The History Paper, Part II: The Position Paper

Bruce C. Smith

DEFINITION: A POSITION PAPER IS A RESEARCH PAPER THAT SEEKS TO PERSUADE THE READER TO ACCEPT A PARTICULAR POINT OF VIEW.

PURPOSE: TO TRAIN STUDENTS TO USE IDEAS IN A THOUGHTFUL AND CONSTRUCTIVE WAY.

In these position papers I would like you to answer a historical question in a convincing manner.  As in the case with professional historians, sources will limit your choice of topics, and it is important that you secure sufficient materials for the topic you have chosen as early in the research process as possible!  Until you have the sources in hand, you do not have a viable topic.

This last point cannot be emphasized enough.  Students have a tendency to pick a topic which sounds good, but then they neglect to secure the materials needed to construct the paper.  When the time to write presses upon them, they often discover that their sources are insufficient for a proper paper.  Set a deadline for securing research materials, after which a topic may not be changed without penalty.  Hand out a list of questions, but insist that the students formulate their own positions.  Before proceeding, require instructor approval of the positions.  This catches many ill-constructed positions before they lead to disaster.

The position should not be too simple or too difficult.  An unacceptable position would be to prove that you have an opinion or that something undisputed merely happened.  You may not, for example, set up your position like this: “The purpose of this paper is to state my view on the Kennedy assassination.”  Also unacceptable would be: “The purpose of this paper is to show that barbarians sacked Rome in 476 A.D.”  Additionally, you should not attempt to prove something that historians or archaeologists have failed to solve themselves.  An example of this would be: “The purpose of this paper is to prove that the Ark of the Covenant is actually in a warehouse in Tashkent.”  Another example would be: “The purpose of this paper is to prove that Cro-magnon people actually arrived on earth aboard flying saucers.”  While the position does not have to be controversial, it does have to be plausible.

Once you have found the sources and read enough to know how to answer the question, the guiding statement can be formulated.  This is a crucial step.  The position must be conceptualized in a single sentence BEFORE planning the structure of the paper.  Do not fail to do this.  Begin this sentence as follows: “The purpose of this paper is to prove that . . . .”  Use this wording and put the completed sentence in the introduction as your statement of purpose for the paper.  The grade will be based primarily on how well you formulate this sentence and carry out its implications.  Every sentence in the paper should relate directly to this guiding statement.  Any sentence that does not do this should not be in the paper!

If the guiding statement is well-written, it should suggest the internal structure of the body of the paper.  Look for this and spend the time necessary to build your guiding statement correctly.  Doing so will make the task of writing much easier.  It should take you much longer to do the research and write the guiding statement correctly and plan the structure of the body than to actually compose the paragraphs themselves.  If your planning is done well, you will know exactly how to write your paper.  Writing will be the easy part. 

Students never believe me when I tell them this, but it is true.  For the most part, they have written papers by beginning with a single source and wading into writing the text of a paper.  They lack organization and a plan.  If they create a plan first, they will be much less likely to get lost and begin rambling.

Here is a sample of the technique.  Beware!  The planning process looks simple, but it must be done thoroughly in order to work.

A.   Begin with a Question: Why did General Marshall’s 1949 mission to China fail?

B.   Do the Research.  This should be the most time-consuming part of the process.  The research answers the question.

C.   Formulate the Guiding Statement: The purpose of this paper is to prove that General Marshall’s peace mission to China failed because he had misconceptions about the situation there and these misconceptions led to his failure.

D.   Use the Guiding Statement to Create the Paper’s Structure: Body structure in this case: two sections

  1.  Marshall had misconceptions
  a.  He was confused about the    goals of the Nationalists
  b.  He was confused about the    goals of the Communists
  c.   He did not understand Chinese    culture
  d.   He did not understand Chinese    history and tradition

  2.  These misconceptions led to the   failure of the mission
  a.  Because he misunderstood the    goals of the Nationalists and    Communists, unification of the    factors was unlikely
  b.  Because he did not understand    the culture, Marshall’s under-   standing of concepts and agree   ments differed from that of the    Chinese leaders
  c.  Because he did not understand    Chinese history, Marshall    pressed for arrangements that    had not been successful in the    past.

E.   Use each point to create a topic sentence to begin each paragraph.  The paragraph should present evidence to support the one point and nothing else.  These paragraphs constitute the body of the paper.

F.   Write the conclusion.

G.   Using the guiding statement as the first sentence, write the introduction.

Points a, b, c, and d under part one and points a, b, and c under part two are each the cores of the topic sentences for each of the seven paragraphs of the body.  A topic sentence is a guiding statement for that particular paragraph.  Everything in the paragraph relates directly to the guiding statement.  Ergo, every sentence in the paper relates directly to the guiding statement.  It is then clear where each paragraph break belongs and what to put into each one.  Use subheads if desired and be careful to use transitions between the parts of the paper and between sections within the parts.  This reduces the odds of the reader getting lost.  Make your paper easy to follow and understand.  To help with this, have someone who spells well read the paper for flow and then for spelling and typographical errors.  The length of the paper can be easily controlled by adding or subtracting relevant topic points.  These should be listed in order of their importance, and the student should write about the most important ones, omitting the less relevant ones.  If the paper is a little short, an additional point can be considered.  If it is too long, the last, least important point can be eliminated.

A well-written paper consists of three primary sections as follows:

I.  Introduction.  Start the introduction with the guiding statement.  The remainder of the introduction is written only after the body and conclusion have been finished. It is used to elaborate on the position and to provide any brief general background material.  One paragraph should be sufficient, and there is rarely any need to go beyond the first page.

II.  Body (written only after the guiding statement has been constructed) of several paragraphs.

III.  Conclusion (written after the body to give a summary of the argument, but using no new evidence) of one paragraph.

My experience has been that two such papers need to be assigned in a class.  The students use the first paper to get the “hang” of the writing process, doing much better on the second one.  Skillful evaluation (and revision, if necessary) of their guiding statements is very important.  I usually give greater weight to the second one and make it a little longer.  A first paper of 6-8 pages might be followed by an assignment of 7-10 pages.  I often provide a list of questions, but it must be made very clear that choosing a question from the list does not mean that the available sources will support such a choice.  Once they pass the concept hurdles, students should be able to work with minimal support.  I have used this assignment successfully in both high school and college classes.