A pocket guide to writing in history

A portable and affordable reference tool, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History provides reading, writing, and research advice useful to students in all history courses. Concise yet comprehensive advice on approaching typical history assignments, developing critical reading skills, writing effective history papers, conducting research, using and documenting sources, and avoiding plagiarism -- enhanced with practical tips and examples throughout -- have made this slim reference a best-seller. Now in its sixth edition, the book offers more coverage of working with sources than ever before.

• Preface
• 1 Introduction: Why Study History?
• Historical questions
• How this manual can help you
• 2 Working with Sources
• Identifying historical sources
• Primary sources
• Secondary sources
• Primary or secondary?
• Uses of primary and secondary sources
• Evaluating sources
• Evaluating primary sources
• Tips for Writers: Evaluating Text-based Primary Sources
• Tips for Writers: Evaluating Nonwritten Primary Sources
• Evaluating secondary sources
• Tips for Writers: Evaluating Secondary Sources
• Evaluating online sources
• Tips for Writers: Evaluating Web Sources
• 3 Reading and Writing in History: Some Typical Assignments
• Reading actively in history
• Tips for Writers: Writing as You Read
• Writing about reading
• Summaries
• Annotated bibliographies
• Critiques and Book Reviews
• Film reviews
• Single-source Analysis
• Historiographic essays
• Taking history exams
• Preparing for an exam
• Answering identification questions
• Taking an essay exam
• 4 Writing History Papers
• Approaching a history assignment
• Thinking like a historian
• Developing a thesis
• Tips for Writers: Testing your Thesis
• Constructing an argument
• Supporting your thesis
• Responding to counterevidence and anticipating opposing viewpoints
• Organizing your paper
• Drafting an introduction
• Writing clear and connected paragraphs
• Writing an effective conclusion
• Revising for content and organization
• Tips for Writers: Questions for Revising: Content and Organization
• Editing for style and grammar
• Choosing appropriate language
• Choosing the appropriate tense
• Using active voice
• Knowing when to use the pronouns I, me, and you
• 5 Writing a Research Paper
• Moving from topic to research question
• Choosing a topic
• Focusing on a research question
• Developing a research plan and a working thesis
• Gathering and managing sources
• Developing a working thesis
• Conducting research
• Consulting human resources
• Locating primary sources
• Using the library's online catalog
• Using print and electronic reference sources
• Using print and electronic periodical databases
• Tips for Writers: Electronic Databases
• Finding Internet sources
• Distinguishing among electronic sources
• Taking effective research notes
• Making an outline
• Revising and editing your paper
• 6 Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Avoid It
• What is plagiarism?
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Citing sources to avoid plagiarism
• Paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism
• Tips for Writers: Avoiding Plagiarism
• Downloading Internet sources carefully
• Plagiarism and the Internet
• 7 Quoting and Documenting Sources
• Using quotations
• When to quote
• How to quote
• Documenting sources
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Bibliography
• Documenting nonwritten materials
• Documentation models
• Directory to Documentation Models
• Formatting notes
• Formatting bibliography entries
• Models for notes and bibliography entries
• Sample pages from a student research paper
• Appendix A Writing Guides of Interest to Historians
• Appendix B Selected Print and Online Resources in History
• Index