History Style Sheet

Historical writing integrates personal analysis informed by research gathered from a wide range of sources. History papers use footnote citations as well as bibliographies to cite the sources used for interpreting and analyzing the past.

Students writing history papers must use footnotes to indicate the source of any direct quotation or the paraphrasing of another person's ideas or research. It is also important to use footnotes to indicate the source of any information that is not considered common knowledge. Footnotes (or endnotes) for history papers MUST follow formats outlined in The Chicago Manual of Style or Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.

Footnotes have four main purposes:
a) to cite the authority for statements in text--specific facts or opinions as well as exact quotations
b) to make cross-references
c) to make incidental comments on, to amplify, or to qualify a textual discussion--in short, to provide a place for material the writer deems worthwhile to include but that might interrupt the flow of thought if introduced into the text
d) to make acknowledgement.

A useful online guide for footnote formatting is The Historical Crib Sheet available at: http://www.docstyles.com/cmscrib.htm

You must be logged into the UMBC campus network (on campus) or the UMBC Library's Research Port to have full access to the following website: http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/research/chic.php

Information about identifying research sources in history is available through the UMBC Library's "Research Guide for History" http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/subjectguides/HISTGEN-SG/index.php

Tips for Writing a Good Book Review

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES

Primary sources are generally defined as documents or other materials created the time period being studied or as close as possible to that era. Memoirs might also be considered a primary source if compiled by a participant in the orignal event events being studied.

A secondary source includes works written by someone intrepreting an historical event or phenomenon. Secondary sources analyze research done in primary and secondary sources. Examples include scholarly books and articles as well as reference books such as subject encyclopedias.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOOTNOTES AND ENDNOTES

Footnotes and Endnotes serve the same purpose and follow the same format. Only the location is different. Footnotes appear at the bottom of each page, on the same page as the referenced superscript number. Endnotes appear at the end of the narrative text. Endnotes are organized in numerical order from lowest to highest. Papers should use footnotes or endnotes, but never both. Pay close attention to order and format for footnotes and endnote citations: http://www.docstyles.com/cmscrib.htm#Note12

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Research papers should always include a bibliography following Chicago Manual of Styleor Turabian format. Bibliographies should include all primary and secondary sources consulted for a research paper; not just those included in footnotes.

HISTORIOGRAPHY

Historiography constitutes the body of writing on how historians have written about the past. It is an analysis of the interpretive themes and methodologies used to write about history and how those may have changed over time.

OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES:

UMBC Library website on plagiarism http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/informationliteracy/plagiarism.php

"Plagiarism and How to Recognize It" http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets.shtml

"A Guide to Writing Good Book Reviews" http://www.umbc.edu/history/writingbookreviews.html