A Pocket Guide to Writing in History by Mary Rampolla - Tenth Edition, 2021 from Macmillan Student Store
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A Pocket Guide to Writing in History

Tenth Edition ©2021 Mary Rampolla

A Pocket Guide to Writing in History is the concise, trusted, and easy-to-use guide for the writing and research skills needed in undergraduate history courses. Thoroughly updated to include strategies for making useful outlines and organizing a paper, the tenth edition ensures that student...
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ISBN:9781319282257

ISBN:9781319244415

A Pocket Guide to Writing in History by Mary Rampolla - Tenth Edition, 2021 from Macmillan Student Store

The trusted guide for writing and research skills in history courses.

A Pocket Guide to Writing in History is the concise, trusted, and easy-to-use guide for the writing and research skills needed in undergraduate history courses. Thoroughly updated to include strategies for making useful outlines and organizing a paper, the tenth edition ensures that students have the most up-to-date advice and ample instruction for writing a research paper for their history class.

Features

Updated for The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition. This tenth edition has been wholly updated to reflect the new Chicago style guidelines released in 2017.

All the advice students need for writing and researching in any history course. This slim resource offers helpful strategies for working with written and non-written sources, approaching typical assignments, writing effective papers, following stylistic conventions, conducting research, documenting sources, and avoiding plagiarism.

Student-friendly tips and examples. "Tips for Writers" boxes, covering such topics as evaluating sources and crafting a thesis, highlight the most important information for students in quick-reference checklists. Plentiful examples – including sample assignments and sample pages from a research paper – illustrate each step of the research and writing process.


Thorough advice on avoiding plagiarism and documenting sources. Clear guidelines and examples help students determine what constitutes plagiarism and correctly paraphrase sources. Annotated documentation models and visual citation guides based on the Chicago Manual of Style demonstrate how to cite print, electronic, and non-written sources.

New to This Edition

Updated Chapter 4 providing more comprehensive advice for writing papers and outlines. In response to requests from instructors, this new coverage provides students with advice on how to develop a useful outline, organize a paper, and prepare for a productive session with a writing tutor.

New section on writing literature reviews. This new section walks students through the steps of writing a literature review, and how this process differs from writing a historiographic essay.

Updated for The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition. All documentation models and instructions have been updated according to the new Chicago style guidelines. New models providing guidance for citing Canadian legal and public sources have also been added to the book.

"In a concise number of pages Rampolla thoroughly discusses the fundamental writing skills that undergrads need to know before embarking on writing history papers. What sets Rampolla’s work apart is that her slim volume presents this material in a readable, engaging and entertaining way."
– Linda Thorne, Columbia College of Missouri

"Rampolla’s Pocket Guide is an accessible, well-organized book that demystifies the field of history and how students can develop their historical research, writing, and thinking skills. The book is invaluable for first year students looking to succeed at history in university"
– Rhonda Hinther, Brandon University


"This is a short book but it provides an excellent and fairly comprehensive overview of how to be a successful history student. The writing is lively, the examples are on point, and the information is up to date. My students prefer it over others because of its length and cost. It’s small but it packs a big punch!"
– Jeffrey Hardy, Brigham Young University

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction: Why Study History

1a Asking historical questions

1b Developing historical reading skills

2 Working with Sources

2a Identifying historical sources

2a-1 Primary sources

2a-2 Secondary sources

2a-3 Primary or secondary? The changing status of a source

2a-4 Accessing sources in history

2a-5 Uses of primary and secondary sources

2b Evaluating sources

Tips for Writers: Questions for Evaluating Text-Based Primary Sources

2b-1 Evaluating primary sources

Tips for Writers: Questions for Evaluating Nonwritten Primary Sources

2b-2 Evaluating secondary sources

Tips for Writers: Questions for Evaluating Secondary Sources

2b-3 Evaluating online sources

2b-4 Identifying fake news

Tips for Writers: Questions for Evaluating Websites

3 Writing Short History Assignments

3a Reading actively in history

Tips for Writers: Writing as You Read

3b Writing about reading

3b-1 Summaries

3b-2 Annotated bibliographies

3c Writing about primary sources

3c-1 Single-source analysis

3c-2 Comparative papers

Tips for Writers: Writing a Comparative Essay

3d Writing about secondary sources

3d-1 Critiques and book reviews

3d-2 Comparing secondary sources

3e Writing about film

3f Taking history exams

3f-1 Preparing for an exam

3f-2 Answering identification questions

3f-3 Taking an essay exam

4 Following Conventions of Writing in History

4a Approaching a history assignment

4b Thinking like a historian

4c Developing a thesis

4d Constructing an argument

Tips for Writers: Testing your Thesis

4d-1 Supporting your thesis

4d-2 Responding to counterevidence and anticipating opposing viewpoints

4e Drafting your paper

4e-1 Drafting an introduction

4e-2 Organizing your paper

4e-3 Writing clear and connected paragraphs

4e-4 Writing an effective conclusion

4f Revising for content and organization

Tips for Writers: Revising for Content and Organization

4g Editing for style and grammar

Tips for Writers: Common Grammatical Errors (and How to Avoid Them)

4g-1 Choosing appropriate language

4g-2 Choosing the appropriate tense

4g-3 Using active voice

4g-4 Knowing when to use the pronouns I, me, and you

5 Writing a Research Paper

5a Moving from topic to research question

5a-1 Choosing a topic

5a-2 Focusing on a research question

5b Developing a research plan

5c Conducting research

5c-1 Consulting human resources

5c-2 Using a library’s online catalog

5c-3 Using print and electronic reference sources

5c-4 Locating primary sources

5c-5 Locating secondary sources

5c-6 Finding internet sources

Tips for Writers: Electronic Databases

5c-7 Distinguishing among electronic sources

5d Taking effective research notes

5e Developing a working thesis

5f Making an outline

5g Revising and editing your paper

6 Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Avoid It

6a What is plagiarism?

6b Avoiding plagiarism

6b-1 Citing sources to avoid plagiarism

6b-2 Paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism

Tips for Writers: Avoiding Plagiarism

6b-3 Downloading internet sources carefully to avoid plagiarism

6c Plagiarism and the internet

7 Quoting and Documenting Sources

7a Using quotations

7a-1 When to quote

7a-2 How to quote

7b Documenting sources

7b-1 Footnotes and endnotes

7b-2 Bibliography

7b-3 Documenting nonwritten materials

7c Documentation models

7c-1 Formatting guidelines for footnotes and endnotes

7c-2 Formatting guidelines for bibliographies

7c-3 Models for notes and bibliography entries

7d Sample pages from a student research paper

Mary Lynn Rampolla

Mary Lynn Rampolla (PhD, University of Toronto) is associate professor of history at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C.. Her scholarly work focuses on medieval and early modern Europe. She is active in the fields of history and composition and frequently presents papers at the annual International Medieval Congress at the University of Western Michigan.