Writing in History

Body of the Paper (continued)

A) Assemble as much information as you can before you begin writing. If you write a page or two, then assemble more evidence, then write some more, and so on, your paper may turn out choppy and hard to follow.

B) Write several drafts of your paper. The first draft is your first effort--not the version that you turn in. Faculty members can almost always tell when students write one draft and turn it in...and they typically assign lower grades to those essays. Take the evidence you have assembled and write what you want to say. Now that you have a first draft, begin improving upon what you have written. Every paper can be improved. Is your paper too long? Is it too short? Are parts of it very clear and others very difficult to follow?

Two good methods for finding problems in your paper are to ask a friend to read it and, without having them rewrite it for you, point out the sections that are hard to follow. Also, try reading your essay out loud to yourself. If you have trouble reading parts of it out loud, it is very likely that what you have written is unclear or too wordy. If you cannot read a sentence without stopping to take a breath, that sentence should probably be broken up into two or even three shorter sentences.

C) Spelling and grammar mistakes make it difficult for the reader to pay attention to your argument. When a paper contains many of these sorts of errors, the reader spends all of his or her time correcting your writing rather than assessing the effectiveness of your analysis. Do not let your computer do the editing for you! Microsoft Word's grammar checker contains several common grammatical errors that may count against you. There is no substitute for careful proofreading. Careless editing of your essays almost always will be reflected in your grade.

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