Any serious history student will discover eventually that several reference materials on writing are repeatedly mentioned as needed for a class. I noticed that MLA was used quite frequently in classes, especially at lower levels, for not only History but also English, Art History, Anthropology, Sociology, etc. Psychology, plus some oddball teachers, used a mix of APA/MLA enough to confuse me thoroughly, so I bought a MLA guide thinking that it would solve all my problems and last me for the rest of my days in school. Boy was I wrong.
I hit senior year history classes and several books were mentioned as “absolutely-critical-to-my-success-in-anything-past-this-point” especially if I was considering graduate school. So, I did some research and discovered that the best way for a poor college student like myself to get the books I needed was through Amazon.com. I know there’s Half.com and BarnesandNoble.com, but getting used books on Amazon (that, I might add, were in excellent condition) was great. Easy searching, nice pictures of the books, good publication info, easy layout including an easy way to view new vs. used book price plus the shipping costs made Amazon.com by new favorite book store. Everything came well-packaged, and 2 out of the 3 sellers I bought from sent multiple emails letting me know they had my order, had sent it, and if I had any questions to let them know.
Here are the books that I came up with as much needed, after I did some UNCG History Department Syllabi research to see what was required or suggested the most.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
Rampolla, Mary Lynn. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
Strunk, William, Jr. and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon/Longman Publishers, 2000.
Turabian, Kate L. A Manuel for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.
The Chicago Manual of Style (now in the 15th edition, and from which Turabian gets its info) would be a good purchase as well, but an expensive one.
I found a little under 20 more writing guides—some covering material similar to the previously mentioned ones and others looking more into the scholarly study of writing—after using the search words “history research writing” then clicking on “books”, then “reference”, then “writing”, then “writing skills”, to narrow the field down. They looked fairly useful, and I may eventually purchase them, but if you know about or own any other guides, let me know what you think of them.
