Southern Illinois University and the College of Arts and Sciences assign first priority to excellence in undergraduate education, and the concept of excellence has implications both for the teacher and for the student. In general education courses, the University endeavors to strengthen the intellectual skills of its students and to provide them with a broad understanding of liberal learning. Faculty in the Department of Historical Studies have concluded that cultivation of basic intellectual skills of critical thinking and written communication is central to our role in achieving this objective. We therefore insist that every history course include one or more written assignments. Believing that this requirement should be taken seriously, I evaluate student papers carefully and critically and seek to assure that such work is clear, coherent, based on careful reading of materials, and written with appropriate respect for the rules of grammar.

When you write a paper, you should keep readily available for immediate reference both a style manual and a dictionary. For history majors, I strongly recommend reliance on A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate L. Turabian (6th. ed.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). This guide is available in the University Bookstore. My personal preference for a dictionary is The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (3d ed.; Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1992).

Before you begin writing your paper, think carefully about the assignment and the fundamentals of writing a paper. Be sure that you have a clear understanding of the topic you wish to address and that you have read enough to be comfortable that you can write a good paper on this subject in the time available. As you write, pay attention to detail. Names, dates, and places must be absolutely accurate if introduced into your paper. If you are writing a review of a historian's work, be sure you understand that individual's position and that you are responding to what the author actually wrote. When you cite the author of a work, be sure you have correctly identified the author and have not confused author and editor.

Once your paper is complete, run a spell check on it. You must personally assure that place names and names of persons are correctly spelled, but your word processor can help you avoid many common spelling errors. However, the spell checker usually cannot help you if you have used an incorrect word. Be sure you use the word you wish to use, and be careful not to substitute incorrect words that sound like the ones you meant to use. Note that their does not mean the same thing as there, that too and two have two different meanings, and that whether has nothing to do with the weather. Use of an incorrect word is a serious mistake in a research paper.

Finally, review your paper for grammar, punctuation, and style. Turabian's Manual can be of enormous help to you with this aspect of your work. Pay particular attention to punctuation, especially but not exclusively the use of the comma. Turabian provides a list of rules for use of commas, periods, semicolons, and other punctuation marks. Read that list carefully, and refer to it often. Be sure that your subjects and predicates agree. A singular subject always requires a singular verb. Obviously, a plural subject requires a plural verb. Be sure that all of your pronouns have clear antecedents and that they agree. If you have included footnotes in your paper (necessary for a research paper but not for a review), be sure that they are correct both as to style and to accuracy.

This is only a brief guide, but students who follow its advice are likely to succeed in writing good papers. I certainly hope this information will be helpful to you in the preparation of papers of which you may be proud and which I shall be pleased to read and to praise.