Greetings and Salutations for the last time...
I just want to start with a big THANK YOU to Dr. Patricia Farless and Dr. Scot French for continued patience and encouragement throughout this semester! This has truly been a great learning experience! Abigail Ayers, my partner in editor-crime, has been a pleasure to work with. Abby has not only contributed mightily to our editing work, but has also shared some insightful tips and resources along the way. I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with. I would also like to thank Ms. Ameera Bacchus and Ms. Janine Galindo for assisting us with a last-minute presentation schedule change.
Since my last blog post, we enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving Break. During this time, I was able to edit two papers. Abigail and I met over Zoom on Tuesday and discussed our edits. We are currently wrapping up our list of “Dos and Don’ts” for future authors. This list has emerged from questions we asked regarding sources, headings, the proper tense for quoting historians, etc. We are also compiling a list of “Helpful Resources” we found most valuable for the internship as well as our own work. A sample of what we have so far can be found below. This list is in addition to the Style Sheet of the FCH Annals: Journal of the Florida Conference of Historians which can be found at http://www.floridaconferenceofhistorians.org/style-sheet.html. Abby and I plan to finish the semester out with one more paper each. This has truly been such a great experience!
Thank you for traveling on the journey of my internship with the Florida Conference of Historians! 😊
Do
*Make sure to use past tense and remain consistent with verb tense when discussing the work of historians. [For instance: Dr. Farless states, argues, suggests or Dr. Farless stated, argued, suggested...not both tenses.] For more information see A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, 79-80.
*Make good use of primary documents for evidence.
*Use headings and subheadings for a lengthy paper.
*Per Dr. Farless: Each paragraph or sentence should have a point. The essay should be 20% Summary and 80% Analysis.
Don’t
*Do not use passive voice [am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been + past participle. For example: You wrote the paper. not The paper was written by you.]
*Do not use present tense for writing about the past.
*Do not include tertiary sources such as Bibliography.com
*Do not use textbooks as a secondary source.
*Do not use “ibid.” Chicago Manual of Style prefers shortened citations: https://www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/book/ed17/part3/ch14/psec034.html.
Helpful Resources
https://knowtechie.com/how-do-i-check-for-passive-voice-in-microsoft-word/ (to find passive voice)
Rampolla, Mary Lynn. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2018.
*The search bar at the top of a Word document is helpful to see how often a word is used - to avoid redundancy - as well to ensure the Bibliography and footnotes match - to avoid an inflated bibliography.
Here are a few images from our Final Presentation:
