History 499W: Senior Seminar Roadmap
Professor John Rector
Department of History, Western Oregon University
Introduction
Many history majors approach the last term of their senior year with “fear and trembling.” The
thought of writing a 25-page paper critiqued by two professors, seems overwhelming. Frankly, the
original fear may be justified, but only if is serves as a positive motivation to prove oneself. If the fear,
however, is not accompanied by an openness to achieve and learn, the seminar paper becomes a
nightmare. Much of the learning experience is lost.
In fact the seminar paper is a capstone which brings together four years of historical study at
Western. It includes thinking, research, and writing. Your knowledge about historical trends, the
interrelations of events, and important ideas is displayed in this project.
History versus Chronology
Since the dawn of civilization, people began to narrate and record events. Both the Egyptians
and Mayans carved into stone the names of Kings and their military triumphs. But it was not until the
Greeks that Herodotus asked why these events occurred. In explaining the origin of the Persian Wars,
he described eastern Mediterranean cultures and how they contributed to the wars.
Just as Herodotus selected the events, which he believed relevant to understanding the Persian
Wars, historians since then done likewise. They decide what questions they want to answer and which
“facts” support their interpretations. Your seminar paper will be no different.
Secondary and Primary Sources
Once you have selected the topic you will study, you need to think about how you will interpret
it. How do you decide this? Unless you are very well versed in the topic, you will need to do some
background reading. Because you wrote a previous paper on this topic, you will not need to start from
scratch. But you will have to throw a wider net. Your bibliography needs to be fleshed out so that you
include most of the relevant books and journal articles on your topic. You also need to look for primary
sources, which will give you greater proximity to your topic. For example, one student who sought to
explain why Lincoln was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate in 1860, read most of his
speeches. Another student, in discussing United States-Argentine relations after World War II, read
diplomatic correspondence as well ex-president Herbert Hoover’s personal notes of his visit with Juan
Perón. In both cases, these primary sources gave the students a sense of being in a “time machine” and
witnessing these events themselves.
Review of the Literature
In your reading you are doing what historians call “a review of the literature.” As you take notes
on the central ideas of books, journal articles, and documents, you should try to do more than assemble
an “annotated bibliography.” The latter consists of paragraph summaries of the contents of a work.
Your interest, however, is to explain what happened through your interpretation of events. So what you
are interested in reviewing others’ works is: “what were their interpretations of events?”
Philosophy of History
At this juncture we can now refer to that powerful but frightening concept, which is the
philosophy of history. Our Hst 420 course, which bears this same name, presents you with a way of
looking at history that seems decidedly “unhistorical.” As scholars who love the past, we like to narrate
events, not philosophize about them. Would you prefer we use the term “historiography” to describe
how history is written? Although a synonym for philosophy of history, the word historiography seems
even more esoteric. In any case, our interest is to study the writing of history.
As you review the written history of your topic, you will find general interpretations and specific
interpretations. For example, when looking at the origins of the Civil War, there are social, economic,
and political interpretations. But there are also specific interpretations such as the Fugitive Slave Law of
1850, the growth of immigrant labor in the North, and Lincoln’s electoral victory in 1860. The
interpretations of these specific events relate to general interpretations. Ideally you will incorporate
both types of interpretations in your review of the literature.
Thesis Statement
It is from the comparison of other historians’ interpretations that your own emerges. We call
this interpretation “your thesis statement.” This is none other than what Herodotus developed with his
study of the Persian Wars. You will present your interpretation of why the events occurred. What were
the important social, economic, or political factors as well as the crucial events? You will need to show
how your thesis relates to those of previous scholars. In order to support your thesis, you will then need
to develop a narrative of relevant facts and events, not unlike a lawyer’s brief. You need to show the
reader why you consider a fact or event important and how it supports your argument. This is not the
same as dumping paraphrased narratives on the page and expecting the reader to guess their relevance.
Organizational Formats
There are two organizational formats you can choose from in presenting the material which
supports your thesis. The most common and perhaps the simplest is the chronological format. You
begin with the earliest events and end with the most recent. Once you choose this format, if you decide
you alter the chronology, you need to explain this clearly to the reader. The second format is the
thematic one. Here it is best to advise the reader of the themes you will cover and why. This explains
why you are not following chronology.
As you offer supporting material for your thesis, you should periodically remind the reader why
this is relevant to your thesis. Avoid patronizing the reader, but do put up “traffic signs” so he’ll not
loose direction.
Conclusion
Then the finale: your conclusion! Do not introduce any new topics or facts into your paper once
you get to this stage. If a new idea occurs to you, go back to your narrative and find the appropriate
place to insert it. This section should briefly summarize your key ideas and facts. You should again state
your thesis and explain why the facts support it, rather than the theses of other scholars.
Annotation
History is not an experimental science. The events historians studied happened once and will
not happen again. History is a social science. For historians the “science” of the discipline is indicating
the sources from which the information is drawn. As the historian builds the arguments to support the
paper’s thesis, he or she shows where the documents are located from which the information is derived.
Footnotes and endnotes are used with equal frequency. Precaution: Too many notes from the same
source appear as paraphrasing rather than research. Avoid this pitfall.
Bibliography
A bibliography advises the reader of the most relevant books, journal articles, and government
documents available on your topic. For a 25-page paper, a list of five sources is embarrassing small.
But five pages of bibliography is likewise an exaggeration. When in doubt about the appropriate length,
consult with your professors about the approximate number of sources you should have.
Title Page
Do this last after you have tired of changing the title of your paper. Don’t over complicate your
title or try to make it “cute.” It can refer to your thesis or merely state the topic of your paper. This
page should be a stand-alone document. It should include the title of the paper, the author, the course,
the names of the two faculty readers, and the date.
Editing
A fine wine needs aging and a fine paper needs editing. Here are some easy things you can fix:
1. You should have three or four paragraphs per page. (Who enjoys reading a paragraph that
never ends?)
2. With spell check and grammar check, is it still possible to misspell words and create
sentences with no subjects or verbs. Unfortunately, for all its brilliance, Microsoft Word
overlooks things. See how many mistakes you can catch that Microsoft can’t. Enjoy the
challenge!
3. Ditch the passive voice in favor of the active one. “The president proposed a four-day
workweek.” (Not, “A four-day workweek was proposed by the president.”)
4. Topic sentences are cool. The rest of the paragraph is “filler.”
5. Transition sentences are even cooler. Without these guides, your readers will have no clue
where your narrative is going.
6. Use no contractions and no % symbols. Write out “percent,” fractions, and numbers under
100.
7. Blocked quotations should be indented five spaces, and single-spaced. Use blocks only for
quotations of three lines or more. They do not need quotation marks
8. If reading your own paper is too frustrating, ask a friend or a professional at the WOU
Writing Center to do so. Reward them with a cold piece of pizza or a warm drink.
9. Number your pages. (Use the “Word” insert menu.) Can you imagine reading a paper in
which the pages were out of order? Only experimental novelists and WOU history students,
who print their papers at 6:00 am, do such outrageous things.