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HIST 468: HISTORY OF STALINISM
Prof. Steven E. Harris
Final paper instructions
I. Basic instructions: Your task is to write a 10-12 page historiography paper on the existing scholarly literature on a specific topic in the history of Stalin and Stalinism. This assignment is very similar to the literature review for HIST 297/299/485, so you should consult the History Department’s guidelines on writing a literature review. See the Historiography section at: http://cas.umw.edu/historyamericanstudies/history-department-resources/historiography/. Your paper must include the following elements:
1. Description of the historiographical topic: The topic of your paper is the historiography on an issue in Soviet history under Stalin. Clearly identify the historiography of this issue as the focus of your paper, not the historical issue itself. To be sure, your historiography paper must also provide the necessary context and description of actual historical events, issues, and actors when needed over the course of your paper. However, the focus of your paper’s analysis and interpretation is the historiography.
2. Question: Clearly state the question you are researching and answering in this historiography paper.
3. Discussion, analysis, and interpretation of the historiography: This is the core of your historiography paper. Your analysis of the literature must be organized in a way that relates the works you are discussing to one another. In other words, do not discuss the 12 works independently of each other. Your discussion of the literature may address, but is not limited to the following: the major competing arguments in the literature on the topic; the methodologies and primary sources historians have used; where the literature you have read fits into the overall historiographical picture on Stalin’s Soviet Union; the changes and continuities in the literature over time; how the opening of the archives in 1991 may or may not have affected the literature; your criticisms of the literature; and, where you think the literature should go in the future in terms of new questions, methodology, sources, and new hypotheses about the historical topic.
4. Argument: Now that you have researched the historiography on your topic, you must answer the question and turn your hypothesis into an argument. You may discuss your hypothesis as stated in your proposal and address how your research confirmed it or led you to another answer. (You may also choose to ignore your hypothesis from your proposal.)
5. Sources: The minimum number of sources for your final paper is 12; at least seven of these must be monographs and the remainder may include scholarly articles, including review essays and review articles. All these sources must be written by professional historians or scholars in other fields. While you may use book reviews as a source, they will not count toward your minimum of 12 sources.
Include a bibliography. Your bibliography must include all the works that you either cite or have consulted. Don’t sell your research short! If you researched a source, but did not use it, you should still include it in your bibliography. Leave out primary sources or book reviews, however.
II. Other requirements and resources:
1. Deadline: Final exam day/time: Thursday, April 30, 12:00pm. Printed copies only. The schedule for class presentations will be announced separately.
2. Paper title: You must include a title for your paper proposal. The title should be centered and at the top of the paper’s first page. Your title should be separated from the first line of your paper by a triple or quadruple space. “Historiography paper” is not a title. Instead, once you have written your paper, think of a title that captures best what you have researched and what you argue. Be sure that your paper title clearly indicates that this is a historiography paper.
3. Page length and technical requirements: Your paper must be 10-12 pages, with 12-pt. font, double-spacing, and one-inch margins. It must include your name in the top right hand corner of the first page (no title page needed), above the title of your paper. Remember to include page numbers, but not on the first page.
4. Bibliography: Your bibliography must be part of the same document as your paper proposal and its pages numbers must continue in the sequence of the proposal’s page numbers. Your bibliography should start on a new page. The first page of your bibliography should be titled “Bibliography” (minus these quotation marks). Center this title. You do not need to include your name on your bibliography.
Follow the Chicago Manual of Style on writing your bibliography. See the Chicago Manual of Style at: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org.ezproxy.umw.edu/16/contents.html. Note that each bibliographical entry is single-spaced, while there is a double space between entries.
5. Footnotes: Follow the Chicago Manual of Style rules. Note that individual footnotes are single-spaced, while there is a double space between footnotes. Footnotes may be written in either 12-pt. font or 10-pt. font. The space taken up by footnotes does not count toward the page limit. To make sure you have not exceeded the page limit, convert footnotes temporarily into endnotes.
6. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation: It is tremendously important that you use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation in your paper. Do not depend upon your computer to catch careless errors; your computer will fail you. Instead, ask someone to proofread your writing and read over your paper yourself several times to eliminate all errors.
7. Use of the past tense and present tense: When discussing what people did and said in the past, historians use the past tense in their writing. This holds true in a historiography paper when one discusses past events in Soviet history. However, there is more flexibility when discussing what historians have written (the real focus of a historiography paper, after all!). In this case, we typically use the present simple (e.g., “In this book, he argues that Stalin created Socialist Realism.”) or the present perfect (e.g., “She has written a book that has changed our understanding of Stalin’s role in Soviet history.” We use these tenses because the assumption is that historians’ works constitute an on-going project of research and writing on Soviet history. You may find it more appropriate to use the past tense when discussing the work of much older historiography and historians who are no longer alive.
8. Passive voice vs. active voice: Historians typically prefer to use the active voice instead of the passive voice whenever possible. This is especially true when it is clear who or what is doing or saying something. In cases when this is not clear, the passive voice may be appropriate.
9. Class presentation: You will give a 5-minute presentation of your historiography paper to the class. Your presentation must describe the historiographical topic, your question, and your argument. You must support your discussion of these items with specific references to some (not all!) of your research. You may also discuss such issues as changes in your hypothesis over the course of your research; what you found most interesting and why about the historiography and the actual historical topic; and ideas for what you think historians should study next on the historical topic.
10. Plagiarism and Honor Pledge: As stated in the syllabus, plagiarism will not be tolerated and any violations will be reported to the Honor Council. If you take someone else’s ideas or words and present them in your paper as your own (i.e., without proper acknowledgement of the author), you will have committed plagiarism. If you are unsure about what this means, please do not hesitate to ask me for further clarification.
Asking someone for help in proofreading your paper and critiquing your ideas is highly encouraged. However, another person cannot write your paper for you. This is unauthorized assistance and an honor violation.
Include the Honor Pledge and sign it on the last page of your paper.
11. Writing Center: Use the resources of the Writing Center to improve your writing on this and other papers. Schedule appointments well ahead of the paper deadline. Visit their site at: http://academics.umw.edu/writing-fredericksburg/.
12. Grading criteria: Your paper will be graded according to the following criteria:
a) content of your paper (50%), which includes your ability to define the historiographical topic; pose an interesting question/problem; present thorough and insightful analysis and interpretation of the literature; and develop and defend an argument.
b) grammar, spelling, punctuation; active vs. passive voice; verb tense (20%)
c) form, structure, and clarity in your writing (20%), which includes technical criteria (e.g., page length, font size, spacing, footnotes, bibliography), good organization of your paper, and clarity in your writing.
d) class presentation (10%): you will be evaluated on the content of your presentation (see details above) as well as the form of your presentation itself: organization, clarity, good eye contact with audience, completed within 5 minutes.