Writing

the
History Paper
A report by Meg Y. Di
FACTS INTO EVIDENCE
vs
EVIDENCE INTO
ARGUMENTS
To the novice, facts will simply seem to be facts. But facts
do not exist in a vacuum.

One does not gather facts and expect them to speak for
themselves. Rather, facts create different meanings
depending on what we do with them.

One must gather one's facts and then go through the

process of interpreting them.
Kinds of History Paper
 Primary sources are materials
that are from the time period
1. Essay that work that you are discussing. Essays

with Primary that work with primary sources

often attempt to reconstruct a
Sources historical event, using various
sources to argue for a particular
interpretation or
understanding.
 Secondary sources are those that
2. Essays that were written after the time period
that you are studying and attempt to
work with analyze that time period in some
way. When writing an analysis (or a
Secondary synthesis) using secondary sources,

Sources. you will sort through various

historical sources, compare their
differences, and then write an essay
that supports or challenges these
interpretations of past events.
 These are sometimes asked
by professors of History.
When writing in such genres,
3. Paper in genres you need to consider writing
like biography, conventions that are
applicable in the genre of
intellectual history, your choice. Otherwise, your
political history and professor will give
guideposts in writing it.
the like.