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HIST 3322: The American West in the 20th Century
Summer 2006
Dr. Shepherd
Technical Guidelines
CLEAR THINKING AND ORGANIZATION LEAD TO CLEAR WRITING
1. Use concise, simple, clear, straight-forward language. I encourage you to think and write creatively, but please
remember that your main goal is to communicate ideas and convey an argument.
2). Though different cultures employ different rules for writing, you must write in the ACTIVE VOICE. You might
consider it a subtle rule, but the alternative to the ACTIVE VOICE is the PASSIVE VOICE, which often confuses the
reader and leaves the source of an action on an object unclear. Each sentence must have a SUBJECT, VERB, AND
OBJECT. For example, instead of writing “the fields were cultivated,” try the following: “Women cultivated the fields.”
The first sentence lacks the SUBJECT (women) doing the VERB (cultivating) the OBJECT (the fields).
3). Avoid colloquialisms, slang, or dialects that only “insiders” recognize. If you need to use regionalisms or language
specific to a culture, locality, or people, please clarify how and when you will use it. Remember that your audience may
not understand informal language.
4). Use the past tense when writing history. You may want to tell a story as if it happened in the present, but history by
its nature occurred in the past. For example, “In Lonewolf v. Hitchcock, the Supreme Court RULED against Lonewolf,
even after he STRUGGLED for several years.”
5). Use complete sentences and avoid run-on sentences. Every sentence needs a subject, verb and object: together, these
elements create a single thought or idea. Here is an example of an incomplete sentence: “River stopped flowing. Being a
place where there were many dams.” Try this: “The water stopped flowing when the power company built several dams
on the river.” Additionally, avoid long sentences that have three or four different thoughts and multiple subject-verbobject combinations. Run-on sentences contain several ideas that you can split into two sentences.
6). Use words that do the work of several words or an entire phrase: “The tribal council member supported the measure,
then he opposed it, then he supported it, then he opposed it.” Try, “The tribal council member vacillated on the measure.”
8). Use a variety of words in your paper. Use synonyms or creative words.
9). Keep direct quotations under four lines when using them in the regular flow of a paragraph. If you need to use a quote
of more than four lines, use a block quote (single spaced, indented on the right and left). However, I do not want you to
use more than three block quotes in the entire paper. Learn how to paraphrase information by highlighting main points.
10). Underline or italicize book or journal titles.
11). Please avoid repeated use of vague words such as: it’s, its, their, there, we are, were, where, etc.
12). Use spell check, but make sure the computer keeps the original word that you wanted. You should bee where of
Miss Takes witch he computer dozen sea.
13). Give your paper a title that suggests the thesis or main point of the paper. “Stories of Inspiration, Stories of
Education: A History of Native Americans in Public Schools During the 1970s.”
14). Read your paper out loud. Have another person read it. Proof read it.
15). Number all of your pages!!!!!!!
16). ALWAYS CITE THE SOURCES AND IDEAS/INFORMATION YOU USE in YOUR PAPER!!!!!
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Outlines and Clear Organization
How to Use Outlines
Always start with an outline of your paper before you write. Many people even spend 30% of the research-writing
process on an outline. Writing is easier if you have a clear structure mapped out before you write. Try to do most of your
THINKING while you construct an outline, so that the writing process itself is devoted to creative issues and analysis.
Outlines require PATIENCE that pays off in the end.
Sample outline for 7-10 page paper
I). Main Introduction (1-2 paragraphs)
A). Hook Story or Quote (Optional)
1). Oftentimes an illustrative or poignant story or “hook” that pulls the reader into the paper
a). Make it brief, funny, or startling
b). The hook story should directly relate to the purpose of your paper
B). Introductory Paragraph(s)
1). First Paragraph
a). Clearly explain the main idea or topic of your paper in simple and clear language
b). What is the main purpose of the paper?
c). Tell the reader about the three-four main points you want to make in your paper as they relate
to the one big main point of the paper.
d). If your paper is argumentative in nature, state your main, overarching thesis (i.e. the opinion
or hypothesis you will argue for and try to prove or support)
State your three main points and subsidiary points
e). Present readers with the roadmap of the paper
II). Section One (2-3 pages)
A). This is the first section of your paper and it should focus exclusively on the first part of the main topic
1). Who are the major people involved with your topic? Major themes and conflicts? Major time periods
or turning points relevant to this section?
a). Each paragraph should have a topic sentence that is related to the main point of this section
b). After the topic sentence, each paragraph should have 3-6 supporting sentences that
focus on evidence, people, stories, or facts that are only related to the topic sentence, and in turn,
the sub and main thesis.
c). Sentences should connect logically with each other, like links in a chain
B). Analysis and evaluation
1). You must analyze and/or evaluate your data and examples. You need to do more than
narrate a story and list a series of facts.
a). You may analyze the issues throughout the paragraphs, or have one paragraph at the end of
each section that analyzes the examples and ideas in that section
III). Section Two & Three
A). Follow the pattern established in Section One
V). Conclusion to Paper (1-1½ pages)
A). You can do one of several things in the concluding section
1). Pick up where the final section leaves the reader
a). Remind reader of big issues you discussed
2). Go back to the intro/hook of paper
a). Restate major thesis
B). Following paragraph(s) of conclusion
1). Overall analysis of the paper
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2).
3).
4).
5).
Larger implications for research
Further areas of study
Tie up loose ends
Big, philosophical points
Sources and Citations
This format is called Chicago Style, or Turabian, and is used by most historians. We use citations and bibliographies so
that readers can look up and find the sources to confirm what we have written. This is like the “Methods” section of a
science experiment: you include the methods so that another can repeat the experiment and come to their own
conclusions. Footnotes/endnotes are the citations that we use. We do not use parenthesis at the end of a sentence or
paragraph. The bibliography uses a slightly different format than citations in the footnotes/endnotes. Foot/Endnotes start
with the author’s first name and then their last name, while citations in a bibliography start with the author’s LAST name,
followed by a “comma,” and the author’s first name. See the examples used in the paragraph at the end of this guide for
footnote format. You can also look at any academic history journal for examples (American Historical Review). If you
have sources that you do not know how to cite, include all relevant information in a clear format and remain consistent
through out the paper. You may use either foot notes or endnotes in your paper. See me if you do not know how to insert
them in the text.
CITATION FORMAT FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources
The basic elements in a primary source citation include: Author, title of article or source, publishing source (newspaper
title, government bureau), location of source and publisher, date of publication, page(s) of document, archival location
(library, museum), and archival finding information (box, folder, row, etc).
Examples of how to cite different primary sources
Newspaper Article(s)
Meritz, Darrin. “Guest Worker Program Receives Support from Lawmakers,” El Paso Times, 26 June 2005.
If you have several articles from the same newspaper, cite them in the bibliography like this:
Mohave County Miner. (Weekly). June 1880 to 1887. Microfilm. Arizona Historical Foundation. Hayden Library.
Tempe, Arizona.
Government Documents
46th Annual Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners to the Secretary of the Interior. For Fiscal Year Ending June
25, 1915. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Indians at Work. A News Sheet for Indians and the Indian Service. “A Hualapai Indian on Grazing.” Jim Fielding to
Robert Marshall. Office of Indian Affairs. Washington, D. C. May 1, 1936.
Interviews
You conduct: Watahomigie, Lucille. June 25, 1998. Peach Springs, Arizona. Interview by the author.
From archive: Querta, Dallas. November, 12, 1975. Kingman, Arizona. Interview by Rochelle Leiber. Luhrs
Reading Room. Arizona Special Collections. Hayden Library. Arizona State University. Tempe, AZ.
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Secondary Sources
Single Author Books:
Adams, David Wallace. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1912.
Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1995.
Book With Two Authors:
Dobyns, Henry and Robert F. Euler. The Walapai People. Phoenix: Indian Tribal Series, 1976.
Essay by Single Author in Edited Book:
James Riding In, “A Review of Recent Work in Twentieth Century Indian Policy,” in Deloria, Vine Jr. Ed., American
Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984.
Single Authored Article in a Magazine or Journal:
Martin, John. “Prehistory and Ethnohistory of Havasupai-Hualapai Relations” Ethnohistory. v. 32 n. 2 (1985): 135-53.
Single Authored Entry in Encyclopedia:
McGuire, Thomas. “Walapai” Handbook of North American Indians. v. 10. Southwest. Ed. Alfonso Ortiz.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution, (1983): 25-37.
Watahomigie, Lucille. “Hualapai.” Native America in the Twentieth Century. An Encyclopedia. Ed.
Mary B. Davis. New York: Garland Publishing, (1994): 198 - 219.
Websites
General information and sources
Lynch, Tim. 1996. Water in the American West [on-line]. Peoria, IL: Bradley University; available from
http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/503r.html; Internet; accessed 8 October 1997.
Gardner, Dudley A. June 2001. “The Green River, Living on the Land:” Fremont Farmers and Chinese Railroad
Workers.” [On-line] Moving Waters: The Colorado River and the West. Available from
http://www.azhumanities.org/movingwaters/riverspeak/gardner.html Accessed 8 May 2006
“Population Growth Ranking: States Ranked by Rate of Population Growth” [On-line] CensusScope. Available from
http://www.censusscope.org/index.html Accessed 8 May 8, 2006
Articles on line
Bazelon, Emily and David Newman, “The Supreme Court Shortlist: The Views of the Likely Candidates to Succeed
Rehnquist,” Slate.Com (http://slate.msn.com/id/2121270/?nav=fo) 24 June, 2005. Accessed May 6, 2006.
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Foot Note Citations: (You can also use endnotes). How to cite information and quotes from books as you use them
in your paper.
Another body of scholarship employs the concept of nationalism, rather than ethnicity, to illuminate aboriginal
history. In Indigenous Peoples and the Nation State: Fourth World Politics in Canada, Australia, and Norway, Noel
Dyck develops an argument for Fourth World sovereignty within the territorial limits of large nation-states.1 Dyck argues
that indigenous resurgence challenges the homogenizing tendencies of nation states by reconceptualizing national identity.
Part of this recasting requires states to confront their own historical origins as colonial powers. Morgan, a British
contemporary, echoes Dyck’s thesis, but offers a mild critique that stresses postmodern theories and scholarship.2 In
Australia, Dyck argues, identity formation entailed addressing the growing awareness that aboriginal groups enjoyed
sovereignty when the Crown landed in 1788. Interestingly, Dyck employs notions of “imagined communities”
reminiscent of Benedict Anderson’s work to explain how local, face-to-face indigenous communities forged alliances with
other indigenous groups to defend themselves from Australian hegemony.3 The National Aboriginal Congress,
established in 1979, exemplifies how previously isolated tribal groups “imagined” themselves part of a larger entity.
Dyck concludes his assessment of history and aboriginal resurgence by detailing how aborigines went “over the heads” of
nation-states to seek recognition from the UN in the late 1980s.4
Dyck provides an interesting discussion of how aboriginal peoples, especially those in the northwestern sections
of the Australia employed nationalist rhetoric to craft a relationship with the newly established United Nations Committee
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Dyck states:
Aboriginal peoples rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
1
Noel Dyck Indigenous Peoples and the Nation State: Fourth World Politics in Canada, Australia, and Norway
Newfoundland: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1985, 345-9.
2
Edmund Morgan, “Indigenous Identities and Australian Nationalisms” The Journal of Australian History v.2 n.19.
January, 1993, 223-249.
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Benedict Anderson Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism London: Verso, 1983.
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Dyck, 24.
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rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.5
These are important points that all scholars, public policy analysts, heads of state, and international lawyers should
understand before beginning negotiations with indigenous peoples in the modern world.
Note to Class: In the section above, I used and then cited specific short quotes AND I cited information from books, even
if I did not use a direct quote. Only use block quotes for four or more sentences. Do not put quotation marks “…” around
the beginning and end of the block quote. Block quotes must be indented on the right and left side, and they must be
single-spaced. Place your citation (in this case, “5”) at the end of the block quote. Use block quotes sparingly.
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Ibid., 38