If in doubt, consult your lecturer or course
coordinator. Exception: electronic journals that do not appear in print—see e) below.
c) Citing articles from edited collections:
Author First Name Last Name, 'Article Title' (in single quotation marks), in editor First
Name Last Name (ed.), Book Title, (Place of publication: Publisher, Year), pp.XX.
For example,
(AUTHOR) (ARTICLE TITLE) (EDITOR) (BOOK TITLE) (PLACE)
13 C. Davis, 'Clio's Lost Sheep', in Jock Phillips (ed.), Biography in New Zealand (Wellington:
HarperCollins, 1985), pp.9–12.
(PUBLISHER) (DATE) (PAGES)
Even when the author of the article is the same person as the editor of the collection you
should still list the names in both places.
For example,
(AUTHOR) (EDITOR)
14 Jock Phillips, 'Introduction', in Jock Phillips (ed.), Biography in New Zealand (Wellington:
HarperCollins, 1985), p.l.
d) Citing films and videos
Give the producer’s and/or director’s name (or names), the title, the distributor, the year of
production.
For example,
(PRODUCER) (TITLE) (DISTRIBUTOR) (YEAR)
15 Ken Burns et al., The West (PBS Video, 1996).
(PRODUCER) (WRITER/INTERVIEWER) (TITLE)
16 Gaylene Preston and Judith Fyfe, War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us
(DISTRIBUTOR) (YEAR)
(Ronin Films, 1995; released on video, 1996).
41

e) Citing digital-only material from the internet:
Each day more and more useful historical material appears only in digital versions and is
placed on the internet. In referencing such material, determine whether the source is
unchanged or unchangeable or may be changed. The content in a journal article in the
Electronic Journal of Australian and New Zealand History, for instance, would never be changed;
the content on a website such as www.slavevoyages.org may be edited and updated.
(i) Unchanged or unchangeable sources
If you use material from a digitalised journal article or e-book, you must provide a full, first
reference that contains: author’s name (first name comes first); title of work of the list/site as
appropriate; and access path (Universal resource locator, URL).
For example,
(AUTHOR) (TITLE OF WORK)
18 Graeme Davison, ‘On History and Hypertext,’ Electronic Journal of Australian and New Zealand
History; www.jcu.edu.au/aff/history/new.htm
(URL)
Note: Some of these e documents now have DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers). Since these
identifiers are unique and permanent, you may use DOIs rather than URLs for sources that
supply DOIs.
(ii) Changeable sources
If you use material from the Internet from a changeable website, you also must give your
access date.
For example,
(AUTHOR) (TITLE OF WORK)
18 David Eltis, ‘A Brief Overview of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade’, Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade Database; www.slavevoyages.org; accessed 22 July 2011.
f) Citing revised editions:
(URL) (ACCESS DATE)
If a book is a revised edition then you should note the current edition you are using and that
edition's year of publication.
For example,
(AUTHOR) (TITLE) (EDITION) (CITY) (PUBLISHER) (YEAR ED. PUB.) (PAGE)
7 E. H. Carr, What is History?, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 1987), p.88.
(AUTHOR) (TITLE)
42

8 Maurice Meisner, Mao's China and After: A History of the People's
Republic, rev. ed. (New York: Free Press, 1986), p.1
g) Citing translations:
(EDITION) (CITY) (PUBLISHER) (YEAR REV. ED.) (PAGE)
If a source has been translated also include the translator's name.
For example,
(AUTHOR) (TRANSLATOR)
32 Fernand Braudel, On History, trans. Sarah Matthews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980),
p.114.
h) Citing lectures:
Footnoting notes from a lecture should only be done if the information or argument cannot
be found in more conventional sources. Avoid using lecture notes as references where
possible, as they are likely to be incomplete and possibly inaccurate; often they have been
taken in a rush. You should include the lecturer's name, the 'lecture title', the course, the
place, and the date.
For example,
(AUTHOR) (TITLE) (COURSE) (PLACE) (DATE)
37 Steve Behrendt, 'Sugar in World History', HIST120 lecture, Victoria University of Wellington, 23
March 2011.
i) Citing works quoted in another work:
If you are footnoting a quote or idea from a book that does not belong to the author of the
book, you must identify not only the original author, but also note the text in which you
found the excerpt (or else seek out the original source).
For example, if you wanted to use a quote from St. Augustine from Alfred Crosby's book
The Measure of Reality, you must show that while the author of the quote may be St.
Augustine, you did not obtain the quote from the original work. So the footnote would
expand to include all this information.
(DETAILS OF SOURCE YOU ARE USING)
40 St Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1961), p.114,
in Alfred W. Crosby, The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p.134.
(DETAILS OF BOOK IN WHICH SOURCE WAS FOUND)
43

j) Citing a Book of Readings:
This is the same as footnoting a cited work. The key is to remember that it is the original
author and initial source of the text you are using that you must acknowledge first. Ask
yourself, ‘Who wrote the text I am using, and where did it come from?’ Then note that the
material was 'in' the Book of Readings (or seek out the original source).
For example, if using the text on page 361 of the HIST117 Book of Readings you must
note the original author, publication, and page numbers, and then note that you took this
from the Book of Readings.
41 Nini Rodgers, 'Equiano in Belfast: A Study of the Anti-Slavery Ethos in a Northern Town', Slavery
and Abolition, Vol. 20, no. 3, December 1999, p.74, in HIST117: Europeans, Africans and Americans Book
of Readings (Wellington: 2006), p.361.
Note: a Book of Readings does not list an editor, so you cannot give the editor name. Do not
assume the editor is your lecturer. Where there is no information given, you cannot make it
up.
k) Citing multiple sources:
If you have two or more sources that give the same information or argument you can
footnote all of them in the same footnote. Entries for each title follow the same rules as other
footnotes, and each source is separated by a semi-colon ';'.
Citing Primary Sources
For example, for the same (or very similar) argument found in the following two books
you could footnote both.
10 Francois Crouzet, The Victorian Economy, trans. A. S. Forster (London: Methuen, 1982), p.15; S.
Pollard and D. W. Crossley, The Wealth of Britain, 1085-1966 (London: Batsford, 1968), p.241.
l) Citing newspaper articles:
Give the author of the article (where possible), the 'article title' (in single quotation marks),
the newspaper title (in italics), date of publication (date month year), and the page number
where you found the material.
For example,
(AUTHOR) (TITLE) (NEWSPAPER) (DATE)
6 Vernon Small, ‘US Envoy Defends Frank Talk in Leaked Cables’, Dominion Post, 1 December 2010,
p.A5.
(PAGES)
44

m) Citing archival sources:
Give the author of the source (where possible), the addressee (if a letter) or the title of the
document (if any), the date of the source, the collection title, the archival reference number,
and the archival repository and its location (you can abbreviate this in subsequent
references).
For example,
(AUTHOR) (ADDRESSEE) (DATE) (COLLECTION TITLE)
3 M. Fraser to The Secretary, New Zealand Seamen’s Union, 20 October 1921, STATS Series 1, Box
29, Record 22/6/15, Archives New Zealand (ANZ).
(ARCHIVAL REFERENCE NUMBER) (ARCHIVAL REPOSITORY)
18 Karamea Store Book, 1875-1876, NP Series 23, Box 5, item 6, ANZ.
n) Citing legislation:
Give the short title of the Act, the date of theAct, the section you are referring to, and the
line reference (where relevavant). Cite Bills (legislation yet to be passed by Parliament) in the
same way, but remember that they consist of clauses (cl.) rather than sections (sec.).
For example,
(SHORT TITLE & DATE)
21 Electoral Act 1993, s.60(a)(ii)
(SECTION)
o) Citing from the Appendices to the Journal of the House of Representatives:
Give the title of the document (in single inverted commas), the title of the source (you can
abbreviate to AJHR in subsequent references), the date of the source, the session, the section,
and the page number.
For example,
(TITLE) (AJHR)
7 Further Papers Relative to Mr Buller’s Leave of Absence’, Appendix to the Journals of the House of
Representatives (AJHR), 1872, Session 1, G-19, p.2.
p) Citing Parliamentary Debates
(DATE) (SESSION) (SECTION) (PAGE)
Give the speaker, the title of the source (can abbreviate to NZPD on subsequent references),
the date of the source, the volume number, and the page number.
For example,
(SPEAKER) (TITLE) (DATE) (VOLUME) (PAGE)
8 Richard Seddon, New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (NZPD), 1894, Vol. 82, p.965.
45

There are many other types of sources that require specialised footnoting (and bibliographical) details.
This booklet cannot give a complete list. The basic principles of footnoting can be found here. If you
encounter a source that does not seem to fit into any of the above categories you can ask your tutor or
lecturer for advice. Footnoting may seem difficult and cumbersome at first, but it becomes routine
with a little practice.
6.4—Page Number References
Page numbers are written as 'p.' for a reference from a single page or 'pp.' for material that spans two
or more pages. If the footnote refers to two distant separate pages then each page must be listed
separately as the reference does not refer to the intervening pages.
For example,
(i) for a reference from page nine, p.9.
(ii) for a reference for material that spans pages nine, ten and eleven, pp.9-11.
(iii) for a reference that takes material from page nine and page eleven (but not page ten),
pp.9,11.
Please note: do not use 'pg' to abbreviate ‘page’ or ‘pages’.
6.5—Abbreviating Footnotes
In order to avoid an essay becoming overwhelmed with long footnote references throughout,
historians and publishers of History use two main conventions to shorten some footnotes: the short
version and the short title. You can never shorten the first reference to any work you are citing, so the
short version or short title format apply to the second or subsequent time you cite a particular work.
Footnoting: the short version
In an essay where you have already given a footnote to, for example,
2 Greg Dening, Mr Bligh's Bad Language - Passion, Power and Theatre on the Bounty (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992), p.27.
Then for subsequent footnotes you could use the short version that lists only the author's
surname and the page(s) referenced.
13 Dening, p.27.
Footnoting: the short title
However, if you are citing more than one work by the same author, or two authors with the same
46

surname, you should also provide a short title to avoid confusion. The short title should be the first
few key words of the full title, enough to uniquely identify that text in your essay. Thus in using the
short title footnoting convention you would drop definition or indefinite articles, such as ‘the’ or ‘an’.
For example, if you have already given a full footnote references for,
1 Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform 1626-1660 (London:
Duckworth, 1975), p.163.
and
4 Charles Webster, 'Alchemical and Paracelsian Medicine' in Charles Webster (ed.), Health,
Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1979), pp.301-3.
Then you should shorten both in subsequent footnotes with a short title to identify each distinctly:
8 Webster, 'Alchemical and Paracelsian Medicine', p.312.
9 Webster, Great Instauration, p.14.
Because your aim in footnoting is to provide accurate reference information for your reader, to avoid
any confusion use the short title footnoting method.
In reading works of History, you may see other footnote referencing methods, including the use of the
word ‘ibid’. The term 'ibid.' is a specialised designation derived from the Latin word 'ibidem', which
means 'in the same place'. The footnote reference ‘ibid’. applies to footnotes of the same work that
immediately follow each other. Despite being derived from a foreign word (and being an
abbreviation too) 'ibid.' does not need to be italicised.
Instead of using a full or short version you can substitute 'ibid.'.
For example,
5 Witold Rybczynski, Waiting for the Weekend, New York, 1991, p.89.
6 ibid. (SAME BOOK, SAME PAGE)
7 ibid., p.78. (SAME BOOK, DIFFERENT PAGE)
8 Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, London, 1946, 2nd edition, 1961, p.668.
9 ibid., p.191. (NOW REFERS TO Russell's, History)
10 Rybczynski, p.16. (BACK TO FIRST BOOK, THIS TIME IN SHORT TITLE)
47

Take care in using ‘ibid’ as in the process of editing a draft essay, you may move main text words
around by cutting and pasting. Shifting words or sentences also will re-order your footnotes, and
could therefore create instances when ‘ibid.’ does not refer to the work previously cited.
Tip: It is often wise to make all footnotes in your draft full references, and then shorten those that can
be shortened only in the final copy. Remember, you must give the first citation of any work in your
footnotes in complete, full format.
6.6—Advanced Footnoting Techniques
If, as noted in (6.3k), you reference multiple sources in the same footnote, it must be clear to the reader
where the information in the sentence/ paragraph came from. You can add clarity by specifying
geographical locations or the names of authors in your text.
For example, this author specified geographical locations in the paragraph, enabling the
reader to match the historical information to each source.
In 1703, a Massachusetts law stated that after nine o’clock in the evening, no ‘Negro or
mulatto servant or slave’ should be out in the streets without specific permission from his or
her master. Rhode Island, which would eventually use gang slavery in the farms around
Narragansett Bay, in spite of its early prohibition of slaveholding, also established curfew for
‘Negroes’ or Indians in 1703. In New York, a brutal slave law was enacted in 1712 after a
bloody slave insurrection left nine whites dead. 1
1 R. C. Twombley and R. H. Moore, ‚Black Puritan: The Negro in Seventeenth Century Massachusetts,‛
William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 24, no. 3, 1967, pp.224-42; Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, 10 vols. (Providence, 1856-1862), Vol. 3, p. 492; K. Scott, ‚The Slave Insurrection
in New York in 1712,‛ New York Historical Quarterly, Vol. 45, no. 1, 1961, pp.16-18.
Another method of indicating how your references relate to the information in your text is to
specify authorship, as in the following example:
In the early twentieth century, ‘the plantation school’ of Southern historians worked on the
assumption that the ‘Negro’ was only fitted for a subordinate position in American society, and
that the plantation was the ideal vehicle for his or her civilisation. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips was the
leading advocate of this ‘school’, and he and his followers stressed how blacks, who were by nature
‘inferior’, needed the nurturing environment of the plantation to survive in an increasingly
capitalist world. Richard Hofstadter first challenged this thesis, and economists Conrad and Meyer
further undermined the ‘plantation school’, by demonstrating that the standard of living of blacks
48

declined precipitously on plantations. In the 1960s, Genovese led a reappraisal of Phillips’ studies
on plantation slavery. 31
31 Ulrich B. Phillips, American Negro Slavery (New York, 1918); T. J. Wertenbaker, The Old South: The Founding of
American Civilization (New York, 1942); R. Hofstadter, ‘Ulrich B. Phillips and the Plantation Legend’, Journal of
Negro History, Vol. 29 (1944), pp.109-124; A. H. Conrad and J. R. Meyer, ‘The Economics of Slavery in the Ante-
Bellum South’, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 66 (1958), pp.95-130; E. D. Genovese, ‘Race and Class in
Southern History: An Appraisal of the Work of Ulrich Bonnell Phillips’, Agricultural History, Vol. 16 (1967),
pp.345-58.
49

7) BIBLIOGRAPHIES
7.1—What is a Bibliography
A bibliography is simply the alphabetical listing of the sources you have consulted to write your
essay. The purpose of a bibliography is to allow a reader of your work to trace your sources. You
should record the information to complete your bibliography as you read (1) and take notes (2). An
essay is not complete without a bibliography. Take care to include the relevant information as
detailed below.
7.2—The Style of Bibliographies
Your bibliography should be the final page(s) of your essay, and should begin on a separate fresh
sheet of paper. The first page of your bibliography should be headed 'Bibliography'.
You should list all relevant books and journal articles you consulted to write the essay. Do not
include works you have not consulted. Essays are marked on the assumption that you have used all
the books listed in your bibliography.
Bibliographical entries are similar in style and content to footnote references (see 6) with some
important exceptions.
Bibliography vs. Footnote Style: Bibliography Last name, First name,
Footnotes First name Last name,
A bibliography is an alphabetical listing, by surname of the authors. Author names are therefore
listed by surname first, then by first names (or initials). It is customary to separate your bibliography
into two distinct alphabetical lists; one of primary material (if any), and the other of secondary
material (see (7.3) for an example).
The bibliographical entry for a book requires the author (surname first), title, place of publication,
publisher and year of publication.
For example,
McPhee, Peter, The French Revolution, 1789-1799 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
The bibliographical listings of articles a journal should contain the author (surname first), article title
(in quotation marks), journal title (in italics), volume number, issue number, year of publication, and
50

the page range of the full article.
For example,
Dasgupta, Jyotirindra, ‘Community, Authenticity, and Autonomy: Insurgence and Institutional
Development in India's Northeast', The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 56, no. 2, 1997, pp.345-70.
For an article from an edited collection the bibliographical entry requires, the author (surname first),
the article title (in quotation marks), editor'(s) name(s), collection title (in italics), place of publication,
publisher, year of publication, and the full page range of the article.
For example,
Goodman, Dena, ‘Women and the Enlightenment’, in Renate Bridenthal, Susan Mosher Stuart
and Merry E. Weisner (eds.), Becoming Visible: Women in European History, 3 rd ed. (Boston and
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), pp.233-62.
The basic style principles for other texts are the same as for footnotes (see (6.4) for more details). The
only differences to remember are to place the surname first (and list the entries alphabetically), and, if
referring to an article or chapter, include the full page range. A sample bibliography, following the
presentation guidelines given in section (8), is given below.
7.3—A Sample Bibliography
Primary sources
‘Medieval Land Laws’, Ashburton Guardian, 27 February 1894, p.3.
St Augustine, Confessions, trans. R.S. Pine-Coffin (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books), 1961.
Secondary sources
Alrich, Mark, Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1828-1965 (Baltimore: The
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).
Carr, E.H., What is History? (London: Macmillan, 1961, 2 nd edition, 1987).
Crouzet, Francois, The Victorian Economy, trans. A.S. Forster (London: Methuen, 1982).
Goodman, Dena, ‘Women and the Enlightenment’, in Renate Bridenthal, Susan Mosher Stuart and
Merry E. Weisner (eds.), Becoming Visible: Women in European History, 3 rd ed. (Boston and New
York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), pp.233-62.
Pollard S. and Crossley D.W., The Wealth of Britain, 1085-1966 (London: Batsford, 1968).
Rodgers, Nini, 'Equiano in Belfast: A Study of the Anti-Slavery Ethos in a Northern Town', Slavery and
Abolition, Vol. 18, no. 2, August 1997, pp.73-89.
Van Helden, Albert, ‘Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)’,
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/bruno.html
51

8) PRESENTATION AND STYLE GUIDE
Below are guidelines for the presentation of your essay. Other sections in this booklet also provide
specific details of presentation, particularly (6.4) and (7.2).
These presentation guidelines are designed to help make your essay easy to read and mark. The
ability to present your essay to a set standard is a skill that will be expected whether in the workforce
or in another department.
8.1—Type Size and Fonts
A good size and style of font is twelve point Times New Roman. Use standard font types, such as
Times New Roman, Calibri, Palatino Linotype, or Helvetica. Fancy fonts are hard to read.
8.2—Doubling Spacing and Margins
Double spacing your essay makes it easier to read and leaves room for your marker. Double spacing
means leaving a full blank line after each written line.
For example, On a computer double-spacing can usually be set up in the paragraph settings,
under line spacing. Even in exams it is often a good idea to double-space your answers, as it
makes reading and marking your work easy.
Leave a wide left-hand margin in your final copy. Margins are important as they give room for your
marker to comment on your work. A good margin is about thirty-five to fifty millimetres (35-50mm).
See the sample page (8.10) for an example.
8.3—Paragraph Indents Rather than Line-Spaces
To separate paragraphs, indent the first line of each paragraph rather than leaving a line of space
between paragraphs. A formal essay should flow continuously from one idea to the next. Using an
indent keeps the new idea (paragraph) spatially connected to the previous one and reminds you to
connect the paragraphs conceptually. Add a connecting clause to the new topic sentence to smooth the
transition (4.8).
For example, start a new paragraph following one from the sample reading (1.2):
'Colonists had little reason to expect anything other than the easy transfer of animal
husbandry to the Chesapeake, for the region appeared to be nothing less than an earthly
paradise for livestock'.
As the colonists expected animal husbandry to transfer easily, the Virginia Company
sought to furnish them with sufficient livestock.
52

8.4—Page Numbers
Your submitted essay must have page numbers on the top right-hand corner of each page. Use your
word processors ‘insert page number’ feature.
8.5—Italics
Foreign words, book titles and journal titles should all be either italicised or underlined in your essay.
Sometimes you must italicise a title that already has italicised words. For instance, for a title that
appear on the cover of a book as ‘Class structure in Machiavelli's The Prince', the convention is that the
italics of an italicised word is in normal type. In other words two italicisations cancel each other out.
So the title given above would be written in your essay as: Class structure in Machiavelli's The Prince.
8.6—Numbers, Centuries and Years
Numbers less than one hundred (100) should be spelled out in words. For example: ten; eighty-three;
ninety-nine. Numbers greater than one hundred can be given in numerical form.
It is acceptable to use numerical form for all values in tables or graphs. For presentation purposes, all
graphs, tables or diagrams should be placed in an appendix at the end of your essay, and 'pointed to'
in the text.
Centuries should be written out in words. For instance: the sixteenth century; the fifth century BCE;
the nineteenth century.
Years are normally given in numerical form: so 1848, 1998, and 1066. However, full dates should be
written out with the day in numerical form, and the month in words: 22 November 1998; 4 July 1066;
12 March 49 BCE.
8.7—Footnotes
As noted in section (6), you can use either the footnote or endnote format in your essay. Footnotes
must be placed at the bottom (or 'foot') of the page they relate to. Footnotes should be written in a
slightly smaller type than the main text of your essay, and they do not have to be double spaced. See
the sample page (8.10) for examples.
53

8.8—Bibliography Format
Your bibliography will be the last page(s) of your essay. Remember that your bibliography must start
on a fresh page, and be titled, 'Bibliography'. Bibliography entries should follow the layout guidelines
for your main text with one important exception: do not indent the first line of each paragraph (or
entry). See section (7) for details, especially the sample bibliography (7.3).
8.9—Retain a Copy of Your Essay
Before handing in your essay make sure you have saved a copy on disk, by emailing the essay to
yourself (thus keeping in on the server), by photocopying the final copy, or printing out two copies of
the final version. You will have the work to refer to, and you have a backup in the unlikely event that
you mislay your essay.
54

9) ASSESSMENT
9.1—What the Grades Mean
The criteria for judging essays fall into two broad categories: firstly, construction of your essay as an
argument, which includes research, development of an argument, and answering the question;
secondly, the presentation of your essay, including grammar, spelling and expression. The following
guide to grades is some indication of what is expected in an essay. While we have tried to systematise
the marking of essays, an essay may not fit into a single category. Often essays will display
characteristics that run across the grades. The mark given will, therefore, often be the result of
balancing the essay's overall qualities.
A+ (85+): An extremely well crafted paper that excels in all areas. It shows a high degree of
original thought and interpretation. It has been widely researched, making creative use of a
range of resource tools.
A (80-84): A paper in the 'distinction' class. It demonstrates excellent analytical and critical
ability. The argument should be well constructed and based on wide reading, including as
much relevant primary material as appropriate. There should be evidence of originality of
thought and interpretation. The areas of grammar, spelling and referencing should display a
high level of competence.
A- (75-79): An essay in this grade will display the skills of an A essay, but to a lesser degree. It
should have a well developed argument, critically evaluate sources, and be solidly researched
from a wide range of material. The essay should have no problems in the areas of grammar,
sentence construction, or referencing.
B+ (70-74): Should be well written, thoroughly researched, and well referenced. It should have
a good argument, with some critical evaluation of sources, but may not have as much
independent interpretation and analysis as an A essay. There may be a few problems with
grammar, sentence construction and referencing. B+ essays should develop a solid argument
that addresses the major issues of the question.
B (65-69): B essays are good, solid papers based on the key sources with minimal extra reading.
There are no serious faults in the essay in terms of referencing, grammar or spelling. The
argument may not be as strong as it could be, or there may be little critical evaluation of the
sources. There may be small problems in using evidence to support statements.
55

B- (60-64): A solid essay often based on more general texts. It is without serious flaws, but
lacks the originality and interpretation of higher graded essays. The argument may be poorly
constructed or inadequately defended. There may be little or no critical analysis. There may be
problems with the use of evidence, spelling or sentence construction. An attempt will have
been made to answer the question but it may have missed significant issues.
C+ (55-59): An average essay that shows some competence. There may be noticeable problems
with grammar, spelling and referencing. Reading may be not be very wide. Often the
argument may have serious problems.
C (50-54): A C essay is a fair attempt to answer the question often based on inadequate reading.
There may be problems in several areas, but overall the essay attempts to answer some of the
major points of the question.
D (40-49): A fail mark given to an essay that is unacceptable for a number of reasons. Often
there is profound inaccuracy or confusion about the question. There may be problems with the
use of material. While this grade usually denotes considerable problems, often minor
improvements will boost the grade.
F (39 or less): An E grade is given only for essays that fall well below the required standard.
Lateness penalties may lower a higher graded essay to a fail category. History essays are subject to
the following penalties:
5% deducted for the first day late;
2% per day thereafter for a maximum of 8 days.
Work submitted more than 8 days after the due date may not be marked, depending on the discretion
of the course coordinator.
9.2—Reviewing Comments
When you receive your marked essays it is easy to look quickly at the grade, celebrate or commiserate
with your fellow students, and then file your essay under the stack of your current work. However,
aside from the basic grade your essay receives, there will be a number of helpful comments and
suggestions from your marker. These comments can help you with future essays, and they also can be
of assistance when it comes to tests or exams. Take time to read the comments on your marked
essays, and if you have any questions see your tutor or lecturer.
56