Good Historical Writing is Good Historical Thinking and Good Writing. A summary of ideas and concepts from my own thoughts, and other clever peoples' ideas about history and writing.

1. Good History Writing
(Is Really Good Historical Thinking
and Good Writing)

2. My thoughts on Twitter….
1. Evidence-based
2. Thoughtful
3. Purposeful
4. Respect audience and subject
5. "Long enough to reach the ground."
6. ...I think that's it.

3. From Your Syllabus
“The grade is based primarily on the strength of
your argument as an answer to the question:
thesis,
historical evidence
(completeness and handling),
logic,
clarity.”

4. My Source: Derek Bok Center Rubric
•Thesis
•Use of evidence
•Design (organization)
•Basic writing skills (grammar, mechanics, spelling).

5. Good Writing (Greenbush Education Services Center,
Common Core Presentation, 21 April 2014)

6. Andrews and Burke, “What Does It Mean to Think
Historically?” (aka “The Five C’s”)
1. Change over time.
2. Context.
3. Causality.
4. Contingency.
5. Complexity

7. Tim Lacy’s Four More C’s (and an S)
of Good Historical Writing
6. Chronology.
7. Citations.
8. Conjecture.
9. Characters.
10. Storytelling.

8. Additional Sources
• David Willecke, “An Inflammatory Guide To Writing History Papers: The
Quest for Clarity and Specificity.“
• Heather Cox Richardson’s advice for college students of history:
Richardson’s Rules of Order, 2009, The Historical Society Blog.
http://histsociety.blogspot.com/search/label/Richardson%27s%20Rules%20
of%20Order

9. Sources
• Background Image: Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Japanese Bronze Cast Plate With
Lotus Sutra Text – 1141. Picture by Jonathan Dresner, 2012.
• Greenbush tweet: “@GreenbushESC Argumentative writing with #CommonCore
pic.twitter.com/DzwkoI9gAH”
https://twitter.com/GreenbushESC/status/458279277784756224
• Dresner Tweet: https://twitter.com/jondresner/status/458097239613648896
• Harvard Standards, “Grading Papers, From a list by Lewis Hyde, edited by Sue Lonoff,
with thanks to Richard Marius's writing handbook.”
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/html/icb.topic58474/GradingPapers.html copyright 2002-2006.
• Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke, “What Does It Mean to Think Historically?”
Perspectives, January 2007. http://www.historians.org/publications-and-
directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2007/what-does-it-mean-to-think-historically
• Tim Lacy, “The Nine Cs of Historical Thinking,”
http://thinkingthroughhistory.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/the-nine-cs-of-historical-
thinking/