Senior Essay Handbook
History 498 & 499 : 2007-2008
Senior Essay Handbook (MS Word Document)
*HIST 498A or B and 499A or B, The Senior Essay.
Paul Bushkovitch (Director).
HTBA II; NOT CR/D/F (O)
There will be a mandatory senior essay meeting on Monday, September 10th, 2007, in 114 SSS at 4 p.m.
Preparation of the required senior departmental essay under the supervision of a member of the faculty. To assist in selection of source materials and of a topic, special Library Resource and Method colloquia are held during the fall term. Students must attend one colloquium; those planning to start their senior essay work in January should attend in September.
Students expecting to graduate in May enroll in 498a during the fall term and complete their essays in 499b in the spring term. December graduates enroll in 498b in the spring term and complete their essays in 499a during the following fall term. Students planning to begin their essay in the second term should notify the senior essay director by December 3, 2007. Each student majoring in History must present a completed Statement of Intention, signed by a departmental member who has agreed to serve as adviser, to the undergraduate history administrator in 237 HGS no later than September 17, 2007 (for HIST 498a), or January 25, 2008 (for HIST 498b). Blank statement forms are available in 237 HGS before the end of a student's junior year, and thereafter in the Senior Essay handbook.
In addition to attending at least one Library Resource and Method colloquium and preparing the Statement of Intention, students enrolled in HIST 498a or 498b submit to their advisers a prospectus of the essay and an annotated bibliography during the course of the term, and at least ten pages of the essay or a detailed outline of the entire project by December 10, 2007 (498a), or May 5, 2008 (498b). Those who meet these requirements receive a temporary grade of "sat", which will be changed to the grade received by the essay upon its completion. Failure to meet any requirement may result in the student's being asked to withdraw from HIST 498a or b.
Students enrolled in HIST 499a or 499b must submit a completed essay to 211 HGS no later than 5 p.m. on April 7, 2008, in the spring term, or no later than 5 p.m. on December 10,2007, in the fall term. Essays submitted after 5 p.m. will be considered as having been turned in on the following day. If the essay is submitted late without an excuse from the student's residential college dean, the penalty is one letter grade for the first day and one-half letter grade for each of the next two days past the deadline. No essay that would otherwise pass will be failed because it is late, but late essays will not be considered for departmental or Yale College prizes. All senior departmental essays will be judged by members of the faculty other than the adviser. In order to graduate from Yale College, a student majoring in History must achieve a passing grade on the departmental essay.
The essays should take the form of substantial articles, not longer than 12,500 words (approximately forty double-spaced typewritten pages), with the total word count given at the end of the essay. This is a maximum limit; there is no minimum requirement. Length will vary according to the topic and the historical techniques employed. Essays generally run between 10,000 and 12,500 words. The limitation on length is regarded as important because precision, clarity, and conciseness are essential to good historical writing. A brief evaluation of major sources is required. Consult the director of the senior essay course for details. (Formerly HIST 495a or b and 496a or b).
