Research Paper Guidelines
U.S. HISTORY
PAPER GUIDELINES

For this assignment consider yourself a historian. You must use your analytical and organizational skills to complete this assignment. You will
write the paper using primary documents. The first decision, and the most difficult, is choosing a thesis statement. This is important since it
will give you the ability to “link” the documents you have chosen and organize your sources and arguments to support your thesis.

There are three ways to write the paper.

1) a narrative style

2) an argumentative paper

3) a historical fiction

1. In the narrative style you are writing in story format. You are writing about the past.
What it is like to be a Revolutionary War soldier, conditions of slavery, events in the
progression of women’s rights, etc., are some examples of this approach. Be sure to
use the documents to provide you with material from the past

2. An argumentative paper has a stronger thesis statement than one written in the
narrative style. In this type of paper you are supporting your thesis statement(s) by
using the materials in the documents to support your position. Some examples of this
approach includes, New York City was a wonderful place to live at the turn of the 18th
century or conversely, New York City was a “hell-hole” at the turn of the 18th century
and I would not be caught dead there. Here you would cite documents that would
support and enhance your position.

3. The third way to approach writing this paper is as a historical fiction. In this essay you
may place yourself in the past or take on the persona of some historical individual.
Although it is fiction, you will still need to cite the documents to support your essay.
Do not change the past or the historical facts, but incorporate yourself into the past.
Some examples of this style would be recounting your experiences as a soldier
during WWII, conditions during the Great Depression, aspects of the Civil Rights
movement, etc. Be creative.

PAPER SPECIFICS

1) The length of the paper should be 1500 to 2000 words, exclusive of title page, endnotes,
and bibliography.

2) Include a title page with your paper. On the title page include a descriptive title along
with your name, course, and date submitted.

3) The paper should be typed, double-spaced, and sent to the professor electronically.
For this assignment, you may send your paper through the U.S. mail as well. As long as
its postmarked by the date due, late points will not be deducted.

4) Avoid using creative margins and font-size. I would recommend using 12 point, New
Times Roman font, and save and send this assignment as a .docx or .doc file.
If you are using another word processor other than Microsoft Word, then
submit your paper as a .rtf (rich text format) file.

5) For citing purposes, we will be using the Chicago Style. This is the citation method
used by historians.

6) Remember, citing using the CMS used raised, superscripted numbers after the
citations. If you paraphrase or quote directly, citations must be used. The only
difference, is when quoting directly, use quotation marks, when paraphrasing (putting
the author’s ideas into your own words) only a citation is needed.

7) The superscripted numbers are not repeating, every time you provide a citation,
whether or not the source has already been used, a new number is used. Numbers are
never repeated. The first time a document is incorporated into the essay, a
superscripted 1 (i.e. 1) should be used, a second citation a superscripted 2 (i.e. 2) is
used, and so on.

8) If other primary sources are used that are not in the document set, then you must
provide a bibliography page as well. The bibliography page tells the reader where you
found the sources used in your paper. See bibliography at the end of this document,
to utilize the correct form. The sources on the bibliography page are listed in
alphabetical order, according to the author. Note: A bibliography page is used only
when incorporating primary documents that are not from the document set.

9) Use a minimum of five (5) different primary sources.

10) Do not cite Wikipedia or similar websites. You must use at least two (2)
sources from the document set, unless instructor agrees to other arrangements.
Using Wikipedia or similar websites will automatically reduce your grade by 24
points. If you are not sure about a source, ask!

What is a primary document?

These are the documents that are in the For the Recordvolume that came bundled with your textbook. Primary documents are documents that come from the time period. Examples of primary documents are diaries or journals, letters, government documents, autobiographies and newspaper articles in which the journalist had first-hand knowledge of the events reported. The NARA website also is a great place to find primary documents.

What is a secondary source?

Everything else, biographies, monographs, encyclopedia entries, journal articles and your textbook.

Common problems to avoid when writing the paper:

1) Avoid using contractions

2) Write out numbers under one hundred

3) Avoid the use of the first or second person in your paper (no “I” or “you”), unless
you are going to do the historical fiction approach

4) Follow the rules for properly citing a source

5) Use complete sentences and smooth transitions between paragraphs

6) Avoid misspellings. Nothing says shoddy workmanship than a whole bunch of
misspellings and typos. This can be easily fixed by running the spell-check program

7) In-text citations go after the material being used.

8) Others to be announced

CITATIONS

The purpose of documenting you sources is to inform the reader were you acquired the
material used in writing your paper. To avoid confusion, the history profession has
standardized this process. Historians use what is known as the Chicago Style as the
standard citing convention.

The placement of your citation can be located in one of two places. You may use either
endnotes or footnotes.

1) ENDNOTES — These will be placed on a separate page under the heading of
“ENDNOTES”.

2) FOOTNOTES — Footnotes are placed at the bottom, or foot, of the page on
which they occur.

In both cases you will designate when using a source with the appearance of a superscripted numeral at the end of the
material being used. Do not repeat numbers, every time you use a source a new number (in consecutive order) must be
used, even when using a source previously cited.

HOW TO SUPERSCRIPT USING MICROSOFT WORD

1) Mark text

2) Under the FORMAT heading select FONT

3) Go to EFFECTS and select SUPERSCRIPT

4) Remember to save document as a .rtf file, no matter what word processing program
used.

AUTOMATIC CITATIONS

(Word 2003)

Use the automatic footnote or endnote system in Microsoft Word.

It is found under the heading “Insert” on the title bar.

Subheading “Reference”

Subheading “Footnote”

(Word 2007/2010)

Click open the tab “References”

Select “Footnotes” in the second box(bottom right hand corner), that will open a window,
select “Endnotes” and then change the number formatting to Arabic(1,2,3, etc.) numbers

Select “Apply.”

To insert an Endnote, move the cursor on the spot in the text and select “Insert

Endnote” in the 2nd box under Tab “References”

CITATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

CITATION FORMAT (endnotes or footnotes)

Primary sources from the Document Set (if you only use these documents, you may use an abbreviated citation format as shown below)

Title of document, page number from For the Record.

1“A Colonial Woman Argues for Equal Rights,” 77.

Standard

1First Name, Last Name. Title (City: Publisher, Date), page #.

1David Stafford, Britain and European Resistance, 1940-1945 (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1980), 90.

Selection from Edited Work (This is the format used if you found your sources in a
collection of primary sources.

2Bruce Catton, ‘The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant Defended,” in Michael
Perman, ed., Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Lexington, MA:
D.C. Heath and Company, 1991), 185.

Journal article

3James F. Powers, “Frontier Municipal Baths and Social Interaction in Thirteenth-
Century Spain,” American Historical Review 84 (June 1979), 655-59.

Internet

Include the author (if available and the page number(s)) along with the Internet
address: (this may be long but it is required to get the reader to the exact document)

example:

http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/microforms/archchra.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Standard

Last Name, First Name. Title. City: Publisher, Date.

Stafford, David. Britain and European Resistance, 1940-1945. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1980.

Edited Work

Perman, Michael, ed. Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991.