Introduction:

As a student of History , Ive come across a number of problems. I didnt know

who to turn to for the answers of them. Because all of the professors will tell you
everything you need to know about History. But they will not tell you the methods to
study History and score good grades. History has so much information: facts, dates,
names and events. How is one person supposed to memorize so much stuff? Or
are we even supposed to learn so much useless information?
After extensive research I cracked the code of the History exam and in every college
exam Ive gotten A+ in History employing theses techniques and I hope that you do
too.
This book is a must have for every college student. I hope you enjoy this book as
much as I enjoyed writing it. And the History Monster never bothers you again
I wrote this book for friends they scored awesome grades and asked me to launch
this book. But I decided to give it away to you my lovely and loyal blog readers.

What you will get from this book:

Introduction to History
Tips to study History
Tips to write History Essays
Note-taking methods
Exam taking tips

1.1 The Proper Attitude

In History as in life in general, your attitude is everything. In other words, to make your experience with
History as enjoyable and worthwhile as possible requires the proper attitude. You have to be able to
place yourself in the right frame of mind and that frame of mind is one in which exploration, discovery and
self-awareness are integral.

self-awareness are integral.

History has always gotten a bad rap in part because what students remember of their experience in history
classes is that sort of mindless memorization of facts: dates, events, wars--what I routinely refer to as "the
history of kings and queens." This sort of history has its place, I suppose. It does qualify as History, but of
a most basic sort. A case in point: go to your local bookstore, go to several in fact, and take a look at
what they have on the shelves under history. Unless you are at one of the larger stores like Borders,
Barnes & Noble, or at a university bookstore, I'm willing to bet that most of what falls under History is
really little more than war. We have a fascination for war--I don't know why. But, the fact remains, that
for most people, the study of history means little else than the study of war.
This confuses me! All these facts. All this stuff of history crowding my mind. A number of surveys over the
years have pointed to the disturbing fact that Americans don't know history. They don't know their own
history. Here is a typical question from one of those surveys: Did the Civil War take place before, or after
1850? Hopefully, you did not need to find your textbook for the answer to that one. But there is a deeper
issue here. To know, to have the knowledge, to have committed to memory the simple fact that the Civil
War took place after 1850 is, to me relatively unimportant. After all, anyone can learn to memorize, well,
anything. Is this history? What have you learned? What I would like to suggest is that you learned a fact-you have obtained knowledge. But, far more important to me is wisdom. Does the knowledge that the
Civil War took place after 1850 give you wisdom? does it make you wiser? Or, are facts and wisdom
gained through knowledge two distinct entities?
Some people like to read about war. For these people, it is war that "makes history come alive" (as if it
needed any prodding in the first place). Military history is fascinating but, in my opinion, only meaningful
(historically) when put into the context of the "other" history that is occurring at the same time. What is that
"other" history? Simple. It's the history which explains why that war took place in terms of the economy,
culture, diplomacy and perhaps a hundred other variables. In general, most Americans would rather be
"entertained" by passively watching a film about war rather than listen to someone talk about the origins
and consequences of that war.
So, this much said, what sort of attitude do we need to have when studying history? Well, the first thing is
that you should not enter a history class--any history class--looking for answers. The study of history
reveals that there is no clear cut answer for anything. Since understanding history is based on individual-and therefore subjective--interpretation, you must decide for yourself what kind of meaning you will attach
to the topic. Go into history with an open mind. Don't expect the answer to be presented to you as if
written in stone. It's not. History is not a science--it's a form of literature and the historian is little more
than a writer of non-fiction.
A number of years ago I was teaching the second part of a western civilization course at a community
college. We had just spent four or five lectures running through the French Revolution. The students had
heard lectures on the origins of the Revolution, the moderate stage, the radical stage, Robespierre and
finally Napoleon. Now it came time to review. Twenty of us sat in a circle and set out to "discuss" the
meaning and significance of the French Revolution. Was it successful? was it a failure? did the Revolution
come as a result of the Age of Enlightenment? was it a bourgeois revolution? I began the discussion by
reviewing the "great days" of the Revolution, events like the Oath of the Tennis Court or the Flight to
Varennes and people like Robespierre and so on. So, we eventually got to the point where we were
discussing interpretation. Some students spoke up and said the Revolution was a success, others said it
was a failure. This went on for ten or fifteen minutes until one student raised her hand and said, plain as
day, "Well, which is it? Was it a success or a failure?" She sat in her chair, her pen poised to write...the
answer! All I could say was, "Well, what do you think?" I immediately saw a brick wall. She didn't get it.

Some of us don't. We build brick walls as a short cut to thinking. "There must be an answer. What is it? I
don't want to think. I want to know." So much for wisdom.
You can avoid this trap. It's not that hard. You have to open your eyes, open your mind. Tear down the
walls. Study history with a sense of wonder and enjoyment. After all, this "stuff"' is all happening in the
past. Study history with a sense of engagement. There ought to be a sense of "what was it like" when you
study history. Really good professors will instill this sense of wonder, that is, if they are worth anything at
all. More about this later.
I've seen a great many students come and go in my own classes in Western Civilization and European
History. And one thing that will help them embrace the proper attitude is that they all get a sense of
historical time. Yes, this does mean that you understand what came before this or after that. You must get
into the habit, difficult as it might at first seem, of putting things into historical and chronological
perspective. You must make yourself aware of historical time. Look at the big picture (Europe 11001650) even while you are studying the small one (the Renaissance) or the even smaller one (Florentine
diplomacy). You must be able to eventually "image" a timeline in your head so that when your professor
rambles on about Dante, Rabelais, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Cervantes, you'll have an approximate
idea of how his discussion might all be tied together. I think that once you get in this habit, your
appreciation for history, in a word, your attitude, will begin to show signs of improvement as well.
Another important attribute which may assist in creating the proper attitude is television and film. I mean
this seriously. How else can you actually understand a lecture on say, the Black Death of 1347-1351,
unless you have some real images in your head? Your textbook will contain the obligatory photographs, of
course. And this will help. So too will an instructor who can really instill the terror, uncertainty and anguish
of the people at that time. But, I have always found that my memories of watching Ingmar Bergman's film,
"The Seventh Seal", has always helped me visualize mid-fourteenth century Europe. Think of all the films
you might have seen. Go ahead, do it right now.....do any of them provide you with images of history
past? Where else do our images of the past come from?
For instance, up to a certain point in time, my image of World War Two was fashioned by watching
Hollywood films, you know, John Wayne, Dana Andrews, Gregory Peck and so on. Americans charging
up hills toward victory. The hero, shot in the final scene, asks for a smoke with his dying breath. Blatant or
subtle propaganda? You decide. The point is that I grew up with a sort of idealized--mythical--version of
war that just does not stand up to the historical record. However, the images remain. "Image" as much as
possible.
Here's an example before we pass on to the next section. In my introductory lecture on the Scientific
Revolution I ask my students to "image" a scientist. Go ahead. Do the same thing right now. What does a
scientist look like? How is the scientist dressed? What does his office look like? Is the scientist a man or a
woman? Okay, what did you "image"? I'm almost certain I know what you are seeing because that image
of the scientist---wild hair, disorganized, absent-minded, dedicated to truth, unemotional---are all images
we've silently digested from Hollywood.
Can you successfully complete a course in history without having the proper attitude? Of course you can.
But why take the short cut? Why not make the effort. Rather than go through the motions, make history
part of your life. After all, that's exactly what history is--it is your life.

1.2 Why Study History?

Let's face it, our first experience with History is that it is a course that we have to take in order to

graduate. As a junior and senior high school student we are confronted with American history, state
history and perhaps even a general course in western civilization or world history. We didn't have a
choice. And the fact that we are forced to take history puts us on the defensive. We begin to build
that grandiose brick wall that will prevent us from getting anything important out of history.
The main problem as I see it, is not history itself. The study of history can be fun. But there's only
one thing that can make our first experience with history a miserable thing indeed: and that's a poor
instructor. I was fortunate. I managed to have a number of excellent history instructors throughout
my high school years and this was at a time when I was leaning toward the physical sciences,
geology and biology to be exact. I might not have been an excellent history student, but I do
remember having excellent history teachers.
Fine. That's my experience. But experience aside, why study history in the first place? What could
history offer the business major? the student intending to study web page development? the student
taking her first psychology class? or pre-med student? or the lawyer? or the worker on the shop
floor? Well, simply stated, everything has a history, whether we like it or not. Even history itself has
a history. Try hard as we might, we can't escape the past. We can't let go of the past. And we
celebrate the past all the time.
You may have been told that we study history so that we won't repeat the mistakes of the past. This
is the wishful thinking school of historical interpretation. It's too clean. If we have learned from the
past then over the centuries we ought to have accumulated so much knowledge that things like war,
poverty, injustice and immorality ought not to exist. Of course, we've still got a long way to go in
this respect.
You may also have heard that everything repeats itself, so if we study the past, we can be sure to
know something of the future. I don't hold to this view either. To insist that the study of the past
will reveal something of the future is a nice idea, but what I really want to know about is the
present. History cannot "tell" the future. History can, on the other hand, reveal all that is the present.
So, faced as we are with the question "why study history?" I can only hope to answer by telling you
why I study history.
Well first off, by studying history you can study anything for the simple reason that everything has a
history: ideas, wars, numbers, races, windsurfing, coal miners, pencils, motherhood and yes, even
toilet-training. I first began to appreciate the study of history as an undergraduate studying political
philosophy at Boston University. I was pretty keen on Plato, Aquinas, Dante, Hobbes, Locke,
Godwin, Marx, Mill and a host of other "greats." But what I soon discovered was that my lack of
understanding of history, i.e. the actual historical context in which these writers conceived and
executed their theoretical work, made my understanding of their philosophy one-sided. Sure, I knew
what they had to say about liberty, or the proletariat, or monarchy or the franchise. But what was
the historical environment that gave rise to their ideas? Ideas are not akin to balloons hanging from
the ceiling of Clio's den, waiting to be retrieved by a Marx, a Mill or a Plato. Ideas have a history.
They undergo a process of development. They change, are modified, are distributed or are forgotten
only to reappear years, decades or perhaps even centuries later.
Once I realized this fact it was quite natural that I turn my attention to history itself. And why not? I
could still study Marx or Mill or Plato. Only this time I could do it from the ground up, so to speak.
This sort of approach makes me better able to visualize history in a different way. It gives some

sense of "pastness" to the past.

But why do I bother? What's the point? Well, for me, it's a Socratic issue. Socrates was a man of
knowledge but not that much knowledge. As a freshman in high school you probably knew more
than Socrates. But, Socrates was a wise man. He had wisdom because he knew only one thing: that
he knew nothing. His "job," so to speak, was to question the Athenian youth. It was not enough to
know something. You had to know why you knew it. And this, of course, brought him to the
greatest question of all: what is knowledge? What can we know? Well, for Socrates, again, his
knowledge consisted in the realization that he knew nothing. This Socratic irony leaves us rather
high and dry but I think there is a greater issue at stake here.
For Socrates, perhaps the highest virtue can be summed up in the phrase, "Know thyself." In other
words, of all the things in the phenomenal world, there is not one so important as yourself. To know
yourself means to be aware of what it is that makes you who you are. And in this respect, the one
thing which reveals this knowledge is history. But people do not live alone, they live in society. And
it is in society that the individual comes into contact with other individuals, all of whom are on the
same quest, in varying degrees. So, for Socrates, knowledge of self does not hinge upon reflection
or introspection, but conversation, hence the Socratic dialogue.
The Socratic dialogue implies that instructor and student meet on an equal footing. Dialogue means
conversation between two or more people. And what is the point of Socratic dialogue?
Improvement. Self-improvement of the instructor and self-improvement of the student.
So why do I study history? or why do I teach history? Well, for me it's a form of selfishness. I wish
to improve myself. And by improving myself I also improve others. This classical pedagogical
method is called the Socratic method. If your instructor isn't at least familiar with it, then I'm afraid
your historical education is going to suffer as a result.
Can you learn history without the Socratic dialogue as your guide? Yes, it can be done. All I am
trying to suggest here is that your experience with history will be a much richer one if you keep in
mind that history means self-knowledge and as students, that should be one of the most important
things to you.

1.3 Why Write History?

To study history is to do history. And the only way we can do history is to examine the available
records from the past and then write about them. So, doing history means writing history. To learn
about the past we have two alternatives. The first is to go to the primary sources themselves. In
other words, if you wanted to learn about Galileo's astronomical and philosophical arguments for the
motion of the earth, you could do no better than read his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems--Ptolemaic and Copernican (1632). The second alternative and the one more likely
chosen by most students at the high school or undergraduate level is to go to the secondary sources.
In this instance, we have a number of works from which to choose, for example: Giorgio de
Santillana, The Crime of Galileo (1955); Pietro Redondi, Galileo Heretic (1987); Stillman
Drake, Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography(1978).

Notice that this list of secondary sources pertain to Galileo in general and not specifically to his ideas
on the motion of the earth. The secondary sources offer a broader appreciation of the topic. They
are an example of "doing history," writing history. When students write about this secondary
literature, they are entering into the discourse of history by the simple fact that they are now adding
their own perspective.
This is fine, but why write history? After all, you plan to become a doctor, or a professor of
economics, or a cabinetmaker or a webmaster. What good does it do you to know how to write
history? Why must you do history?
1. Writing history will help you learn history. We have already discussed the importance of
becoming actively engaged in the subject of history. What better way to do so than to actually
do it? In other words, writing about history means a personal involvement with history and
this will necessarily produce a greater understanding of history, a good thing in itself!
2. Writing history will force you to understand history to a much greater degree. Listening to a
lecture, or viewing a film, or reading a monograph, or taking part in a class discussion is one
thing. But writing about this "experience" will demonstrate your general understanding of
history. As you write, you demonstrate evidence. You produce a logical argument. However,
there are also times when writing allows you to express your confusion regarding a particular
idea, event or thing. Writing allows to you to bring that confusion to the surface and
hopefully, you'll be able to answer your own question. At the very least, you'll be able to
show that something needs to be more fully explored.
3. Writing history gives you the chance to render your opinion. Since the interpretation of
history is always subjective, writing allows you to persuade the reader of your argument. For
instance, many historians have interpreted the Thirty Years' War as an example of what
would later be called a world war and therefore a modern war. There are other historians who
disagree. They say that the Thirty Years' War is an example of a medieval war, or even the
last medieval war. This is where you step in. Having read a variety of interpretations, you are
now prepared to voice your own. You may agree or disagree, that much is clear. But the real
issue at stake here is that now is the chance to submit your interpretation.
4. Writing history gets you in the habit of synthesizing large quantities of material. Evidence
must be gathered and prioritized. General thesis statements must be fashioned from the
evidence at hand. You begin to learn about the general topic upon which you are writing as
well as several topics which appear on the peripheries of your topic.
5. Lastly, writing history will help you to better organize your thoughts, that goes without saying.
The historian must exhibit some kind of logic or the analysis falls apart. Studying history,
thinking history, writing history--in a word, doing history--is not easy. No, it is difficult and
requires much sustained effort. Some people are not capable of that kind of sustained effort.
Take charge of your efforts to do history. Gain as much confidence as you can. Develop your own
historical perspective. Remember, the study of history and the writing of history is not a passive
response to the historical past. No, it is much more than that. History involves the active
engagement of your life with all life. The pastness of the past is the key to the present.

2.1 How to Read a History Assignment

The study of history means reading. There's no escaping that simple fact. And reading history can
be a satisfying experience, regardless of what you might have heard. It all depends on the book you
are reading. For instance, there are quite a few books that I have read which literally transported me
in time and space. The medieval scholarship of Jacques LeGoff and George Duby fall into this
category. In the field of intellectual history, the works of Peter Gay, John Herman Randall, Isaiah
Berlin, H. Stuart Hughes and Frank Manuel have always impressed me. But what "works" for me
may not work for you. Most often, it's a matter of personal preference.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard students admit that they hated a certain text because it
was boring or too long or too complicated. What makes such a comment sometimes harder to
accept is that often, some of the texts instructors assign are those books which made a difference in
their own lives. Still, having been a student myself, and not a great one I might add, the reflection
that a text is boring or too long is sometimes just.
A case in point. I often assign Modris Eksteins' Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the
Modern Age in my course on Twentieth Century Europe. It's a wonderful book which juxtaposes
Stravinsky's ballet, "The Rites of Spring" with all those cultural, intellectual and psychological forces
surrounding the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. But when my students first
start reading the text, they become confused. Why? Quite simple. They expect a book about World
War One. Instead, they begin reading about a ballet. What relationship could a ballet possibly have
with a world war? Of course, they have to read further in order to grasp what Eksteins is really
trying to do. That's why I assign this text: it makes the students think differently about war, a war
they thought they all understood.
For my own courses, I try to assign books based on a number of variables such as: price and
availability, length, closeness to both the general topic and my approach to it, and complexity.
There's no sense assigning, say, E.P.Thompson's magnum opus, The Making of the English
Working Class, in a survey class on modern European history. No, that would be a bit much. Also,
I only assign four or maybe five texts per course because that seems a reasonable amount given the
fact that most of my students work full time. My typical student is what I could call non-traditional.
With an average age of twenty-five, the majority of my students hold down full-time jobs and many
of them are married with kids. So, assigning more than 100 pages per week would be asking too
much. I realize their limitations. On the other hand, as a graduate student taking an advanced
undergraduate course in United States Cultural and Intellectual History, I well remember that all of
us had to read nine or ten books.
In order to make the reading of history more satisfying and more purposeful, you must make an
effort. This means that you must have a general sense of the subject matter. You can't just jump
into a text and expect to get much out of it especially if the subject matter is genuinely alien to you.
If you do just jump in, you will quickly become lost as the information presented will make little
sense.
Okay, so it's the beginning of the term and you've been given your first reading assignment. Let's

say you are enrolled in my 20th Century Europe course and you have been asked to read Modris
Eksteins' The Rites of Spring. How do you begin?
1. Pick up the book, look at the covers. See anything interesting?
2. Who wrote the book? Does the publisher give you any information?
3. When was it written? Do you think this makes a difference? Why?
4. Scan the Table of Contents. See anything you like?
5. Read the Preface and Introduction.
6. Are there any illustrations? footnotes? a bibliography?
7. Can you determine the general thesis of the book?
8. Read the first sentence. Does it hold your attention? Or, do you then put the book down and say,
"I'll start reading this tomorrow"?
9. Does it look like a good book? worthy to be read?
10. Why might your instructor have assigned this particular text?
That's actually quite a bit of investigative work on your part and you haven't even really started to
read your assignment. Still, this is something you must do. Reading involves engagement. Reading is
not passive. You must make the effort. If you don't, disaster, and that's what we're trying to avoid.
In the example above, the text under review is what is called a monograph. Written by a historian,
the monograph deals with a very specific portion of the historical record. In Eksteins' case, the
subject is World War I and the birth of modernism. In terms of chronology, Eksteins only considers
the period 1900-1930 and his subject matter is specifically European. When reading a monograph,
you need to pay special attention to the author's general thesis. Your instructor has assigned the
monograph because (1) it covers the material he wants to cover and (2) it provides a specific
interpretation. That interpretation may be an accepted one or simply one that your instructor agrees
with. In some cases, your instructor may have deliberately assigned a book whose thesis is at
variance with his own. Why would an instructor do this? Simple! To force his students to clarify
their own position and to show them that there are indeed various historical interpretations.
The monograph aside, the most common history assignment, however, is the reading of a textbook.
Textbooks are rarely exciting stuff and so you need to approach them a bit differently. For one
thing, they are usually the work of several authors. This means that a variety of interpretations are at
work. So many, in fact, that oftentimes, the end result is no interpretation at all. You are left with
1000 pages of "stuff" without an interpretive structure. Of course, like films and food, there are bad
textbooks and good ones. Bad textbooks either cover too much material or just the opposite, they
don't cover enough. As you might have guessed, the better textbooks make the attempt to balance
length with coverage.
Check out the textbook the same way you checked out the monograph. Thumb through the book,
look at the pictures, tables and maps. Anything strike your eye? Take a look at one chapter. How is
the chapter organized? Get familiar with the layout because there's a good chance the textbook will
be your main focus for the duration of the semester.
If you've been assigned a textbook you should always make every effort to read those chapters
which are directly related to the lectures presented in class. If your instructor is any good, the
structure of the class will follow the organization of the textbook. Underline and somehow mark
information which seems to be important. However, you must be able to distinguish between what is

truly important and the evidence the historian draws upon to fashion his conclusions. Don't
underline everything!
If you like, make notes in the margins of the text. Look at the photographs, maps and illustrations.
Do they help you in any way or do you just gloss over them as perhaps unnecessary?
You may also be tempted to make notes on your reading. While I guarantee that this technique will
improve your chances for greater understanding, you will also be spending a great deal more time on
your assignments, perhaps more time than is really necessary. Again, you really need to learn to
"read" your instructor. You must ask yourself why your instructor is making you read this
assignment. If you insist on taking notes from the text it is perhaps best to organize them into outline
format, otherwise you will be re-writing the book!
It's also worth asking yourself how much time you plan to devote to reading your history
assignments on a weekly basis. If your instructor has carefully organized the class, you should
know, by a quick glance at the syllabus, just how many pages you are responsible for per week. So
add up the pages for the assignment. You can then split the reading into equal sections or perhaps
just plan on reading for a specified period of time per day. An hour per day ought to suffice although
in the end it all depends on how quickly you read. And of course, reading a textbook takes a
different kind of attention than does reading a monograph. Keep asking yourself, "What does my
instructor want me to get out of this?"
You may also be assigned a book of readings for your course. I use this type of text frequently.
These books usually contain a series of primary sources as well as secondary sources which help to
explain the primary sources. These texts are sometimes called sourcebooks or readers. If you are
assigned such a text your instructor expects that you read the selections and be able to highlight the
general argument, for that is the whole point of the sourcebook. The primary documents usually
become the groundwork for in-class discussions, hence their importance. Do not take these readings
lightly. For example, in the past I have based an entire ninety minute discussion on a primary source
as short as one paragraph.
To sum up, the only way you are going to get through all the reading is to approach it with the
proper attitude, something I have already discussed. Approach the reading in a positive way--don't
build brick walls! Most instructors assign readings because they want their students to read. (Then
again, there are also professors who assign reading because they know they are supposed to assign
reading!) Lectures are one thing. Books are another. And whether your instructor assigns textbooks,
monographs, sourcebooks or even novels, the above rules all apply.
One last thing. Feel free to assess the assigned readings. Although end of semester course
evaluations often contain a section where the student can assess the books, why not tell your
professor as you are reading the text. Is it any good? Should it be used again? Why is it good? or
bad? I've always had the habit of asking students about the books while they are reading them. After
all, I need to know whether of not these books are worth using again. And by asking the students
their opinion of a text is an excellent way to develop a relationship between instructor and student. I
don't know about you, but I've always thought it a good thing when an instructor asks a class,
"Well, what do you think?"

2.2 Taking Notes in Class

Okay, you are in the classroom, you've got the proper attitude, your instructor seems eager and
energetic and you're ready to learn. Your instructor starts talking about the diffusion and
popularization of science in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. You listen to the first few words
and then you begin to take notes. Copious notes. At the end of 90 minutes you have literally rewritten the lecture. Your hand is sweaty from the constant writing and you've filled up seven pages
of your notebook. But one thing is missing. You forgot to listen to the lecture.
This is a common problem not only in history classes but in all classes. You are so afraid that you
might miss something "important" that your tendency is to write everything down. I know this for a
fact. We all do because we have all committed this error at one time or another. I realize it's easy for
me to say this, but it is much better to listen to the lecture carefully and record only those things that
were genuinely important. Fine. Just how is this done?
[1] If your instructor has assigned reading for that particular day, make sure you have read it. The
reading assignment is there because your professor plans to discuss that topic on that particular day.
If you have read the assignment, and perhaps even taken notes on your reading, then the lecture is
going to make that much more sense. And instead of listening to your professor covering unknown
territory, you will already have an idea of the subject, thus making listening to the topic a bit more
enjoyable and in the long run, more worthwhile.
[2] Since your professor will undoubtedly give you some type of exam on the material--whether
essay or objective--be sure to determine which points of the lectures are given more weight than
others. Some instructors will come right out and say something like "This is important." Others will
not. In the last analysis, you have to read between the lines to determine the importance of those
points being made during a lecture. Of course, a conscientious professor will hand out an outline so
that you can, at a glance, grasp the meaning of the entire lecture.
Because so much of your understanding of history depends upon interpretation, you have to be able
to differentiate your interpretation from your professor's and from the assigned reading. In my own
classes I stress individual interpretation. That is because (with the exception of lower division
courses, like Western Civilization), I always assign essay questions on exams, exams which are more
often than not, completed at home rather than in class. However, if you are confronted with an
essay question which demands an interpretation, realize that you must be knowledgeable of many
interpretations and not just your own, or your professor's. Of course, some professors will demand
that you parrot back only information that they themselves have given you. While I regard this as
most facile, you should make every effort to "read" the desires of your instructor.
[3] It goes without saying that your notes should be written legibly. I wouldn't suggest re-writing
your notes after every class but sometimes this will help you understand and recollect the material
better. Organize your notes into brief sections. Do not write everything out in paragraph form. If
you do, you will find your notes nearly impossible to understand when exam time rolls around. Use
arrows, stars, asterisks and other notational devices to highlight things that seem really important. If
there are some things you wrote down which were not adequately explained then you have to bring
them to the attention of your instructor. If he's worth anything, he will explain them to you. As a
rule, if there is ANYTHING you don't understand, bring it up during the next class section. If not,

you will be doing yourself, and everyone else in the class, a great injustice.
I can't tell you how many times I've lectured about one topic or another only to find that one or
more students were confused about something fundamental to the entire argument at hand. Why
didn't they raise their hands? This is education, you know. They are afraid. I know that because I
was once there myself. You have to raise your hand and ask away. Embarrassed as it makes me
feel, it was quite late in my academic studies that I finally understood the meaning of the expression,
"the end/means justifies the means/end." So today, when I teach, I stop every so often and ask
whether everyone understands the word "hegemony" or "ideology" or "aphorism" or the concept of
a renaissance. And if you find yourself attending a class where the terminology escapes you, it is
your responsibility to bring this to your instructor's attention. Unless you make your difficulties
known, there's a good chance your instructor will never know. So, raise your hand and ask your
question!
[4] Always record the title and date of the lecture since your instructor may refer to it in the future.
This is good organizational practice as well. Make sure the notes follow the order in which the
professor conducted the lecture. After all, your notes will later serve as a basis for reviewing when
studying for a test or writing assignment. Feel free to revise your notes at some point after the
lecture, usually the same day. You may even want to get into the habit of underlining or highlighting
topical headings or defined words or ideas. And speaking of definitions, it's also a good idea to keep
a glossary of frequently used names, ideas, and words in your notebook for future reference. You'd
be surprised at how helpful this becomes later down the road.
For instance, in my Twentieth Century Europe class I announced on the first day that all students
should write the word modernism at the top of a sheet of paper and every time they read or hear or
think about something that has to do with modernism, they should write it down. Since the first six
weeks of the class are about modernism, and they will be writing an essay on modernism, such an
exercise seems necessary.
In another class, A History of European Socialism, I demanded that while my students were reading
a number of works by Marx and Engels, they ought also to keep a running Glossary. Since Marx
and Engels use so many words and expressions (ie., proletariat, ideology, means of production,
ruling ideas, capital, etc.) that are unique to themselves and their historical period, students will
become lost unless they have a common vocabulary from which to obtain their ideas and valuations.
In fact, a glossary of important words, events, ideas, and people would be an aid even to the best of
students. Why settle for less when you are easily capable of more?
[5] If your professor has a film scheduled that does not mean it is an excuse to sleep or to not pay
attention or to not show up at all. The film is there for a purpose. I assign several films in many of
my courses and they always end up as integral parts of the course as a whole, otherwise I would
never have included them. Every paper topic I assign asks the student to consider a specific film as
well as lectures and readings. Should you take notes? Well, the only way you can take any notes is
if you know beforehand why in fact your instructor has decided to show you the film in the first
place. So, you should ask your professor if he does not tell you.
I routinely show Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" and "Dr. Strangelove," Bergman's "The Seventh Seal,"
Chaplin's "Modern Times" and Lucas' "THX-1138." A film, like a novel, can be "read" on several

different levels. The task for you as a viewer is to determine how this or that film might fit into the
topic under discussion. Again, if your professor doesn't tell you, ask!

2.3 Studying for the Exam

When a test is announced, be sure to find out what kind of an exam it will be: objective, multiple
choice, short answer, essay, maps etc. Make sure your instructor is clear about this. If he doesn't
specify this information, raise your hand. You should also know what material is being covered by
the exam. If you haven't done all the reading necessary for the exam, then get going. You haven't
much time. If you missed a lecture, get the notes from someone whom you trust.
Now that you've done all that, how do you proceed? How do you study for the test? First, look at
the syllabus and note all the lectures that are covered by the exam. Next, go through your notes and
mark those lectures which pertain to the exam. Next, get all the books that were used in that
specified period. Sit down. Relax.
Start with the lecture notes. Read them through date by date (you did remember to date your
lectures, didn't you?). Underline or highlight those remarks which your professor specified as
important. Organize the lecture in your head. If your instructor used an outline, refer to it while you
are reviewing your notes. Rather than memorize everything he said, it might be a better idea to rewrite your notes in outline fashion, paying special attention to things you know are important.
Depending on the amount of material covered by the exam (let's say five weeks), this ought to take
you a few hours.
Next, start looking at your books. If you underlined or highlighted your textbook, now is the time to
go back and re-read those passages that you marked. That is, after all, why you marked them in the
first place. It's a good idea to have your outline notes next to the text so that you can fill in the gaps
in knowledge or elaborate upon your understanding of the material. You treat any assigned
monographs in the same way. However, keep in mind that the approach of the monograph is quite
different from the general textbook. You need to be much more aware of the author's interpretation.
This is most important if your professor intends to include essay questions on your exams. Will he
want his own interpretation, the author's interpretation or your own? Be sure you know before you
start studying.
Should you study with friends or alone? That's up to you. Personally, I always studied on my own.
That has its ups and downs but then so too does studying with friends.
A final word or two: If you have prepared yourself for the exam by knowing what is expected, you
will have the confidence to do well. If you are confident about your abilities then chances are very
good that you also understand the material. What does this all mean? Study to the point where you
become confident. Confidence is everything! What more can I say?

2.4 Taking the Exam

So, you've spent all that time studying for that exam. With any luck you have studied to the point
where you feel most confident about your grasp of the material. You may not know everything but
you still feel sure that you can field most any question the instructor might throw at you.

If you are about to take an objective exam, your only task is to parrot back everything your
instructor told you was important (whether it is or not is a different story). The only thing I can say
about this type of exam is that you either know the material or you don't. Hopefully, you fall into
the former category. But what if your enlightened instructor gives you an essay exam. How do you
proceed?
First of all, remain calm and confident. Your instructor has given you an essay question or questions
in order to examine how well you can synthesize the information which has been presented in class.
So, you need to look at the big picture as well as the smaller ones which are contained within it. You
must write quickly but clearly. Spending twenty minutes thinking for a thirty minute essay will not
do. Then again, jumping right in after reading the question once will not do either. There must be
some kind of happy medium.
When you are given the exam, read every question carefully. Unless your instructor has given you
anticipated times for each part, you will have to decide how long to spend on each question. Begin
with the easiest questions first, ie., the ones you know the most about. Try to let your ideas flow
from your brain to your pen. Trust your confidence. You know the answer. Now write your answer
as if you were explaining it to someone who was educated but who did not know that much about
the topic at hand.
You should avoid padding your answer with verbiage. Get to the point. Back up your position. In
general, your best tactic is to answer the question! I know that sounds simplistic but as a college
history instructor, that's the kind of answer I like to see. Here are some other tips worth considering:
1. Don't write the first thing that comes to your mind. Read the question carefully. Take a few
notes. Think.
2. Think organization. How will your answer be organized? Here it is helpful to jot down a short
outline, even if it's only something like 1, 2, 3. Even that will help.
3. Your answer must be specific or general as the question suggests. Never wander away from
the topic. If the question says, "compare," then that is what you must do. If it asks you to
"describe," then describe. "Identify and discuss the significance of..." means just that.
4. Please don't repeat yourself. Instructors tire of this "technique" quickly. It may add words to
your essay but it takes away from the final grade.
5. When necessary, refer to the facts. After all, it's the facts that will give evidence to your main
points.
6. Refer to concrete points of historical time. There's nothing quite so frustrating for an
instructor than to read an essay in which five centuries of human endeavor have been
jumbled together as if all history took place yesterday. If you know specific dates, use them.
7. You should re-read your answers whenever possible. It's not that necessary to edit but do
make sure that what you say is clearly stated. Your instructor will appreciate it too.
8. You should make every effort to write legibly.

9. No smiley faces, cute remarks, or plaintive gestures. Just answer the questions.
You've heard it before and I hate to say it again, but grades are not everything. Some people are
better writers than others hence their essays may "read" better. A student may have excellent
comprehension of the subject matter but draw a blank when it comes to expressing themselves on
paper. Some people just don't "test" very well. They freeze. Others write page after page of
nonsense and think they have mastery over their subject. What they really have is a penchant for
writing too much. Try to balance your response with economy and comprehension. I much prefer a
direct, well-argued response to some lengthy "essay" which never really goes anywhere.
Finally, regarding take-home exams, you should proceed in the following way. Take the question(s)
home and sit on them for a day or two. Then read the questions very carefully. Refer to your notes,
your books, and your power of memory. Treat the information like a film you have just seen. Now
is the time to discuss that "film." Set aside two hours, perhaps three hours of uninterrupted time and
write. Do nothing but write. Write as much as possible. You can always go back over your work
and edit away. This is especially the case if you use a word processor. If you get stuck, my only
advice comes from the ad people at Nike---JUST DO IT!

3.1 Writing the Short Essay

Your instructor will often assign a short essay as a means of assessing your understanding of
particular historical topics and/or themes. The short essay--usually between five and ten pages,
typed and double-spaced, is an excellent way for you to demonstrate your ability to condense a great
deal of material into what is essentially a compact essay. A short essay is not a research essay and
should not be treated as such. Hints on how to write the research paper are given below.
The short essay may be composed of one question your instructor has asked you to grapple with.
The question may contain a quotation which you are to use as a guideline. Here's an example from
my class, Modern European Intellectual History:
Conflict and the Quest for Identity in the Middle Ages
Although the major premise of our course thus far has been the elaboration of the world view between
1050 and 1550, it can be said that an adjunct theme has been the question of identity. It can be argued
that human beings determine their identity through conflict, a conflict which is at times hidden, and thus
manifests itself in subtle ways. At other times, this conflict is out in the open and it is there that individuals
find themselves. Consider the following excerpt from Malcolm Barberss excellent study, The Two
Cities (1992):
Explicitly or implicitly, the activities and thoughts of human beings in the centuries between
c.1050 and c.1350 were moulded by two powerful forces: on the one hand, the pressures and the
temptations of the material world, made all the more manifest by economic development, and on
the other, the deeply held belief in the need to aspire towards a higher, spiritual life, itself
displayed with increasing clarity by contemporary social changes.
I think Barber is on to something. I also think his model of conflict (implied in his use of the expression,
two powerful forces) can shed some light on future developments in the intellectual history of Europe,
specifically the Renaissance and Reformation. History abounds in conflict and each age has had to
reconcile its conflicts in its own way: that is, we can only discern the significance of conflict if it is

understood in its historical context. The ultimate reconciliation of conflict within the individual and society,
produces identity and without identity, one can not seriously fashion a world view.
This much said, I would like you to write an essay which discusses conflict and the creation of identity as
it was worked out in the period c.1050-1550. Your answer, of course, depends on your view or image
of the period. You may see the period as a whole (eg. the Medieval world) or perhaps as distinct
episodes (eg. 12th Century Renaissance, Renaissance, Reformation). With this in mind, what forces were
present which produced conflict and how was that conflict reconciled (if it indeed ever was) to fashion a
new identity (or world view)? You may wish to consider individual thinkers as representative of their age
(the Abelard, Petrarch, Erasmus gambit) or, you may wish to view the period in its totality and so talk in
more general terms.

Now, as you can see from this example, I have not only supplied an introduction to the topic, but
also a quotation taken from a modern historian. I then elaborate on the passage and finally, in the
last paragraph, I raise a series of questions which the student ought to consider but not necessarily
answer. The student should have few problems obtaining the required five to ten pages on such a
topic.
The short essay assignment above was given in the fourth week of a fifteen week semester. My
students had heard four three hour lectures and had already done some substantial reading from a
text of primary sources. They had several in-class discussions as well. Although I never discussed
Barber's quotation in class, I knew that the quotation highlighted some of the central themes we had
developed up to that point in time. The students had one full week to complete the assignment.
The problem with such a topic, as I soon discovered, is that some students were not prepared to
handle such a question. Many submitted "essays" that were less than five pages on a topic which
could have easily demanded more. I was a bit surprised by this because I did expect more. After all,
this was a small class and no one would take the class simply because it "fit their schedule." In other
words, the students in the class wanted to take the class. Well, what happened?
They were intimidated. I gave them a topic which demanded work and some of them did not take
the assignment seriously. They thought they could write a few paragraphs and call it a day. Bad
move! Speaking for myself, I give the short essay because I want my students to focus on an issue
or theme. I always ask my students: "What do you want to write an essay about? The three field
system of crop rotation?" They laugh at that one but I'm dead serious. "What do you want,
something easy? Or something that gives you a challenge?" I prefer the challenge myself. That's
what education is all about.
Okay, fine you say. But what about the instructor who, without warning, announces that he is
assigning a short essay. Without handing you anything, he says the topic is Fascism. A student raises
their hand, "What are we supposed to write about?" And the instructor simply says, "Write an essay
about Fascism. Explain its appearance and importance in the 20th century." That's it? Well, where
do you begin?
Obviously, your professor would not have assigned such a topic unless you or he had already
discussed it in class. Therefore, you need to go back to your lecture notes and consider those
comments he may have made in reference to Fascism. Begin to take notes on your notes. What
seems important? Are there any names that keep springing up? Did he ever list the causes of
Fascism? Next, go to your texts and reread and review the appropriate sections. Again, take notes.

You may be tempted to drag out an encyclopedia. Go ahead, that's a good move. It may help fill in
gaps. Above all, begin to think!
To give force to the above statement about the importance of the first sentence of your essay,
consider the following: "When this century was still young, a brand new ideological force which
came to be known as "fascism" burst upon a Europe just recovering from the body-blows of the
First World War and the Russian Revolution." Now that is an excellent opening line. Of course, it
was written by a historian (Roger Griffin, ed., Fascism, Oxford, 1995, p. v). But you can do the
same thing! Trust yourself. Confidence. If you know what you are talking about, then say what you
really want to say. JUST DO IT!
Following your killer opening salvo, you should write a paragraph or two which further explains the
importance of Fascism. Mention names -- Mussolini for one. Mention events--the First World War
and the Russian Revolution? Mention dates. The twentieth century didn't occur last night. There's a
lot of years to consider. Use dates! You should also outline, in barest form, the remainder of your
essay. Got a good quotation? Use it here. A quotation as the first sentence of your essay is also an
excellent way to grab the attention of your reader.
On to the hardest part--the body of the essay. It is in the body of your essay that an outline will
become necessary. Without an outline you will have the tendency to roam over a lot of material
without any coherent plan of attack. Your professor will tire easily. "Get to the point!" he may write
in the margin. Outline every single paragraph. Your outline can consist of numbered points, each
one of which is a paragraph or, you can develop a complex outline in which each point of each
section is a sentence unto itself. Whatever works best for you.
I can't stress enough the need for outlining your essays. I know this for a fact because I almost
never used an outline as an undergraduate student. Even in graduate school I had to learn this
technique. After two years of reading my essays, my advisor finally "advised" that I take an essay
that I already had written and outline it. In other words, I was outlining in reverse. Know what I
soon discovered? Simple. My writing had very little logical order or consistency. And if your essays
are illogical or inconsistent, well, then, you're going to have problems. So, my advice is to outline,
outline, outline. If you're daring, try outlining your lecture notes without looking at the outline your
instructor may have given you or written on the board. Can you do it?
Okay, you've written the body of the essay. You're feeling good. You believe you have
demonstrated the essential focus of your opening sentence. Now it's time to conclude. This is not
the place for the "I believe...," "I think that...," "in my opinion..." and so on. Your professor knows
that it's you who are writing so there's no need to remind him. Again, just say what's on your mind.
A conclusion ought not simply repeat arguments, although there are ways to do this without simply
resorting to the list format. Instead, use the information you have established in the rest of your
essay to fashion a general statement about the topic. Was Fascism important, for example, only
within the context of European history, 1914-1945? Or, does Fascism perhaps have a history that
lay outside the war and interwar years? Is there a relationship between Fascism and the Roman
Empire? What is the difference between fascism and totalitarianism? Be daring. Be bold. If you
have some point to make, perhaps a different way of thinking about the topic, then by all means say
it. Your professor will commend you for it.
A short essay can include references to other works and if you frequently use quotations from these

works, then they ought to be included in your essay as footnotes or as endnotes. Your professor
should tell you what he is after. If you are discussing one book and all your quotations are to that
book, then simple page numbers cited within the body of the text are all that is required. But, if for
some reason, your essay is based on the reading of several books, then you will have to come up
with some kind of system of notation that is in agreement with your instructor. The rule with
footnotes and bibliographies in general is: be consistent. There are a great many style manuals to
choose from so make sure that if your professor wants perfection that you use the style manual that
is recommended.
You need to keep in mind that a short essay is just that---short. You may think ten pages or 25003000 words is a great deal to write, and for some students it is, but if you know your topic well and
enjoy your topic, then you ought to be able to complete the assignment handily. Like anything else,
good writing takes patience and practice. Some people are born writers---the majority are not. It is
difficult to express verbally what we can at times only intuit silently.
If you find yourself stuck on that first sentence, move on. Write what comes to mind. You can
always edit away later. And stick to that outline---you'll be glad you did. Ask your professor if he
will read rough drafts of your essays. I have always done so and you may surprised to learn that
your instructor does as well. It can't hurt to ask. If you are taking a class which utilizes a teaching
assistant, you may even be required to submit a rough draft. The bottom line is this: ask questions
and obtain answers. If you simply write your papers with some vague awareness of what is required
the result will be mediocre at best. Why be mediocre? Strive for excellence!
Your instructor may demand that your essays be typed. Other professors would prefer a typed
paper but do not require it. In general, you should make every effort to submit your essays typed
rather than handwritten. For example, I receive two essays on the same topic. Both are probably
very good. But, do you know which one is easier to read? Do you know which one I will read first?
Psychologically, your professor is prepared for typed text and so the handwritten essay usually falls
to the bottom of the pile. So, for your own sake, submit all written work typed rather than
handwritten.

4.1: Writing the Research Essay -- Introduction

You will eventually enroll in a history class in which the instructor requires that you submit a
research essay as part of your course requirement. Since the research essay requires some skills that
differ from those of the short essay it is best if we spend some time talking about what those
different skills might entail. By assigning a research essay, your instructor is asking you to commit
yourself to some extended research culminating in a long essay on the order of 20-30 pages. (In
advanced undergraduate seminars, you may be asked to write an even longer essay.) The essay
must utilize either footnotes or endnotes and must also contain a bibliography.
Confronted with such an immense task, the student must do a number of things. First, a suitable
subject must be arrived at quickly. With the semester only 15 weeks long, the student does not have
that much time. And since the first several weeks are spent getting a feel for the subject of the class
in general, it often happens that students have no idea what to write about until the semester is half
over. How do we proceed? How do we make the best of such a short time? Hopefully this section
will answer some of the basic questions in order to get you going. There are twelve parts to this

section!

4.2 The Research Essay -- Selecting a Topic

So, it's the first day of class and your instructor is busy going over the syllabus and explaining the
structure of the course. Let's say the course is Modern European Intellectual History. He then
announces that all students will be required to submit a research essay at the end of the term.
Everyone moans. Your instructor can then say one of two things: [1] "Everyone is to write a
research essay on Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra." That's it. He explains that he will hand out
the topic and general instructions in a week or two. Or, [2] he could say "I would like you all to
submit a research essay on a subject of your choice." This is even more difficult than the first
scenario because now it's up to you. With a topic as broad as Modern European Intellectual History,
you are to choose a topic which embraces 200, perhaps 500, years of the western intellectual
tradition. So what do you do?
Well, choose your topic carefully. That goes without saying. Choose a topic in which you are
interested in some way. Conducting research on a topic which doesn't interest you makes for a
boring life. So try to select a topic about which you do have some genuine interest. Of course, trying
to select a topic in a class which has just begun is difficult. I can't tell you how many times I have
chosen a topic in the first two or three weeks of class only to find that in the seventh week the
instructor was talking about something I found more interesting. Given this problem, what do you
do?
It's all a matter of judgment. The ideal topic is one about which you think you already know
something. Perhaps you had encountered some event, or theory, or person, or war, or idea or
something, and you want to know more. That's where selecting the topic of your essay can be easier
to do.
If your instructor has given you a few weeks to decide then get to work right away. He will probably
ask you to submit a proposal. I ask my own students to submit a one page essay which specifies the
title of the proposed essay, a description of what the essay is to be about and a short list of books
the student might have consulted. I also ask that the student mention any problems they might have
encountered thus far. In the unlikely event that your instructor does not ask you to submit a
proposal, you ought to ask him if he will look at one you have written. Better safe than sorry.
The bottom line is this: if your instructor has left the topic totally up to you, then choose carefully.
You must choose something for which information exists. Choosing a topic upon which 2000 books
and journal articles may have already been written in the past ten years is not such a good idea.
Why? Well, you'd be covering a topic that your instructor already knows well and that makes for
boring reading on the part of your instructor. Also, if you choose a topic in which your instructor is
the expert, you may find yourself fighting a losing battle. It's much better to select a topic that
interests you and also contributes to your overall understanding of the course in which you are
enrolled.

4.3 The Research Essay -- "Imaging" Your Topic

Once you have the topic under control, now is the time to use the powers of your intelligence and
"image" the topic. We've discussed "imaging" already. You must be able to see your topic in your
mind--you must conceive before you can execute. What does the topic look like? Does it interest
you? Will it interest anyone else? Can you see certain sections of the essay? Do you have a mental
image? This is important.
To get you started quicker, ask yourself what it is that you are most intent on finding out about the
subject. In other words, you have already selected a general topic. Now is the time to narrow it
down to something more specific (that is, something which better meets the confines of the research
essay). Will you be describing something? analyzing? comparing? criticizing? Have you decided to
investigate a large block of historical time? or just a small episode embodied within it? Ask yourself
as many questions as you can. Write them down if that helps. Conceptualize the topic as much as
possible and the execution of the essay will be that much easier.
You also need to look at your topic realistically. Obviously, no one would contemplate a topic so
broad as "A History of Europe, 1648-1996," for an essay only twenty pages in length. Not only
could you not condense 350 years of European history in twenty pages, fifteen weeks is hardly
enough time to do the research for a longer study, even if it were possible.
If you know very little about your topic, your first task is obviously to learn more. Suppose your
general topic is the Age of Enlightenment. This a broad topic. Consult an encyclopedia. You will run
across names (Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire, Paine), events (Lisbon Earthquake, French Revolution),
and ideas (scepticism, deism, liberty). Perhaps one of these things strikes your fancy. Suddenly, you
find yourself attracted to Tom Paine's essay The Age of Reason, in general, and his ideas on deism
in particular. You begin to ask yourself questions: who was Tom Paine? what is deism? who were
the deists? why did deism appear when it did? what effect does deism have on the movement for
parliamentary reform in England in the 1790s? Then, for whatever reason, you are led to an entirely
different topic, say, English political radicals in the age of the French Revolution. Through your
discovery of Paine's Rights of Man, you encounter the radical philosopher William Godwin. He was
an anarchist which is odd because he was writing at a time (1790s) when most English radicals were
trying to reform Parliament, not abolish it altogether. You then thumb through a brief biography of
Godwin and soon discover that he married Mary Wollstonecraft, an out-spoken feminist who wrote
the first critique of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (Paine's Rights of
Manwas a response to Burke's Reflections as well). You also find out that Godwin and
Wollstonecraft produced a daughter, Mary, who later married Percy Bysshe Shelley, and
wrote Frankenstein. Quite a jump from your first initial interest in Paine's deism, isn't it? And all of
this could have taken place in a week or two. I mention this example because using this same
technique, I arrived at a topic for seminar paper which happened to be about the notion of human
perfectibility in the thought of William Godwin.
To conclude, with a little investigative work on your part, which means a trip to your library, you
must narrow down your topic to something which (1) can be discussed in the required twenty pages
(or whatever length has been specified) and (2) still interests you, hopefully even more than the
original nebulous topic.

4.4 The Research Essay -- Off to the Library

Make no mistake, beginning research means beginning at the library. The library is your best
resource for finding out information about your proposed topic. Internet resources may help you
conduct some research but you always have to start in the library (more about this in a moment).
For the purpose of this and the following sections we'll need an example and I know no better
example than the one I used above. So, we'll imagine that you are enrolled in a course on
Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850, and you have elected to write some kind of essay on William
Godwin. You've seen this thick book, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice by Godwin. You've
picked it up. It looks interesting. It has an interesting cover. The weight of the book feels good in
your hands. You've also seen Godwin's name mentioned a few times in your textbook and once in
another book which was assigned for the course. Your instructor, however, never once uttered his
name (why not?). You learn that Godwin doesn't get much notice, especially alongside Burke,
Paine, Robespierre, Marx, Babeuf, Proudhon and others. In fact, you're curious as to why Godwin
rarely gets more than a passing footnote. But there's something about that thick book that interests
you.
So you begin to read. First the Introduction, a lengthy essay by Isaac Kramnick. You learn that
Godwin was a philosophical anarchist, husband to Wollstonecraft and father of Mary Shelley. You
learn that Godwin wrote a number of books, all with political themes. He also wrote a number of
novels, among them Caleb Williams and Fleetwood: The New Man of Feeling. You find that
Godwin's idea of human perfectibility is fascinating, as fascinating as is his argument that the
ultimate reform of government means the annihilation of government. Hey, it's 1996, an election
year. People are talking candidates, politics and voting. Along comes Godwin, two hundred years in
the past. He views all political associations (or parties) as inconsistent with the principles of political
justice: "The whole is then wound up, with that flagrant insult upon all reason and justice, the
deciding upon truth by the casting up of numbers."So much for politics! You turn off MSNBC's
coverage of the Conventions. Godwin seems more interesting. You decide to go with it.
Reading Kramnick's Introduction further, you realize that Godwin was a Dissenter. Hmm, what's
that? And that he was brought up in a Calvinist household and later became an atheist and anarchist.
You read some anecdote that Godwin relates in his diary about the Sunday his father beat him
because he picked up a cat. Hmm, more food for thought. You learn that he influenced Romantic
poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley or political radicals like Tom Paine and John
Thelwall (who's he?). You also discover that he had no dealings with the London Corresponding
Society (???) or the Society for Constitutional Information (???) or that he was no advocate of
violent revolution. Hmm, a radical anarchist writing at the peak of the radical stage of the French
Revolution (The Terror) has no sympathy for revolution. More questions.
You begin to formulate a picture in your mind...the "image" that we've been talking about all along.
You're even more interested at this point. You thumb through the book and find Kramnick's
bibliography. You drag out your notebook and begin to write down the names of authors and their
books and articles. Good job! That's where it all begins.

You rush off to the library with your rough bibliography and head right to the card catalog or the
online terminals. (I won't discuss the use of either card catalogs or online computer catalogs. Their
use is fairly straight-forward. Ask a librarian if in doubt.) It's time to start finding these books. But
first, you look up Godwin himself. Hunh! There's quite a bit of stuff. You write it all down.
Ford K. Brown, The Life of William Godwin (1926)
David Fleisher, William Godwin: A Study in Liberalism (1951)
Rosalie Glynn Grylls, William Godwin and His Circle (1953)
Don Locke, A Fantasy of Reason: The Life and Thought of William Godwin (1980)
D.H.Monroe, Godwin's Moral Philosophy: An Interpretation of William Godwin (1953)
C. Kegan Paul, William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries, 2 vols (1876)
You head to the appropriate section of the stacks on the appropriate floor and there you are,
"Godwin Central"! You pull those books off the shelves whose titles and authors you had recorded
earlier. You glance quickly at each book. You've got a stack ten high. But wait, one of these books
is missing! Where is it? Ask the librarian where the book might be. Better yet, and before you ask
the library staff, go back to the card catalog and make sure you copied the information correctly.
[Even in the most well-organized library, books are often not where they are supposed to be.
Perhaps that particular title is getting rebound. Perhaps it's been moved to storage because no one
has borrowed it for fifty years. Perhaps it's been stolen. Who knows?]
Find a table. Fast! Sit down. Open your notebook and pick up the first book. Turns out to be a
biography written sixty years ago. Interesting. Here's another biography, only this one is less than
five years old. You learn that this latter volume was written by an instructor in philosophy at Notre
Dame. The other volume was written by a literary critic. Hmm. I wonder if that makes a difference?
You may begin to notice that many of these books say the same thing. They contain biographical
information but many of them also focus on that historical topic known as "The French Revolution
in English History." Interesting topic. Perhaps you need to re-visit the card catalog and do a bit of
research on the French Revolution as well as England in the 1790s. And what about Dissent? Might
that not also play a role? After all, who were the Dissenters? Is there a connection between Dissent
and radicalism?
You've now spent two hours at the library and you decide that's enough for the day. You leave the
library, perhaps to attend your next class. But first you borrow ten books. Your mind is busy at
work. Who was Godwin, anyway?
At this stage of the game, all you can hope to accomplish is the collection of a reading list. You have
checked several books and brought a few of them home with you. You haven't even begun to tap
the journal literature as yet. Still, you feel as if you are just a bit closer to getting this whole research
essay together.
But you've forgotten one thing and it's organizational. You need a way to collect and collate all those
books (and later journal articles) that you've seen. Enter the 3 x 5 index card. No serious writer of
the research essay should leave home without their stash of index cards. But what are these things
for? Why can't you just write all this stuff down on pieces of paper and keep them in your
notebook? Easy. They get lost. They are disorganized. It's tough to alphabetize a list of books when
you've got five references on one sheet of paper, two on another and one on still one more. What

do you do? Here's the solution, and it's a simple one.

First, go buy a pack of 100 3 x 5 index cards, any color. Grab half the deck and place a rubber band
around them. Next, carry them whenever you go to the library to do more research. Every time you
see a book that you might use, enter its bibliographical information on one index card. You can do
this at home as well. Whenever you encounter a likely "find," write the author's name and title along
with the bibliographic data on one of the cards. When you next go to the library, you can verify the
resource. If your library doesn't have the title you can do one of two things: (1) forget the resource
or (2) order the title from Interlibrary Loan (ask your librarian!). The information should be entered
in the exact order in which that title will appear in your finished bibliography. For example:
Goodwin, Albert. The Friends of Liberty: The English Democratic Movement in the Age of the
French Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.
or
Godwin, William. Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and
Happiness. Edited by Isaac Kramnick. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
I repeat, record all the required bibliographical information exactly as it will appear in the finished
product. DO NOT USE ABBREVIATIONS! This is important. For example, does "Brit." mean
Britain or British or Britannia? Perhaps you meant to say Briton? See what I mean? Regarding the
"style" or "format" of the finished bibliography is concerned, at this point you should ask your
professor what style manual he prefers, that is, if he hasn't already told you (and he should have).
One rule of thumb is this: whatever style you use for your paper (and that means spacing, margins,
footnotes, citations, etc.), you should never mix formats. In other words, be consistent. While a
discussion of the various style manuals is beyond the scope of this document, the student would do
well to consult one of the following. All three manuals have gone through several editions so make
sure you use the latest one.

Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations

Joseph Gibaldi and Walter S. Achtert, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

The Chicago Manual of Style for Authors, Editors, and Copywriters

A number of citation style sheets have also begun to appear on the World Wide Web. I list only a
few of them here:

Melvin Page's Brief Citation Guide (http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~africa/citation.html)

Citing Electronic Information in History Papers (Maurice Crouse)

(http://history.memphis.edu/mcrouse/elcite.html

Beyond the MLA Handbook (http://www.vwc.edu/wwwpages/dgraf/mlaplus.htm)

You should also record the call number of the book. Why? Simple. Since you can only borrow the
book for a short period of time, it will eventually need to be returned. If you need to refer to it again
in the future, why go through the card catalog again? After all, what these 3 x 5 cards will really be
doing for you is building your own card catalog! You should also record the date you read the book
and also record any notes about the general utility of the book. For example, using the Albert

Goodwin book above as an example, I have recorded on my index card: DA/520/.G6/1979 (the call
number), the bibliographic reference, a note that says pp.475-78 are specifically about Godwin and
that I read the book February 26, 1984 and again on April 21. There's another note that reads
"Godwin as minor radical---mentioned only in connection with more popular members of the LCS."
In other words, I have annotated this book.
You ought to enter the proper information on every book or journal article you encounter during
your research. Even if you never use a specific title in your essay, you should still keep the index
card. Make two piles: one for the references you will use in your essay and another pile for those
you will not. I used this technique religiously for four years of my graduate education as well as four
years of my doctoral research and I now have a catalog of index cards that fills five eighteen inch
boxes (that's roughly eight feet!).
When you are searching either the hard copy card catalog or the online catalog, always have
keywords in mind. Obviously, if you are researching William Godwin, you will search by his last
name. But, what other key words might be of service to you while you are conducting a search?
How about running a general search for: History, England, 18th Century or History, France, 18th
Century, French Revolution, Radicalism. Searching via keywords is perhaps easier using online
terminals than it is card catalogs. For one thing, it involves less physical movement. You stand in
front of a terminal and input keywords, hit Enter and then let the database do the walking. The
catalog at Sterling Library at Yale is immense. So too is the one at The British Library in London.
(After all, the combined card catalogs of Sterling and the British Library must tally somewhere over
40 million volumes!) Your university will probably have both hard copy and online catalogs and I
suggest that you use both. Keep in mind that just because the university's holdings have been made
available online does not necessarily mean that all the entries are there. Of course, this is true for
card catalogs as well. If you get stuck, ask the librarian---they get paid to assist patrons find
information. They are also excellent resources for further information.

4.5 The Research Essay -- Internet Resources

Okay, you've got your Internet access through your university or college or high school. Perhaps
you've also got a dial up or broadband connection at home or at work. Heck, you're reading this
document on the World Wide Web! Well, if you found this document, there must be others that will
help you with your research essay on William Godwin. Somewhere there must be The William
Godwin Home Page. Well, there isn't. Does this mean there is absolutely nothing regarding William
Godwin on the Internet? No. Not necessarily, at least. What it does mean is that no one has
bothered to set up a site devoted to William Godwin. But, if you run several searches across the
Internet you will find that there are sites which contain digitized versions of some of his texts.
(Interesting, they are in Japan!) You will find reviews of books about Godwin. You may even find a
link back to the page you are reading right now. After all, Godwin's name appears here a number of
times. Of course, you will also find links to "Donna Godwin's Recipe Mania" or "The Godwin High
School Home Page," "Rick Godwin's Portland Real Estate Page" and so on. But no William Godwin
Page.
What did you expect? Did you really expect to find dozens of resources about Godwin? Think about

it. Godwin is a minor figure in the history of the western intellectual tradition. That's why I picked
him as a thesis topic in the first place. But say you picked Karl Marx, or Rene Descartes or Plato or
World War One or the Cold War or Bosnia or Iraq or Pizza Hut (!!!). Go ahead. Run a search on
that stuff and you know what? There is a lot of information. That's because these topics are more
"popular," for lack of a better word.
However, there is a caveat. Just because the Internet exists, does not necessarily mean you are going
to find what you are looking for. This is true even if you use the best search engines in the most
efficient manner. So go to the Rene Descartes page. Does it tell you anything you need to know for
your research essay? At best, that page will end up pointing you to a number of other pages in which
information is replicated. And what do you end up with? Sixty minutes online and no closer to
completing your research essay. The Internet is at best, an adjunct to research. It is not the place to
conduct all of your research. This is especially so in the Humanities. Sure, you may encounter some
resources and if you're lucky, they might even be excellent resources. But, nothing can replace a trip
to the library. (Give my regards to Cliff Stoll!)
Okay, so perhaps the World Wide Web doesn't have what you want. What else is there? Well, there
are more than 20,000 USENET newsgroups out there and although you won't find one devoted to
Godwin, you may find one in which the participants discuss anarchism. Maybe you could search
their FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) archive and see if anything is there. Or you could post a
query to the newsgroup bit.listserv.history, e.g. "I am writing a paper on William Godwin's
philosophical anarchism. Can anyone offer any insights?" Or what about mailing lists? (There are at
least one hundred listservs devoted to all facets of history, intellectual history included.) Sure, you
could subscribe to one of these mailing lists and start discussing Godwin's theory of human
perfectibility. But only if the moderator allows you to join the group.
Well, don't give up. At least not yet. You should know that by using TELNET, you can access the
online database of almost any library in the country. This is good if you are trying to locate
resources. Of course, this won't get you the resource but at least you'll be closer to knowing that the
resource does indeed exist, or doesn't exist. And again, if you know the resource exists but your
library doesn't have it in the stacks, don't despair. Walk right up to a librarian and ask about an
Interlibrary Loan.
So what's my point? Is it that you ought to abandon the Internet as a viable research tool? No. I
would never say that. What I would say is this: do not expect too much from the Internet. Be
realistic in your approach to your research topic. And by "realistic," what I really mean is, GO TO
THE LIBRARY, because that's where you are going to find what you are looking for without
question. The Internet is not a waste of time, unless you waste your time on the Internet.
Furthermore, the Internet is no replacement for library work. Make the effort worthwhile.

4.6 The Research Essay -- How to Choose the Right Books

Hopefully you've now got the idea that the study of history means reading and in my humble
opinion, reading makes you more knowledgeable about a specific topic. Wiser too! History is a
reading subject. You can't sit in an empty room and write history. You must have evidence. You

must have facts. You must have interpretations. So where does all this come from? And how do
you choose your books wisely?
My own habit, when confronted with a research essay, was to head off to the library and find as
many books as I could about the topic at hand. As a graduate student with unlimited borrowing
privileges I used to use a cart to carry all the books I borrowed on any given day. In other words, I
wouldn't think twice of borrowing fifty books at a time. The librarians usually moaned and groaned
but I did have the right to borrow all those books, and more. Not only that, as a graduate student I
could keep those books decidedly longer than the undergraduate. Of course, this is graduate school
stuff.
Research for undergraduate classes in history (or even high school classes) obviously entails much
less. But all this still begs the question: how do you pick and choose the "right" books?
Here's my advice. Go to the library armed with your index cards and start digging. Spend an hour or
two at the terminal or improve your physical health by consulting the hard copy card catalogs. Write
down all likely sources in your notebook, even those which seem remotely useful. (Keep your index
cards handy. You don't want to start writing down information until you have the book in your
hands and open to the title and copyright pages.) You should begin to notice that titles are beginning
to appear in clusters according to their call number and location in the stacks. In fact, as a graduate
student studying modern British history, I sometimes went straight to the stacks because I knew the
majority of titles pertaining to British History were located in the "DA" stacks, specifically "DA20690." If it's Russia, head over to "DK." It's that simple. You will soon get to know just what your
library has in its holdings. By the way, if your library still uses the older, Dewey Decimal system,
you'll find all the history stuff in the 900-990 range.
Another aid in finding resources is to consult any one of the many guides to reference books which
you will find in the Reference Section of your library. These guides will give you brief descriptions
of all the reference sources available in the Reference Section, including abstracts and indexes.
Here's a few of the more popular ones:

Eugene P. Sheehy, Guide to Reference Books

Helen J. Poulton, The Historian's Handbook: A Descriptive Guide to Reference Works

Elizabeth Frick, Library Research Guide to History

Carla Stoff and Simon Karter, Materials and Methods for History Research

There are so many resources located in the Reference Section of your library that I would need
several pages to describe those of use just to historians. Rather than spend the time describing these
resources, here's what you do. Go to the library and spend at least two hours in the Reference
Section seeing exactly what is available. You'll be glad you did.
Well, with all this behind us, how do we choose what it is we should read? How do we choose the
"right" books? Well, technically, there is no such thing as a wrong book. But, there are books which
will help you more than others. Here's a simple example. In your research on William Godwin, you
come across two titles seemingly about the same thing. On the one hand, there is Peter H.
Marshall's William Godwin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984). On the other hand, Ford K.

Brown's The Life of William Godwin (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1926). You should have
noticed right away that the two books were written nearly sixty years apart. Now if, as an
undergraduate, I were writing a research essay on Godwin and needed only a dozen sources or so,
then I would choose the volume by Marshall. Why? Because there's an excellent chance that
Marshall is already familiar with any arguments that may have appeared in Brown's book. So, why
waste your time reading Brown when Marshall has perhaps already done the work for you? Of
course, if this were a graduate school seminar essay or thesis, both texts would have to have been
consulted.
I must admit here that as an undergraduate and graduate student it was my habit to read everything,
or at the very least, as much as I could in the amount of time given. In other words, I have always
had a tendency to over-read (as well as over-research) a subject. Why did I do this? Well, to my
way of thinking, the more you read about one topic, the more you become familiar with common
names, events, people, places, ideas and so on. I bombarded myself with information and after a
while, things just begin to sink in. The other tactic would be to carefully read just a few books and
"study" them. Whichever technique you choose is entirely up to you. I happen to be a fast reader so
I chose the former technique. Reading may not come easy to you or perhaps you don't have enough
time to read everything. You will have to adjust your research habits accordingly.
What you need to read will, of course, be determined by the subject matter. In the case of the
Godwin example I have used throughout this section, there is a wealth of information available. But
not nearly so much as might be available on, say, Hitler or the Nazis, for example. Just to put this
into perspective, in the Forward to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi
Germany (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), William Shirer mentions that 485 tons of records
of the German Foreign Office were captured by the U.S. First Army in the Harz Mountains just as
they were about to be burned on orders from Berlin. 485 tons! And those are just the records of the
German Foreign Office! No wonder so much has been written about Hitler, the Nazis and World
War Two.
Since you don't have the time to read everything, you should be able to determine whether a book
may be of use to you by following these guidelines:

Try to locate books that match your topic exactly

Once you have these books in hand, locate those titles which pertain to the topic in general.
Glance at the Table of Contents and Index. Are there direct references to your topic? Is a
chapter devoted to your subject? or just a page? Or worse, just a footnote?

If there is a bibliography (and there almost always is) go through the entire thing and see if
you can locate other books which might help you.

When was the book published? Obviously, if your topic is something like slavery in American
society, a book published in say, 1934, is going to give you a different approach than one
written in 1894 or 1964 or 1996. (Ask yourself why.)

Read the Preface or, if it isn't too lengthy, the Introduction.

If a book is consistently cited in the literature about your topic, then it's a good bet that you

should be familiar with it as well.

Determining the number of books you ought to use to conduct your research is a judgment call and
really depends on the topic you have selected. If you have selected a topic for which very little
secondary literature exists then you will more than likely need to master it all. However, if
confronted with the tonnage of materials indicative of World War Two scholarship, then you are
going to have to refine your topic considerably. Your professor ought to give you some idea of the
kind of research he expects and if he doesn't, then it is up to you to ask. You can't read everything
in such a short period of time as one semester, so you must learn to choose carefully and avoid texts
which duplicate stuff you've read elsewhere. That's why it's usually a good idea to read more recent
works of historical scholarship since the author has already done some of the research for you.

4.7 The Research Essay -- Taking Notes

So, you've now got your topic. You've written a draft proposal for your instructor or teaching
assistant. You've done the legwork at the library and you've got some ideas drawn up in outline
form. Excellent! You're ready to get down to the actual research. Now's the time that you start
taking notes. How do you proceed?
Well, the first rule is quite simple: To take good notes is to know in advance what you are
looking for. That sounds simple enough, doesn't it? But how many times have you gone into
research mode by consuming everything and writing down everything you've seen? Talk about overkill! It's not necessary. What is necessary is to know why you are looking at a specific source. That
might mean a great deal of reading or, in some cases, quite a bit less. It all depends on the topic.
More important, however, it all depends on what you are looking for. Keep that question in the front
of your mind as you conduct your research: why am I looking at this source? what am I looking for?
Well, you first need a clear understanding and grasp of your topic. If you don't have a clue about
how you are going to proceed (or why) then you will find yourself with a pile of notes you will
never use. Worse still, you could fail to take notes on things which are essential to the successful
completion of your essay. Regardless, you might find yourself in way over your head before you've
even really begun your work. This usually occurs when you first set out to research a topic. You
have some vague idea about the topic but have not yet refined it. For example, you know you want
to write something about William Godwin and his notion of human perfectibility but what about
after that? In other words, it's not enough to say you want to write about such and such a topic.
You need to ask yourself why. Off you go. You read inconsistently and wildly and take notes on
things which may not end up in the finished product. So, it is essential that you carefully define the
nature and scope of your research, and stick to it. Again, time management is important for the
simple fact that you don't have much time (more about this below).
As you begin reading your primary and secondary sources you will find sections of those sources
which you may wish to include in your own essay. What is the general idea the author is trying to
convey? Write it down. Is he pressing a specific interpretation? What is it? What sorts of sources
does the author utilize? And of course, is the author's book useful to you in any way?
You may find yourself pulling quotations from various texts. That's okay. In fact, you must use
quotations in historical writing of any kind. The rule is: copy the quote exactly as it appeared. Don't

change the word order or change the text in any way. It is absolutely essential that the meaning of
the quotation you use is absolutely clear. Above all, do not use the quotation out of the context
established by the author. If you do so, then you will be twisting the arguments of that particular
author, and you will be defeating the purpose of using the quotation in the first place.
Using quotations to establish both your understanding of the topic under review and to give evidence
to what you are saying is essential. But, using too many quotations is not a good thing. In the
hundreds of essays I've read over the years, I have sometimes seen students submit papers in which
paragraphs are nothing but a series of quotations strung together. You can't do this. As a rule,
quoting an author is not enough. You need to explain to your reader why you have selected this
quotation in the first place. In other words, saying this or that is not enough. You have to explain
why and this means discussing the importance or significance of the quote. You'll soon find that
explaining a quotation from a primary or secondary source will enhance your own writing and your
own comprehension of the topic.
Okay, well how to do use quotations intelligently and forcefully? Well, use them when they are
needed ("when in doubt, leave it out"). You need to learn to paraphrase the arguments of an author.
In this way, an author's interpretation can be blended with your own, or your overall discussion. So
read the passage, or section, or chapter and then, first in your mind and then on paper, record your
understanding of it. Try to explain things in your own words first, and then retrieve a quotation or
series of short quotations to give force to what you just said. Like writing in general, knowing when
to use quotations is an art in itself. I have always found that beginning a paragraph with a quotation
is an excellent way to prepare your reader for what is to come. Of course, ending a paragraph with a
quote is an excellent way of tying together the previous discussion. And yes, inserting quotations in
the body of a paragraph will focus the reader's attention. Quotations, used judiciously throughout
your research essay, can be of benefit to you by enhancing the finished product.
One more thing. There will be times that an author will quote another author. You can use the
quotation from the other author but be sure to locate the original source (it's usually a footnote). If
you can't locate it, then you will have to acknowledge that in some way (in a footnote of your own).
Okay, so you've learned a few tips toward more economical note taking. You've learned the
necessity of quoting an author's words, when applicable. But where do all these notes go? How do
you take notes?
Well, we're back to the index cards again. Only this time, instead of using a 3 x 5 card, buy yourself
either 4 x 6 or 5 x 8 index cards. (I prefer the 5 x 8 card.) But why not use the same 3 x 5 card?
Simple: you'll need more room on the note cards because they will contain more than just
bibliographical information. Fine, you've got the cards, now what?
The general rule is that your cards ought to contain only one idea or discussion of an idea. Your
cards ought to contain information from one source only. Going back to the Godwin example above,
it's poor practice to put the following on one card.
---Godwin was the son of a Dissenting minister who punished him often for his frivolity on Sundays.
(Grylls, p.34)
---Godwin was also a minor radical who wrote a lot in the 1790s.
---Caleb Williams was Godwin's most famous novel.

---Paine and Godwin knew one another. (pp.42-45)

---Godwin called for a "well-conceived" or "simple form of society without government." (Political
Justice, II, p.325)
See the problems here? You've got a bunch of different topics as well as sources all located on one
card. How then should you proceed? Well, for starters, title a bunch of cards "Biography," and then
on those cards put information which only relates to Godwin's biographical details. Another series of
cards would be devoted to Godwin's fiction (and perhaps a stack of cards just on Caleb Williams),
still other cards to his relationship with Tom Paine and still other cards with his ideas on
government. You might even want to keep another set of cards which describe some of Godwin's
contemporaries. It's even a good idea to keep some cards which list modern writers who have made
Godwin the focus of some of their published work (you know, the Godwin scholars!). Again, only
one source on each card. Don't mix ideas, sources, reflections or quotations on one card.
When you've begun to collect a number of note cards, it's a good idea to keep them in separate
piles, each tied together with a rubber band. You can even buy a file box (sort of like a card catalog
drawer) in which to keep them, separated by markers. You can make one yourself if you are
enterprising enough. The bottom line is: keep things organized. The bigger the research project, the
more organization your project will require. Let's move on.
If you use direct quotations from any of your sources, make sure that you (1) copy the quote
exactly, (2) write the author's name and short title under the quote and (3) make sure the page
number is correct. The reason is so that you will have your direct reference correctly cited. And
why would you want to do that? Simple? The reason we use footnotes is so that someone reading
our work can locate the source of the quotation. That makes sense, doesn't it?
Here's an example of a good note card taken from my own research:
Derek Fraser, in his Evolution of the Welfare State, calls Godwin a "near anarchist" (p.98)
That's it. That's the whole card. Can you tell me why that's a good note card? Or why it might be a
good quotation? Here's another one. It's titled "Sincerity":
"How great would be the benefit, if every man were sure of meeting in his neighbor the ingenuous
censor, who would tell him in person, and publish to the world, his virtues, his good deeds, his
meannesses and his follies?"
(Godwin, Political Justice, vol1, p.329)
---this must be impartial and dispassionate
---cool logic without emotion (did Godwin "feel" anything?)
---Sincerity is a virtue, by its utility
As you can see, the entire content of this note pertains to Godwin's notion of sincerity, which he
also called "intellectual candor." I've even asked myself a question: "did Godwin feel anything?"
Perhaps this will make way for a discussion in the finished product. After all, one of Godwin's
problems, as I see it at least, was that he thought too much and felt too little and this attitude, would
be overcome by the English Romantic poets (Blake, Shelley, Byron, Keats, Coleridge and
Wordsworth). There you go, another topic: what was the relationship between the English

Romantics and Godwin? Perhaps you'll need a bunch of note cards on that as well. I imagine you're
starting to get the picture, one thing building upon and off another.
If the quotation you are citing runs to more than one card, then either continue on the backside or
begin a new card but be sure to number the card in some way so that you know where it belongs. I
wouldn't staple the two cards together because that'll make it difficult to use when you are actually
writing. Paper clips don't work either. Look at it this way. Say your sitting outside the student union
and for some reason, you drop your entire stack of cards. If you've marked them correctly, you
should be able to place them back into their proper order without much problem. Need I say it
again, but organization is everything. The more organized you become, the more organized and your
research will surely be.
After a while, depending on how much energy you devote to your research, you ought to begin to
collect a stack of note cards. That's good! Keep them handy--that is, on your desk or carry them
whenever you head over to the library. You can also use the note cards to record your own thoughts
as you progress through the early stages of your research. Record things that pertain to your topic,
questions you might have, things which ought to have been researched but haven't. In short, begin
to write the research essay (more about this to follow). Why was Godwin a minor radical? I don't
think he was such a person and here's why. Why did one author say that Godwin (an apparent
liberal) was similar, in many respects, to Edmund Burke (the father of a conservative political
theory)? Were all Dissenters politically active? Again, so many questions that need to be answered.
Take your time and think!
You will ordinarily record your research with your 5 x 8 cards and a pen. In some libraries,
especially archives, you will only be allowed to use a pencil due to the importance of many
manuscripts and documents. However, with so many laptops in the hands of students these days,
perhaps you might be tempted to do away with the poor little index card and just slap all your
information into a database of some sort. Well, I don't have any problem with that unless you can't
print up your notes on 5 x 8 index cards. Of course, computer text retrieval software is a great thing
to have at your disposal. There are a number of programs which will allow you to input
bibliographical information and then, with a few clicks of the mouse, generate a stylistically correct
bibliography. But, trying to write a research essay on Godwin with 350 individual notes tucked away
on the hard drive of your PC or Mac is going to be tough business. Why? Because you need to
spread these note cards out in front of you when you write. So, using your PC or Mac to help store
your data is fine as an adjunct, but not as the sole means of support for your research notes. Of
course, a great deal of this depends on the nature of your research. If you are quantifying
information, then a database is essential. But, if you are writing about the effect of Vico's philosophy
of history on the thought of Jules Michelet, well, you're going to need a different approach.
One final thought. And it bears upon something each and every writer has had to face at least once
in their career: plagiarism. Plagiarism can be defined as stealing the thoughts of another and using
them as your own. Worse than the mere mis-quoting of a source, plagiarism can get you into deep
trouble. On the one hand, you could end up with a failed grade on your essay. On the other hand,
stealing the thoughts of another means you've been lazy. You've taken the easy way out. Better to
struggle with knowledge than take the easy way out. I trust you agree.
The problem with reading history, especially the work of historians, is that they use a language

specific to history itself. And as you are reading an argument, you become tempted to duplicate that
language to the point that what you record as your ideas are really little more than reworked
sentences of someone else's work. It's easy to fall into this trap. And your instructor will know when
you have fallen into the trap. After all, he's the one who's spent a great deal of his lifetime
researching things you are just beginning to discover. He's read all the books (well, most of them)
and is familiar with the arguments. Nine times out of ten, he can spot the familiar relapse into
plagiarism because he notices that: "Hmm, this section on Godwin's biography is okay, but this
discussion on Godwin's theory of perfectibility looks different." he begins to take note of special
words: hegemony, ideology, epigoni, transcendent, anathema, noumenal, well, you get the picture.
How do you avoid plagiarism? Hard work, I'm afraid. You need to read your sources carefully. If
something is worth quoting, then do so. Paraphrasing is the technique in which you deduce the
meaning of a passage, or section, in your own words. Simple rewording won't do. Explain the
passage or section in your own words. I know this is tough to do but you have to do it. Nobody said
writing was easy work!
It isn't easy. Nope, it's hard, mental labor. Here's a trick I learned in an eighth grade English
composition class. The teacher walked to his desk, removed the center drawer and dumped its
contents onto the table. He then looked at us and said, "Describe this!" That's it. You know what?
We wrote a lot because we had our subject matter right in front of us. In a way, we "knew" our
subject matter. That made it easy to write about it. The point? If you know your subject, writing
about it will be that much easier. Again, as I've repeated throughout this guide, trust yourself and be
confident.

4.8 The Research Essay -- Reading v. Writing

"The most important thing about research is to know when to stop."
Throughout my undergraduate and graduate school days, I always had the habit of reading too much
and not writing enough. In fact, I usually spent the better part of a research essay reading and the
writing came only at the end, in a brief flourish of mental activity. My M.A. thesis on Godwin was
written in this way. I spent almost two years "doing research," which for me meant reading
everything I could get my hands on. But what about the writing? In my case, I hadn't written a
word! Well, to make a long story short, I was given an ultimatum: my advisor pulled me into his
office and said, in no uncertain terms, either submit the finished thesis in two weeks or no teaching
position next year. So, I went back to my apartment and every evening wrote the thesis. At the end
of a week I had ninety pages and the thing was done!
My Ph.D. dissertation took the same route. Three years of research, including a year in England,
and what did I have? Twenty pounds of 5 x 8 note cards, four notebooks filled with esoterica and a
bibliography a mile long. But where was the dissertation. "It's all in my head," I told my committee.
I ended up writing the magnum opus over a period of six months. 450 pages! I was writing so much
that I couldn't wait to get up the next morning so I could get back to work.
Of course, it didn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way. Instead, you must learn to
say "Enough!" Research must come to an end or else you'll find yourself with one week to go in a
semester and no essay. And that's not a very nice place to be. Why put yourself through so much

torment? Why not just accept that research essays entail two things: research and writing. How's it
done?
Well, for starters, you have to have a firm grasp of your topic, something I've discussed already.
You have to have made an outline of your essay. In this way you'll recognize what needs to be done
as well as what has been done. And, you have to stick to that outline. You can refine it as your
research proceeds, but in general, stick to that outline.
My required Historical Methods class in graduate school was an exercise in absurdity. I learned
nothing. Well, perhaps in deference to the two instructors who had to deal with twenty-five eager
graduate students every Wednesday afternoon for three hours, I did learn something. The first thing
had to do with the necessity of keeping note cards, something I never bothered with as an
undergraduate. The second thing I learned was this: always write while you are engaged in research.
In other words, you have to start writing your essay before you've even completed the research for
it.
Granted, this is a tall order, but think about it. It does make sense! Perhaps you've run across an
interesting quotation that you've "imaged" belongs right at the top of your essay. You see the
quotation standing out on the page. You also intuit the meaning of the quotation as it relates to your
entire enterprise. Well, my friend, rather than simply THINK about it, WRITE about it! I know the
transition is difficult. It means hard work, just like the whole business of researching the research
essay. But you've got to do it. Yes, you've just got to do it.
Here's the first sentence from my Ph.D. dissertation. Guess how long it took me to write it:
The history of the scientific management movement in twentieth century Britain has never been
adequately assessed by historians.
On the one hand, to write that sentence took me all of thirty seconds. On the other hand, in reality,
it took me three years! I sat on my research. I used my research as a crutch, as a way to avoid
writing the dissertation. I procrastinated for a long time. And then I procrastinated a bit more. Again,
it doesn't have to be this way. Take control of the research essay rather than let it control you.
I can only offer you this advice because I never followed it myself. Listen carefully! Don't
procrastinate! Take your work seriously! If you do, then so will your professor. That makes sense,
doesn't it? Do you think your instructor really wants to read page after page of, for lack of a better
expression, words? After all, he's a human being. Why bore him to death? Give him an essay for
which you are proud. And why not? Why not do the best job you can?
So start writing as soon as you are able. Record your thoughts on paper, even if they don't make
any sense. You can always change them at a later date. And please don't think of research as Part 1
and writing as Part 2. That sort of thinking will get you in trouble. Think in terms of the whole
project as a whole project and not as the sum of individual parts. And lastly......

4.9 The Research Essay -- Budgeting Your Time

It pays to have some awareness of your limitations when attempting to write a research essay. So
much depends on so many variables: the number of classes you are taking; the length of the essay;

the number of sources and so on. You also need to "read" your instructor as much as possible. You
need to know what he expects from his students. Demanding instructors demand excellence,
especially when it comes to writing your research essay. So, they will require a minimum of twentyfive pages perhaps, as well as a fairly sophisticated bibliography. Count on at least a dozen sources.
Perhaps more.
Then again, there are other professors who want to see you develop your own interpretative
structure based upon the nature and scope of your research topic. They will perhaps be less mindful
of the need to "pad" the bibliography and more focused on your interpretation and the manner in
which it is developed. And, of course, the whole thing hinges on the nature of your research topic
itself.
Regardless of which type of professor you may have, and there are others besides, it makes sense to
realize that you do need to keep time management in the front of your mind. Poor time management
would be the case if you spent a weekend checking a few sources, writing down some choice
quotations as you move along. The essay is then written over the course of twelve hours and the last
word is typed twenty minutes after the start of the class for which the paper is due. I'm not making
this up. I can't tell you how many students show up late to class on the day a paper (long or short) is
due. When confronted with why they invariably tell me that, "I was in the computer lab printing up
the essay when something went wrong with the printer." No sympathy for this student. Not from me
at least. I always respond with something like, "why didn't you start an hour earlier." They
sometimes miss the humor in that one!
When I began writing my dissertation in earnest I struck upon an ideal compromise. Of course, this
applies to the Ph.D. and M.A. only. I wrote from 7am to 1pm every day. That was it. No more no
less. In other words, I treated writing like a job. Know what happened? I wrote the
dissertation....quickly. Sometimes 10-12 pages per day.
Of course, as an undergraduate or high school student, you definitely don't have that luxury.
Instead, you have contend with other classes and activities, family, perhaps even a job or a hundred
other things. So what do you do?
Set aside a specific block of time every day and work on your research and your writing.
(Remember to do both at the same time.) What could be more simple? Stick to the plan and you
should end up with a well-conceived and well-executed research essay. Of course, if you want to
spend an afternoon or evening, or even an entire day in the library, go right ahead. Just make sure
that what you are doing when you are in the library is real work. You've got more important things
to do with your time anyway, so why not use that time to your best advantage.
The bottom line is this: don't let yourself fall into the trap of trying to research and write a research
essay over the course of one weekend. You will not get a satisfactory grade. Instead, plan your time
carefully over the course of the semester. As soon as you have established your topic and have been
given the green light from your instructor, it's time to think. And all of this ought to be done in the
first few weeks of the term. Think carefully about the subject. Think about things you need to do.
Think about how long it will take you to do those things. And then think about how much time you
have at your disposal. The longer you wait, the more you procrastinate, the more difficult it will be
to write the sort of essay for which you will proud. And wouldn't you much rather write an essay
which gives you pride in your sense of accomplishment rather than one which simply fulfilled the

general requirements of the essay?

Every semester I encounter students who, when they submit their essay to me, say something like,
"It's not very good." I look at them and say, "then why don't you take it home and rewrite it so that
you can give me something good?" That makes them pause for a moment. After all, I would prefer
to read something "finished" rather than a rough draft. So my attitude is this: submit an essay for
which you are proud to attach your name. It makes sense.

4.9 The Research Essay -- Budgeting Your Time

It pays to have some awareness of your limitations when attempting to write a research essay. So
much depends on so many variables: the number of classes you are taking; the length of the essay;
the number of sources and so on. You also need to "read" your instructor as much as possible. You
need to know what he expects from his students. Demanding instructors demand excellence,
especially when it comes to writing your research essay. So, they will require a minimum of twentyfive pages perhaps, as well as a fairly sophisticated bibliography. Count on at least a dozen sources.
Perhaps more.
Then again, there are other professors who want to see you develop your own interpretative
structure based upon the nature and scope of your research topic. They will perhaps be less mindful
of the need to "pad" the bibliography and more focused on your interpretation and the manner in
which it is developed. And, of course, the whole thing hinges on the nature of your research topic
itself.
Regardless of which type of professor you may have, and there are others besides, it makes sense to
realize that you do need to keep time management in the front of your mind. Poor time management
would be the case if you spent a weekend checking a few sources, writing down some choice
quotations as you move along. The essay is then written over the course of twelve hours and the last
word is typed twenty minutes after the start of the class for which the paper is due. I'm not making
this up. I can't tell you how many students show up late to class on the day a paper (long or short) is
due. When confronted with why they invariably tell me that, "I was in the computer lab printing up
the essay when something went wrong with the printer." No sympathy for this student. Not from me
at least. I always respond with something like, "why didn't you start an hour earlier." They
sometimes miss the humor in that one!
When I began writing my dissertation in earnest I struck upon an ideal compromise. Of course, this
applies to the Ph.D. and M.A. only. I wrote from 7am to 1pm every day. That was it. No more no
less. In other words, I treated writing like a job. Know what happened? I wrote the
dissertation....quickly. Sometimes 10-12 pages per day.
Of course, as an undergraduate or high school student, you definitely don't have that luxury.
Instead, you have contend with other classes and activities, family, perhaps even a job or a hundred
other things. So what do you do?
Set aside a specific block of time every day and work on your research and your writing.
(Remember to do both at the same time.) What could be more simple? Stick to the plan and you
should end up with a well-conceived and well-executed research essay. Of course, if you want to

spend an afternoon or evening, or even an entire day in the library, go right ahead. Just make sure
that what you are doing when you are in the library is real work. You've got more important things
to do with your time anyway, so why not use that time to your best advantage.
The bottom line is this: don't let yourself fall into the trap of trying to research and write a research
essay over the course of one weekend. You will not get a satisfactory grade. Instead, plan your time
carefully over the course of the semester. As soon as you have established your topic and have been
given the green light from your instructor, it's time to think. And all of this ought to be done in the
first few weeks of the term. Think carefully about the subject. Think about things you need to do.
Think about how long it will take you to do those things. And then think about how much time you
have at your disposal. The longer you wait, the more you procrastinate, the more difficult it will be
to write the sort of essay for which you will proud. And wouldn't you much rather write an essay
which gives you pride in your sense of accomplishment rather than one which simply fulfilled the
general requirements of the essay?
Every semester I encounter students who, when they submit their essay to me, say something like,
"It's not very good." I look at them and say, "then why don't you take it home and rewrite it so that
you can give me something good?" That makes them pause for a moment. After all, I would prefer
to read something "finished" rather than a rough draft. So my attitude is this: submit an essay for
which you are proud to attach your name. It makes sense.

4.11 The Research Essay -- Footnotes

You should always use footnotes (or endnotes) in order to give the source of facts or opinions which
you have obtained from outside sources. If you quote any author, or document of any kind, you
must specify where the original information can be found. This is necessary for one reason only:
your reader may want to consult the same text or document, for whatever reason, and so you must
specify it. Of course, footnotes may also contain textual material of your own doing. There are times
when you want to make a statement about something but it doesn't quite fit in with your outline.
The best thing to do is to include this information as a textual footnote. In this way, you can still
include the information without taking away from the flow of the essay.
Again, all direct quotations must be footnoted, and there's no escaping that simple fact.
Controversial facts or opinions must also be footnoted. Finally, statements that you make which
support the main points of your essay must also be footnoted.
The number of footnotes to be used in a 20-30 page essay varies from student to student and
subject to subject. If you begin your essay with four or five footnotes per page and then only have
one footnote for the next six pages, then something is amiss. You are probably not documenting
something that does need to be documented. Of course, if you insert a footnote every other
sentence, then you may be overdoing it. One technique I've seen is for students to footnote every
paragraph. In other words, there is a footnote either at the beginning or end of the paragraph. This
technique is only proper if and only if the note refers to the information in the paragraph as a whole.
There is, of course, no set number of footnotes to be utilized in each and every research essay you
may be called upon to write. The number of footnotes will ultimately depend on the nature of your
subject. However, for those of you who like numbers, a twenty-five page research essay could

contain anywhere between 20 and 75 footnotes. Again, it all depends on the subject.
Should you use footnotes or endnotes? Your decision depends on the stylistic format established by
your instructor. There's nothing wrong with endnotes. In fact, they make for an easier read because
your reader's eyes are not constantly shifting between the text and the bottom of the page. Of
course, flipping between pages of text and pages of endnotes is tiring as well. The bottom line is this:
use what your professor prefers. And remember the cardinal rule: whatever style you have been
asked to use, stick to it. Consistency is everything.
The footnote number, in superscript, should be placed at the end of the sentence or quotation.
There will come a time, however, when you need to insert two notes within the same sentence. This
is perfectly acceptable practice. It all depends on the nature of the thing being footnoted. It goes
without saying that your footnotes must be numbered consecutively from beginning to end. Such a
task is made easy with a word processor. Remove or add a footnote (or even 12!) and your
numbering is adjusted automatically.
The proper format of the footnote should follow the style manual (Turabian, MLA, Chicago, APA)
which your instructor suggests you use. If he does not specify a style manual, then obtain one at
your library or at the bookstore and keep it near you as you type up the final draft. Again, remember
to maintain consistency.

.1 Final Thoughts -- About Your Instructor

It goes without saying that your instructor is a human being and ought to be treated as such. This
much said, you will find that the majority of your instructors, for one reason or another, do not fit
this description. They seem to have other things on their mind---departmental meetings, the publish
or perish mental framework, the fact that they have to teach three courses per semester, personal
problems. The list goes on and on. In other words, these professors do not want you to know that
they are human beings. For many instructors, students are little more than a hindrance to their more
important work, the work which gets them noticed and hopefully, a job at a more prestigious
university. These instructors are not bad sorts of people. They just seem to have forgotten what
teaching history is all about. It's just my opinion.
I've got to admit, in four years as an undergraduate and five in graduate school (a total of 70 classes
with perhaps 40 professors), I probably encountered no more than a handful of professors who
really cared about their students. These are the special instructors, the ones who change the lives of
their students. They're not teaching for the prestige or the money (God forbid!). Rather, they teach
because they love to teach. And that, for me, is what makes a good professor.
Let's look at just a few examples.
Scenario 1: You walk into your Western Civilization I class and there might be three hundred
people in the room. The professor stands rigid, hiding behind the podium. He reads his lectures
automatically, no weight given to one thing or another. He's just going through the motions. He
needs to complete a task oblivious to the fact that the task might have some intrinsic merit. You
leave the room 90 minutes later having slept, doodled and learned nothing. You attend the section
meeting with your teaching assistant and 30 of your classmates and find that your TA seems to care

more about your understanding of the material. (Of course, there are lousy TAs as well.)
Scenario 2: Same class, different professor. The professor is animated, energetic, interested and
interesting. After all, it's his job not only to teach Western Civilization but also to captivate a
decidedly large audience. He lectures about his topic but he also talks to you. He catches your eye,
even way up there in the 12th row. He sees you. A bond is formed. You trust him. He accepts you
as a student, his student, and it's his job to educate you, to stimulate you and force you to think.
You go to your section meeting with a different attitude, you can't wait to go and discuss ideas. A
much better experience overall.
Scenario 3: You are enrolled in a class called A History of Modern Russia. There are fifteen people
in the class. It's the first day of school. Your instructor walks in, glancing at no one. He stops at the
board and writes feverishly for ten minutes. The political structure of the Soviet Communist Party,
c.1960. He stops, walks to the lectern and begins a lengthy discourse on the sad state of university
education. Students are ill-prepared to tackle such a difficult course. He then goes on to enumerate
the fundamentals of the course. One unexcused absence and you lose a half a grade. Papers must be
on time or else lose another half a grade. He sets the tone of the class for the duration. At the end of
the period, he has his notes neatly packed away and leaves the room as quickly as he had entered it.
The next class meeting, there are only seven people in attendance.
Scenario 4: Same class. A different professor. He smiles as he walks in the room, disarming those
with any fears. He explains the objective of the course, hands out the syllabi and asks questions. He
listens. He tells the class something about himself. He's human, after all. The class will be difficult,
probably more difficult than any other class you've ever taken. But, let's have fun. Let's learn. Let's
learn to think and challenge our own ideas. After all, is the history of twentieth century
Russia THAT important? In the big picture, that is? No, the most important thing to learn is not the
"stuff" of history, but something about ourselves. Self-improvement is what this professor is after.
Self-improvement of the student and the professor.
Okay, four scenarios. There are others, of course. My point is that it is the instructor who takes the
time to know his students who usually ends up with a better class, a better class defined as one in
which students learn more and have a better time learning overall. In a word, the professor will
make or break your experience in the history classroom. You have to help as well. Take part in
discussions, come to class prepared, ask questions and treat everyone in the room, your professor
included, as intellectual equals.
You see, it's all a question of the proper attitude. Classes only "work" when everyone approaches
the material with the proper attitude. Since education is nothing more than a dialogue between the
instructor and the instructed, then all those concerned must be prepared and willing to engage in the
wonderful process of self-improvement.

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