Shaping your Argument

Making an academic argument doesn’t mean being argumentative in the everyday sense of the word, and for most essays (certainly those that aren’t research-based), your argument doesn’t have to be novel. A historical argument articulates a relationship between things in the past. Examples include asserting a causal connection or the relative significance of a connection, complicating a current understanding, or addressing a gap (between reality and perception, for example).

Your argument can take into account some or many of the following: individual or institutional actors, economy, culture, environment, politics (and war), and geography. Differences in emphasis on these historical factors constitute sub-disciplines of history. In advanced courses, the course title and description, as well as the types of historical arguments presented by your professor and course materials, should signal what sub-discipline you are taking part in.

Scope: If you think there is too much to address or you find that you only have room for generalities in your argument, consider whether your topic needs to be narrowed further. You can always mention other important aspects of the topic in your introduction, state that you will be focusing on one, and explain why.

Analysis vs. summary and description: A good argument needs to be precise. It should answer not only who, what, when and where, but also why and how. Without addressing why and how, you will likely find yourself writing summary rather than argument. Although it is important to tell a story clearly and coherently, what makes a history paper interesting is its analysis of events: the why and the how and their significance. Analysis should be backed by and refer to sources, but should present your own original view of them. Go back through your paper and ask yourself: “Am I explaining the significance of everything I’ve brought up?” “Is it clear what this information adds to my argument?” Make sure your answer to these questions is an unequivocal “yes.”

Close Reading

Before starting an essay, look back to the reading assignments that led up to it. When reading and taking notes, it is useful to create a document that can serve as a source of quotations for your paper, so that you are not constantly hunting down quotations while writing. This will also help prevent you from skimming, allowing you to engage with the material and gain a deeper understanding of what you are working with.

Keeping the prompt close at hand, either perform the required reading or, if you’re already familiar with the material, skim through it. As you read, look for text or content that seems pertinent to your prompt. Notate these sections and directly record quotes and segments that “jump out at you.” Clearly delineate where these quotes come from, recording page numbers and organizing them by author.

While it is better to be over-prepared and have too many quotes than it is to have too few, make sure that you’re not just notating every piece of text that seems “important.” Ensure that what you’re recording is pertinent to your prompt, as this will save considerable time and effort.

As you read, keep your mind open. If you already have a thesis, don’t be afraid to change it. Neither stretch evidence to support your argument nor cherry-pick it; it will be obvious to your audience if you do, and it will undermine your paper. By the time you have finished all the requisite reading and taken careful notes related to your topic, you should have a better understanding of the topic, a ready source of quotes, and the ability to assemble a preliminary bibliography.

Forming an Outline

After the reading is finished and you’ve created a document full of quotes, you are ready to form an outline. It is generally wise to keep this outline separate from your quotations; by doing so, you will reduce clutter, and have a ready source of quotes that you can copy and paste from. You will be able to trim these quotes down and paraphrase them within your outline while maintaining reference copies in the document you assembled while reading.

Generally, the first step to creating an outline is writing a thesis. By this point, if you haven’t written one already, you should be comfortable doing so. It does not need to be perfect at this point—just make sure that it answers the prompt that you have been provided with. It is perfectly normal to tweak your thesis as you work and develop further drafts. If you are unable to develop even a working thesis, consider taking the time to discuss the material with your professor.

After writing down your thesis, devise general subjects or topic sentences for each paragraph. Each one of these should carry some direct relation to your thesis. These do NOT need to be written in heavily academic prose. Instead, write anything that properly articulates your argument and can be interpreted by you, the writer. The purpose of an outline is generally to lay the general framework of your argument and paper; proper “audience-oriented” language can be developed later. For some, it may be helpful to take the quotations you’ve recorded and sort them by relevancy under these topic sentences/paragraphs.

Finally, don’t be afraid of developing your own style for writing. Not everyone writes or thinks the same way. Feel free to use or ignore parts of this guide as you see fit. Any approach to writing that results in a quality, non-plagiarized paper is one that works.