This page provides examples of some of the mistakes found in History essays. It is worth a quick glance down the list to see if any of them is on your list of problems!

Abbreviations
It is generally better not to use abbreviations in formal writing. Examples of abbreviations might be: wasn't, didn't, i.e., etc. Abbreviations are informal or spoken forms of the language. In some circumstances they are fine - but they are not usually used in formal writing such as History essays.

Aborigine
The proper noun that designates Australian Aborigines (as opposed to aboriginal people of any other country, such as Celts or Indians) is always written with an intitial capital letter. Logically the noun would be Aborigine and the adjective would be Aboriginal. However, it is not incorrect to use Aboriginal as a noun.

Accept/except
The words "to accept" mean "to take or receive what is offered". Examples of its use are "I accept that responsibility"; "He accepted your gift"; "We accept your opinion". The word "to except" mean "to leave out". For example "Everyone went, except me"; "His work is excepted from the general rule".

Affect/Effect
The difference between these words is a bit complicated, so I shall use examples only to explain the difference between them. Examples might be "She affected to be an aristocrat"; "She effected a change"; "This had a big effect"; "The child was affectionate"; "the boy was effective"; "This will affect my grades". Generally speaking "to effect" means to make something happen.

Apostrophes
Apostrophes seem to be a problem for many people. The following rules might be useful:
1. Its (no apostrophe) is the possessive of it. For example: "The dog ate from its bowl".
It's is an abbreviation of it is. For example: "It's a long way away". Do not use this in formal writing because it is an abbreviation.

2. For most nouns the rule is: paper = one paper; paper's = of or belonging to one paper; papers = two or more papers; papers' = of or belonging to two or more papers. Example sentences:
    I have a paper. The paper's colour is blue. I have two papers. The papers' colour is red.

3. Some nouns change their form in the plural. Here the rule is: woman = one woman; woman's = of or belonging to one woman; women = two or more women; women's = of or belonging to two or more women.

Capital Letters
The general rule about capitals is that proper nouns have capitals, ordinary nouns do not. Examples might be "kings wear crowns"; "King Harold wore a crown"; "parliaments pass laws"; "the Queensland Parliament passed The Act of 1897"; "there are aboriginal peoples living in many countries"; "Australian Aborigines live in Australia".

Dates
Dates in History are usually written: 18 May 1888. Note that there is no apostrophe in 1880s. Example:
On 18 May 1888 the judge declared that there would be a new regime throughout the 1890s.

Dependent/dependant
"Dependent" is an adjective (describing word). An example of its use is "We were dependent on good weather for the match to go ahead". "Dependant" is a noun which means a person who depends on another for support. For example "My children are my dependants; they do not yet have jobs".

Emphasis
It is not good style to give emphasis to parts of your essay by inserting underlining, italics or inverted commas. The text itself must show the reader what is important. You cannot do this through graphics.

Ibidem
When you have two references, one after the other, that are to the same work, you should use ibid. This Latin word is short for Ibidem which means, the same. Use a page number if the reference is not exactly the same. For example:
1. John Smith, The Book, London, 1999, p.66.
2. Ibid., p.67 (Means the same book but page 67)
3. Ibid. (Means page 67 of the same book again)

Insured/ensured
The word "insured" is now commonly used to "take out an insurance policy". It is no longer used as an alternative to "ensure": that is "to make certain of".

Italics
Use italics in your essay for all published material (including the names of newspapers and magazines), for the names of ships and for the titles of Acts of parliament.

Lead
Lead is the present form of the verb; it also is the name of a mineral. The past form of the verb is led. For example:
I shall lead you into the garden where you led me yesterday. There we shall see some lead paint.

Names of historical persons
When you mention someone for the first time, try to use that person’s full name and, if possible his or her position; for example: John Smith, Member for Herbert. Subsequent mentions of that person would be simply as Smith.

Newspapers
Always use italics (or underlining) for the names of newspapers when they are mentioned in the text.

Pages
Use p. for page, pp. for pages in footnotes and bibliography.

Paragraph
A paragraph contains a core sentence, which states what the paragraph intends to demonstrate, and the material needed to argue for or against that core sentence. A single sentence cannot be a paragraph. If you find that your paragraph is a bit short, you might check whether you have provided enough evidence. Example paragraphs (the core sentence is underlined) are set out below.

Example One
Bosses were viewed as protectors by employees. For one thing, they did not stand for police coming onto the station and interfering with "their" Aborigines unless consulted first. Durack, the manager of Newry Station, lodged an angry complaint when an Aboriginal woman and her part-Aboriginal child were taken away by Mounted Constable Fitzer. Although mainly out of self-interest Durack also promised to rear and educate the child at the station, which saved the mother the anguish of totally losing her child. Similarly, Kilfoyle, manager of Rosewood Station, tried to dissuade the mounted constable from taking a part-Aboriginal girl, Alice, explaining that she planned to marry a "half-caste" boy on ther station when old enough. He later refused to reveal her whereabouts.

Example Two
As pastoralists spread over vast areas of country they encountered fierce opposition from local Aborigines which instituted an enduring pattern of racial hatred and atrocity. Eleven Europeans were killed at Hornet Bank Station to the south and a party of local squatters responded by killing at least eighty Aborigines. While their action was clearly against the law, local feeling was such that Oscar de Satge of Wolfang Station could openly boast that Henry Gregory had "pursued the blacks, tracking them, from camp to camp, 'dispersing' them, and doing thereby as much to protect his neighbours as a whole detachment of police". Fear and consequent savagery came closer to home in 1861 when nineteen Europeans were killed at Cullen-la-Ringo on the Nogoa River. De Satge's statement that "I carried away this lesson of the Wills massacre with me and vowed I never would have the blacks in any station I managed..." has little credibility in the light of his later de facto marriage to an Aboriginal woman on Carandotta Station. Nevertheless, it reflected attitides that were widely held in the Central Highlands. The murder of Joseph Benson on a tributary of Sandy Creek near Surbiton Station in 1874 proved to the pastoralists that the "war" was still being fought more than a decade later.

Example Three
The year 1890 was a full one for Macrossan. Up to August he was shouldering a very heavy ministerial responsibility. Then, too, there was the double crisis of McIlwraith's resignation and "unholy" alliance with Griffith, with Macrossan, of course, having to carry the consequent debates for the Ministerial party. Even after the fall of the Government he was still busy pressing a further motion for northern separation and toiling through a weary debate on Griffith's alternative proposals for provincial councils. By the end of the session, moreover, his health had so far deteriorated for it to occasion no surprise when he wondered publicly whether he would live to attend the Federal Convention called for the following year.

Primary Source Quotations
It is not normally useful to quote secondary sources. These, unless they are particularly aposite, add little to your evidence, while interspersing someone else's words in among your own - and spoiling the flow of your writing. Quotes would normally be from primary sources - that is, from writers who were writing of things that happened (or were debated) in their own times. Such quotes provide evidence for your arguments.
When citing a primary source that you have found in a collection of documents or in a secondary source book use both primary and secondary references. This allows the reader to assess the value of the original while still being able to locate your quote. For example:
    Letter from Elizabeth Macquarie to Elizabeth Macarthur, 6 May 1812, cited in John Smith (ed.), Important Letters, Sydney, 1987, p.6.

Quoting
Run short quotes (fewer than twelve words) into the text and use inverted commas. For example:
The ship was "a rotted hulk" according to the new passengers.

For longer quotes, indent and do not use inverted commas. For example:
When the ship sailed, the passengers wrote a memorandum to the owners, which said in part:
            We consider your ship to be a rotted hulk. We believe that you should compensate us at least a part of our passage money. We
            shall be complaining bitterly to the government about our treatment during this voyage.

Do not use italics for quotations.

When you leave part of the quotation out, you should replace the missing words with three dots. If the missed words include a full stop, use four dots.

Sentences
The Shorter Oxford Dictionary defines a sentence as "A series of words in connected speech or writing, forming the grammatically complete expression of a single thought.... In Grammar... containing normally a subject and a predicate." The phrase "Being a wild night" is therefore not a sentence. Similarly "While this was going on" is not a sentence. In neither case does the phrase have a subject. If you want to use these statements alone, use "It was a wild night"; or "This was going on at the time".

Sought/sort
The word "sought" is the past tense of the verb "to seek". For example "We sought the lost ring everywhere". The word "sort" means a type: for example "that sort of thing"; "a sort of animal".

Spellchecks
If you have any doubt whatsoever of the meaning of a word thrown up by your spell check, please use a dictionary. Many students accept entirely inappropriate words from their spellchecks (some of which provide markers with "bloopers" that keep them happy for hours).

Their/there
The word "their" denotes ownership: for example "their hands"; "their adventure". The word "there" is used in "I will go there"; or "there is a place".

To/too/two
Because the word "to" has so many uses, it is probably easiest to understand the differences between the three words (which all sound the same) by looking at examples. "Too" means to a higher degree than is admissable. It is used in the phrases "too much", "too big", "too little", "too old" and so on. "Two" is simply the number 2 - therefore "two children, a boy and a girl", two ducks", two sentences". "To" is used in all other situations. It is part of the infinitive of all verbs: "to read", "to walk", "to enjoy". It means to progress towards, as in "into", "on to", "to the town". It is used in comparisons such as "not up to the mark", "they won, four goals to three".

Where/were
"Where" denotes a place - as in "I know where Townsville is". "Were" is a verb - as in "We were going to the market" or "Were you there?".

Whether/wether/weather
"Whether"  usually (though not exclusively) offers alternatives - as in "I do not know whether I shall go or not". A "wether" is a castrated male sheep. "Weather" describes the climate - as in "The weather will be rainy today".
 
 

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This page is owned and maintained by Diane Menghetti. It was last updated on 20 November 2001.