Guide to Writing Essays

Necessary Requirements for All History Essays

Please note: students who require help with their writing should seek the services of the Student Success Centre for assistance.

1. A minimum of five sources (books, articles) are required (with the exception of book review essays).
2. The topic and aspects to be examined must be indicated in the first paragraph of the essay. This is the essay plan and must guide the rest of the paper. Not to follow the plan makes your paper illogical, disunified, and incoherent.
3. Emphasis on the reasons and the impact of events, policies, personal actions, states of mind, etc., is required and not just an encyclopaedic-like presentation of details.
4. Students should normally have three footnotes or endnotes on average for each page of text. All direct quotations, statistics, significant data, arguments and judgements deriving from an author must be footnoted/endnoted. Such citation establishes the authority of your work and acknowledges indebtedness.
5. Online sources are prohibited with the following exceptions: a) a secondary source which is accessed through a fulltext academic database such as ProQuest and originates from a refereed academic journal; or b) a primary source on a website which you have been directed to by your professor. Students are never to use Wikipedia as a source for an essay.
6. Plagiarism is a word for word copying of phrases, a sentence or sentences. Borrowed, purchased, ghostwritten or previously submitted essays/assignments also constitute plagiarism. These offences are punishable with a grade of zero. (See Academic Calendar, Section 3.9).

7. For a more detailed guide to writing a history essay the department recommends that you consult: William Kelleher Storey and Towser Jones, Writing History: A Guide for Canadians, Cdn ed., available at the Angus L. MacDonald Library.

8. Always be sure to read carefully the guidelines for each assignment to ensure that you are fulfilling the specific requirements stipulated by your professor.

Citation Procedures

1.  Do not use the bracketed citation method with the text of your essay.
2. A book is footnoted/endnoted as follows:
   Colin D. Howell, Northern Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1995), 3-6.
   For consecutive footnote/endnote citations from the same source:
   Ibid., 32.
   For footnote/endnote citations from the same source that are dispersed throughout your essay:
   Howell, Northern Sandlots, 32.
3. A journal article or newspaper article is footnoted/endnoted as follows:F.M.L. Thompson, "Social Control in Victorian Britain," Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 34 (1981): 189.
   Subsequent citations of the article are footnoted/endnoted as follows:
   Thompson, "Social Control," 201-02.
4. An essay in a volume of essays is footnoted/endnoted as follows:
   P. Brierly, "Religion," in Social Trends in Britain Since 1900, ed. A. H. Hasley (London, Blackwell, 1988), 56.
5. An online (electronic) source is footnoted/endnoted as follows:
   National Library of Canada, North: Landscape of the Imagination (1996), http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/north/norint-e.htm (accessed February 18, 2000).
6. A CD-ROM source is footnoted/endnoted as follows:
   N. Jaye Goossen, "Indian Trade Silver: A Cultural Exchange," Canada's Visual History (Ottawa: National Film Board, 1996), CD-ROM.
7. For footnote/endnote formats in other sources, see The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003) in Angus L. MacDonald Reference Collection — Z253.U69 and can be accessed online.
8. A bibliography is mandatory. Bibliographic citations place the author's surname first and entries are to be listed in alphabetical order. City, publisher, and date are not in brackets. Periods generally replace commas. See sample format for a bibliography below.

Bibliography

Brierly, P. "Religion." In Social Trends in Britain Since 1900 edited by A.H. Hasley. London: Blackwell, 1988.

Goossen, N. Jaye. "Indian Trade Silver: A Cultural Exchange." Canada's Visual History. Ottawa: National Film Board, 1996. CD-ROM.

Howell, Colin D. Northern Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.

National Library of Canada. North: Landscape of the Imagination. 1997. http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/north/norint-e.htm (accessed February 18, 2000).

Thompson, F.M.L. "Social Control in Victorian Britain," Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 34 (1981): 185-189.

Other notes:

Underline or use italics for books and titles of journals. The title of a journal article is not to be underlined. Each part of an entry footnote/endnote or bibliography should end with a period.