All students who have not written a college essay before must meet with me.
You must turn in an outline & bibliography.
For all papers:
1) You are expected to turn out essays that are held to a higher standard than in-class essay exams. No misspellings or mistakes in basic grammar, no sentence fragments, no run-on sentences, no pronouns (unless you are quoting others), and no contractions should be in any academic essay.
2) Be as clear, concise, and thorough as you can in your writing style. Try to find your own voice. Do not quote
more than absolutely necessary.
3) Write to express, not impress. While you should strive to be eloquent, do not overwrite. Simpler is usually better and clearer.
4) Have a strong thesis (argument), state it clearly at the outset, & argue it well throughout using thoughtful analysis and evidence. You should develop themes in your paper. See Marius or my own themes for the course on the syllabus for examples.
5) No padding with tricks with margins or font size, etc. Such attempts only predispose the grader to think you have written a terrible paper.
6) Citing correctly can be difficult, even for professional historians. I do not take off for citing incorrectly, as long as you make an effort to always cite when you quote others, either directly or indirectly.
If in doubt, use Marius as a guide for all these papers.
7) 3-4 pgs means 4 full pages, not 3 pages & 1 sentence on the 4th pg. Bibliography does not count as part of the 4 pages. No cover pages.
8) You need a minimum of five good sources. One must be a primary source. Sending in essays by email preferred. Due before class on the due date.
