A Short Guide to Writing about History

by Richard Marius and Melvin E. Page

Book Overview

A "must have" for students taking any history course that requires writing,A Short Guide to Writing About History stresses thinking and writing like a historian. Writing essays, resource papers,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321227166
• ISBN13: 9780321227164
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Longman Publishing Group
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Extremely helpful book

Marius has written an extremely readable and informative book on the writing of history. He proceeds from showing readers what questions to ask in doing historical research into types of historical writing can be done, from discriptive to argumentitive. However, the most useful part of the book is the chapter on sources and writing. He skillfully shows readers how to choose a topic and narrow their focus into a managable paper. He also discusses the use of CD-Rom and Internet sources, a necessity for any good book on the writing of history in the early 21st century, particularly due to the increase in the reliance on Internet research by college undergraduates and HS students that are comfortable with this technology. The book also makes actually doing research seem like not such a daunting scary task, which at first thought it seems like for many undergraduates. The one problem with this section is that Marius advocates the use of paper notes. As has been seen with many professional academic historians lately, the use of paper notes can end up costing the writer dearly, particularly with the use of a large amount of sources. Marius should have included a section on how to use a data base or other computerized note taking system. Marius also uses many examples to back up his points throughout the book, even publishing one complete paper and then commenting on its strengths and weaknesses in order to give the reader a better understanding. The remainder of the book is an extremely useful three chapters on writing mechanics as well as quoting and citing a variety of sources. I found the section on footnotes quite good and useful. This section will be especially useful for the undergraduate who arrives on campus without ever having to use footnotes while in high school. Overall, this is an outstanding book. The only real drawback is that since its publication (3rd edition) the sections on the Internet are in many ways obsolete. But with the ever changing technology and things available on the Internet, both good and bad, no book can keep up.

Helpful Resource on Historography

History prof recommended this for help in writing research papers in history department.Compact and inspirational, the author makes his points by way of examples and citations from historians. Passionate about his subject area, he communicates this well and infuses it into his observations and recommendations for writing about historical topics.While the jury is still out on my first paper to utilize this resource, I already know I am a better writer of history for having utilized this fine resource. Just the idea of grabbing your reader and making him want to read the rest was useful.

A Superb Guide

Richard Marius gives us in this short book an enthusiasm for the pursuit of the past that is simply infectious. Although the work is not an in-depth study of Historiography, it is a great introduction to the would be Historian on the very basic rules of researching and composing a paper on any historical subject.

concise and informative

This book is very useful not only for the preparation of historical papers but for any research paper. Especially useful are the sections devoted to conventions about mechanics and grammar and suggestions about style. Also included are outlines for the proper construction of arguments and details addressing the modes of expression used in writing. I bought this book for a history seminar in as an undergrad and have found it helpful to me ever since as a technical guide to the proper way of writing. Highly recommended.

extremely helpful

Marius has written a concise guide to the basics of writing. Not only for history students, all those needing to write a report will gain from this book