Papers must be typed and double spaced. Use a standard font, such as 12 point Times. Paper margins should be 1 inch on each side. Number each page after the first. Staple the pages together. No title page is necessary. In the upper left-hand corner, type your name, the class and section number, the instructor's name, and the date. Center your title on the next line. A title page is optional. Please do not use plastic covers or binders. Always keep a copy of your paper.
Incorporate brief quotations into the body of your text. They should conform grammatically to your sentence. Use brackets to mark an insertion or a change in the original text. For longer quotations&emdash;four typed lines of prose or three of poetry&emdash;use a block quotation. That is, indent and single space the quotation. Do not enclose a block quotation in quotation marks. If you leave out a part of a sentence, use an ellipsis (a set of three period [É]) to signal that something has been left out. If you want to skip from a passage in a sentence to one that occurs in a later sentence, use a period immediately before the ellipsis (.É).
Use quotations with care. You must have a good reason for quoting a passage. If you want to make a simple point, paraphrase. Don't use quotations without explaining them. In general, it's always best to end a paragraph with your own ideas, not with a quotation. Remember, it is your words and ideas that we are most interested in.
The purpose of correct citation is to enable the reader to go to the source, to see that it actually says what you claim it says. You do this with a parenthetical citation, a footnote, or an endnote. Generally, historians prefer footnotes or endnotes, but I will be happy with any of these, so long as your citation leads me easily to your source.
Footnotes or endnotes are marked in the text with a superscript numeral. Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page on which the reference occurs. Endnotes appear on a separate page at the end of your paper. In either case, your notes should be single-spaced, with an additional line between each note. Here is a sample footnote. Note that you can also use footnotes to define a term, or to explain a point that doesn't belong in the text of the paper itself.
To use a parenthetical reference, you give the author's name, a short title, and the page number in parentheses. At the end of your paper, you include a bibliography which will guide your reader to the edition you are using. An example: (Sieyès, "What is the Third Estate," 27).
Footnotes, endnotes and bibliography should include complete bibliographical information and the page number to which you are referring. If your paper includes a number of quotations from one particular source, give a full citation the first time you quote it; after that, you can just give the page number in parentheses, in the text. Please don't refer to the coursepack by its page number; refer to the selection within the coursepack, with the page number from the selection. If you are referring to a work (and the very same edition) that is required for the course, you are not obliged to give the full information. The author's name, a short title, and the page number will be enough to lead me to your source.
Further information on reference styles can be found in any guide to writing.
If you use the words or the ideas of another without attribution, if you copy, quote, or paraphrase (dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, books, introductions, study guides, other student's papers, etc.) without proper and explicit citation, you are committing the capital crime of plagiarism. This is academic dishonesty of the highest order. It includes: 1) turning in another's work as your own; 2) use of someone else's words (a paragraph, a sentence, even a phrase) without quotation marks around them; 3) use of someone else's ideas (their discoveries, their original interpretations, even when paraphrased or modified) without proper and explicit citation. If you plagiarize, you will receive an "E" for the course.
A few reference books are essential for any writer. A good dictionary is the first, of course. I'd also recommend a general guide to grammar, style, and research. If I tell you that you that you need to work on paragraph development, for example, a writing guide will give you a place to go for a few guidelines and examples. Two I like very much are: The Little, Brown Handbook and Diana Hacker, A Writer's Reference. These will also give you further guidelines for paper format. I find it useful to have a general encyclopedia near at hand to answer straightforward questions (did Aeschylus write before Sophocles? What were the Eleusinian Mysteries?). I like the Concise Columbia Encyclopedia. There is also Grolier's Encyclopedia, on-line at the digital library, http://www.lib.umich.edu/refshelf/. A thesaurus can be helpful when you don't know the precise word you are looking for, though it should always lead you back to the dictionary.
Students often ask how a paper is graded. The explanation of grading here comes from standards developed for Advanced Placement exams and is called a "grading rubric." It outlines basic elements of a good paper, and attaches grades to them. It is a pretty good overview of what I look for in papers.
I would add a few words to this: I reserve an "A" grade for superlative essays. An "A" paper meets the following criteria: it presents a highly original argument; it takes intellectual risks, undermining standard assumptions about the topic; it works closely with the sources to demonstrate a fresh approach to the topic at hand; and it moves the reader by the force of its ideas and the beauty of its prose.
Here is my usual line on the B paper: Typically, such an essay provides a convincing discussion of the topic, with careful analysis of the sources, separating the different strands of the argument and explaining how those strands relate to and support each other.
Shows obviously minimal lack of effort or comprehension of the assignment. Very difficult to understand owing to major problems with mechanics, structure, and analysis. Has no identifiable thesis, or utterly incompetent thesis.
(Grading guidelines adapted from an internet post by Patrick Rael <prael@polar.bowdoin.edu>, "Re: what to say to students", [H-Teach@msu.net], 2 April 1996 and from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/rubric.html, 30 December, 1999).