A Short Guide to Writing About History

An ideal complement for any history course, A Short Guide to Writing About History stresses thinking and writing like an historian. This engaging and practical text helps students get beyond merely compiling dates and facts; it teaches them how to incorporate their own ideas into their papers and to tell a story about history that interests them and their peers. Covering brief essays and the documented resource paper, the text explores the writing and researching processes, different modes of historical writing (including argument), and offers guidelines for improving style as well as documenting sources.

A Short Guide to Writing About History
Richard A. Marius (late) • Melvin E. Page

History is a story of events. A Short Guide to Writing About History helps students move beyond merely compiling dates and facts and teaches them how to express their ideas about history into their own story.

The principle of training students to think and write like an historian set forth by Richard Marius continues as A Short Guide to Writing About History remains the premier writing resource for all history students. Maintaining the exploration of the writing and researching processes, illustrations of the different modes of historical writing, and guidelines for improving style, the Sixth Edition has been augmented to address the key issues facing today’s writer, with expanded coverage of technology and writing.

Changes to the sixth edition

• The sixth edition includes greater coverage devoted to the avoiding plagiarism.
• Complementing the "Writing in an Electronic Age" chapter, the key issues of using technology are now addressed throughout the text.
• Discussion of evaluating sources for writing has also been expanded throughout the sixth edition.