How to Write a History Research Paper

History research papers can be pretty daunting, but they're not too difficult so long as you give yourself plenty of time and structure your research and writing constructively. Here are a few tips that will help you write a winning research paper, or at least one that will give you a passing grade a few extra hours of sleep.

First, don't procrastinate! You can get away with procrastinating for other kinds of papers, but you really can't do it with research papers, especially those for a history class. Generally, for a five-to-ten page paper you're given at least two weeks to complete it. Also, if the assignment appears on the syllabus for your class then you really have no excuse to at least start thinking about it in advance. Not procrastinating doesn't mean that you have to hammer out the paper to completion the first day it's assigned. Quite the contrary. I've found that I can't sit down and work on something like a research paper for more than an hour at a time, so it's best to take things in little chunks. If you work on the paper even fifteen minutes a day for the first week then you'll be in good shape for when the deadline looms. An all nighter can turn into a mere two or three hours you have to spend finalizing the project.