History Department Style Sheet
- Unless your professor specifies another style guide, use this style sheet for papers in history courses: History Department Style Sheet (PDF)
Online guides for writing research papers
- Writing A Good History Paper (Hamilton College)
- Reading, Writing and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students, by Patrick Rael (Bowdoin College)
- Richardson's Rules of Order: Tips for Writing Research Papers for a College History Course by Heather Cox Richardson
How to read articles, books, and primary sources
- How to Read a Secondary Source (PDF), by Patrick Rael (Bowdoin College) - see above for the entire document
- How to Read a Primary Source (PDF), by Patrick Rael (Bowdoin College - see above for the entire document
Online guides to style and grammar
- The Chicago Manual of Style Citation Quick Guide
- The Elements of Style (1918 edition) by William Strunk
Online guides to argumentation
- Philosophical Terms and Methods: What is an argument? by Jim Pryor, Princeton University (intended for philosophers, but the section on arguments is useful for history students)
Online reference works for writers
- Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric - guide to classical rhetoric, including general concepts and a nearly exhaustive list of figures of speech
- Oxford English Dictionary - the historical dictionary of the English language (access restricted to UMass campus community)
Writing Resources at UMass
- The Writing Center offers free face-to-face writing consultations.
- Professional Writing and Technical Communication Program
- Guidelines for History Junior Writing Seminars
Writing Centers at other colleges and universities
- Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
- Harvard University Expository Writing Program
- Hamilton College Writing Resources
Plagiarism--what it is and how to avoid it
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The university's official policy on academic honesty is contained in the Code of Student Conduct.
Some useful books on writing and reading
- Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. ISBN 0-226-06584-7. An excellent guide to research from the perspective of rhetoric; treats research and writing as mutually interacting activities.
- Mann, Thomas. The Oxford Guide to Library Research. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-195-12313-1. User’s manual for the academic library.
- McCoy, F. N. Researching and Writing in History: A Practical Handbook for Students. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974. ISBN 0-520-02621-7. A useful handbook for the beginning researcher. Some of the specific techniques are out of date (cf. Mann), but the book as a whole provides an overview of what goes into research, with more specific tips for historians than Booth, Colomb, and Williams.
- Rampolla, Mary Lynn. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. 8th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2015. A concise guide outlining the finer details of research and writing for college history courses.
- Turabian, Kate. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Revised by John Grossman and Alice Bennett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. The nuts and bolts of formatting papers, writing footnotes, using abbreviations, etc. Some courses may require that your papers be formatted according to Turabian.
- Williams, Joseph M. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. ISBN 0-226-89915-2. An excellent guide to improving your writing style. The textbook edition, published by Longman, has useful exercises but omits the detailed discussion of coherence that the Chicago edition contains.
-- Writing resources compiled by Alice Nash and Brian Ogilvie