Overview of the Paper and Its Parts

Many students find that one of the most agonizing parts of the college experience is writing a term paper.  For some, a history term paper is even more of an alien concept.  This series of web sites is designed to help you with the organization of your paper and promote better writing skills.  Each page is loaded with valuable tips to help you make the best of this "agonizing" experience.

A history term paper includes four main parts:     1.    The introduction,     2.    The literature review,     3.    Presentation of evidence, or main body, and     4.    The conclusion. Each of these four parts makes up the whole.  Think of them as being continuous and interrelated instead of as separate entities.  They each have their own rules, but these rules generally overlap.  This web site is designed to help you see how to accomplish each individual part while keeping it connected with your thesis, therefore helping you to write an incredible paper that will make you score kudos with your professor and merit the envy of your peers--let alone personal satisfaction in planning a great "Party of the Mind."

John R. Trimble indicates that good papers include five basic qualities:

    1.    A well-defined thesis.
    2.    A clear plan of attack.
    3.    Solid evidence.
    4.    Strong continuity of evidence.
    5.    A persuasive closing appeal. 1

It's easy to talk about needing to have these things, but for the beginner it is perplexing.  How does one incorporate these qualities into a paper?  Hopefully this web site will help you brush up on your writing skills as well as help you understand how to organize a history paper.  Thinking about a topic?  Click here for a web site that gives some excellent advice. The Possible Topics link in the menu below can spark some ideas as well.

Sources

There are two main types of sources that can be used in your paper: primary and secondary.  Primary sources record the words of someone who participated in or witnessed the events described or of someone who received information from a participant.  There are many different types of primary sources, and in some instances, sources could be classified in several categories.  Here are just a few examples:
 
 

Secondary sources are the findings of someone who has investigated the primary sources.  A book such as Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala by Steven Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer is based on primary sources.  Your paper will be a secondary source, since you are interpreting the primary sources.  Some books, especially textbooks, are actually tertiary sources because they are interpreting the secondary sources. 2

Term Papers and Research Papers

Can you believe that there is a difference between a term paper and a research paper?  A term paper is based on secondary sources.  With this type of paper, you would read the various writings on a specific topic, present the different ideas of those authors, and interpret them for the reader.

A research paper, on the other hand, is based on primary evidence.  After you have searched the primary sources, you will interpret them and show how they relate to a central idea, or thesis.  This web site will help you with both types of papers, regardless of what you've been assigned.

So take a deep breath, pour yourself a glass of water, and in the words of a monster truck announcer, get ready to rumble!

Why Use These Sites?

Michael Markowski's Homepage

1.  John R. Trimble, Writing with Style (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1975), 40.
2.  Jules R. Benjamin, A Student's Guide to History, 7th ed. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 6-7.