History 100 Resources
Background
Starting in the fall 2010 semester, the requirements for the history major will change. This change will only affect incoming majors starting in fall 2010; those declaring the history major prior to fall 2010 will complete their degrees according to our existing requirements. The new history major will eliminate HIS 294 (Intro to Historical Research) and will not require HIS 350 (Historiography), though 350 will be offered as an elective. In addition, as part of the new major, all incoming history majors starting in fall 2010 will be required to take a new course, HIS 100, Introduction to History. This course will serve as a basic introduction to reading, writing, and thinking as an historian. The following is a list of critical links that students in HIS 100 will use.
This guide is a list of terms compiled by WCSU's history department that we believe you should be familiar with by the end of your history career, with quick definitions.
The Historian's Encyclopedia
Citation and Bibliography guides
The history department expects that students completing research papers provide footnote citations consistent with the guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style, which is the style consistently preferred in history journals. An abbreviated version of the Chicago Manual of Style can be found in Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). The department recommends that history majors purchase a copy of this work. The following are online guides to Chicago/Turabian citation style and are acceptable for use when preparing papers for the department:
University of California at Berkeley Turabian Style Guide
Ohio State University Turabian Style Guide
Ohio State University Chicago Style Guide
Guides to writing history
Patrick Rael's Guide to Researching and Writing in the History Major
Rael, Associate Professor of African-American History and Chair of the History Department at Bowdoin College, gives an exhaustive guide to the writing process from how to formulate questions to the nuts and bolts of doing research.
