Short Guide to Writing about History, A, 9th edition

A Short Guide to Writing about History is an ideal complement for any history course intended to teach students to think and write like historians.  This engaging and practical text will teach students how to go beyond reporting the basic dates and facts of their history books and show them how to infuse their writing with their own ideas and unique perspective.

Covering brief essays and the documented resource paper, the text explores the writing and researching processes, different modes of historical writing (including argument), and offers guidelines for improving style as well as documenting sources.

• A focus on historical writing makes this the appropriate text for all history students.
• Discipline-inclusive samples, drawn from a variety of areas throughout the discipline, include a full-length research paper, a strong model for students.
• Reference charts provide handy quick-reference resources on using, evaluating, and citing online sources.
• Frequent “Writer's Checklist” sections remind students of key questions to ask before starting a writing project and provide guidelines for avoiding plagiarism, peer editing (a process that more and more instructors are using to evaluate student work) and much more.
• A comprehensive documentation chapter (Ch. 8) offers a wealth of examples and models for citing sources correctly and avoiding plagiarism.   

• Emphasis on new technologies. This ninth edition continues to emphasize the essential integration of digital technologies into the work of historians. New developments in the use of e- books and journals as well as newly developed note-taking programs particularly their adaptation to smart phone and tablet computing applications.
• Updated section on quantitative data and history. Emphasis on the role of statistical analysis as historians increasingly make use of this kind of data in their historical research.
• New section on scientific evidence. The text now offers advice about using forensic science and other fields of study in historical essays.
• Updated principles of note-taking. The principles for note-taking have been refined and clarified to help students avoid plagiarism. The need to avoid copying full-text quotations is featured, not only in the principles but at other points in the text.
• Renewed emphasis on Turabian citations. All sample Citations are updated to reflect guidelines from the new eighth edition of Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, published in 2013.
• New Writing for presentations section. New coverage provides advice on integrating visual elements into oral presentations.
• Expanded bibliography. The bibliography has been updated and new sources have been added.