A good history essay uses scholarly sources to tell a story about a sharply focused topic.
By the time you have written a draft of your research essay, it is anticipated that there may be some shifts in your research focus from its initial presentation in the essay proposal. This is fine, and this is why the initial assignment is regarded as a working proposal with a working bibliography appended to it.
The production of historical scholarship entails using good rhetorical skills so that your reader will trust you and will follow your discussion happily. Ideas are best expressed straightforwardly. In writing a history essay, it’s good to assume an intelligent but non-specialist readership as you think about how to present ideas and explain concepts:
Clearly written prose is important because you want your reader to be able to follow the flow of your discussion easily.
Offer definitions of terms, especially if your essay introduces big concepts or technical ideas.
Use dates as reference points. For all the obvious reasons, dates are important for work in history.
If your research essay is going to focus on change over time with respect to a particular subject, it’s conventional to present the discussion of serial events or developments in chronological order from the earliest to the most recent.
Beware of shifting verb tenses within a single paragraph, and remember to proofread for syntax, punctuation, and spelling errors in your final essay draft.
There is an entire online research universe available to you just one tab over from the screen you’re reading right now. Make use of the scholarly resources available via the internet in support of your studies in our course. In any case, the two ‘proposal + research essay’ assignments entail working mostly with the printed primary sources that appear in our course sourcebook and supporting this discussion with the secondary sources presented in our course textbook. Note, however you are required to use at least one additional source beyond the sourcebook and texts.
closing of the Middle Ages. http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/bockhome.html
Coulton, G. G. (1931). Life in the Middle Ages. Volume III. Cambridge University Press.
Crossley Holland, K. (1995). Medieval gardens: A book of days. CLB Publishing Ltd. For Past Times.
Crowfoot, E., Pritchard, F., & Staniland, K. (1992). Textiles and closing, c.1150-1450: Finds from medieval excavations in London. Boydell Press.
Klapisch-Zuber, C. (Ed.). (1992). A history of women in the West. Volume 2: Silences of the Middle Ages (A. Goldhammer, Trans.). Belknap.
Mason, E. (Trans.). (1910). Aucassin and Nicolette and other mediaeval romances and legends. Dutton.
McCann, C. (2010). Transgressing the boundaries of holiness: Sexual deviance in the Early Medieval Penitential Handbooks of Ireland, England and France 500-1000. https://scholarship.shu.edu/theses/76/
McKay, A., (1977). Spain in the Middle Ages from Frontier to Empire, 1000-1500. Macmillan Press.
McNamara, J., Halborg, J.E., & Whatley, E.G. (Eds. & Trans.). (1992). Sainted women of the Dark Ages. Duke University Press.
Mount, T. (2014). The medieval housewife: & other women of the Middle Ages. Amberley.
Noffke, S. (Trans.). (1988). The letters of Catherine of Siena. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 52.
Piponnier, F. & Mane, P. (1997). Dress in the Middle Ages (C. Beamish, Trans.). Yale University Press.
Radice, B. (Trans.). (1974). The letters of Abelard and Heloise. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Rowling, M. (1989). Everyday life of medieval travellers. Dorset Press.
Sawicki, J. (2017). Medieval dress accessories from Nowy Targ Square in Wroclaw. Catalogue of finds. Yellow Point Publications.
Schaus, M. (Ed.). (2015). Women and gender in Medieval Europe: An encyclopedia. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Spencer, B. (2002). Pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges: Medieval finds from excavations in London. Boydell Press.
Throop, P. (Ed.). (1998). Hildegard von Bingen’s Physica: The complete English translation of her classic work on health and healing. Healing Arts Press.
