One of the easiest ways to spot weak historical writing is to look at the first sentence of each paragraph.
Many paragraphs begin with narrative phrases like these:
• “The document explains…”
• “The author describes…”
• “The text states…”
These openings signal that the writer is about to summarize the source rather than analyze it.
Summary has its place. Historians must explain sources clearly. But when too many paragraphs begin this way, the writing becomes a report on documents rather than an argument about the past.
There is a simple trick that can fix this problem.
Start with the interpretation, not the document.
Consider the difference between these two openings.
Weak opening:
The document explains the fugitive slave clause.
This sentence tells the reader what the document contains, but it does not make an argument. The paragraph that follows will likely continue describing the document.
Now compare that with a stronger opening:
Story’s interpretation of the fugitive slave clause illustrates how the Supreme Court helped nationalize the protection of slavery before the Civil War.
This sentence does something very different. It makes a claim about what the document reveals about the larger historical moment.
Once the paragraph begins this way, the writer must provide evidence to support that interpretation.
The paragraph now has a job to do.
When paragraphs begin with interpretive claims, the entire structure of the writing changes.
Instead of asking, “What does this document say?” the writer asks:
What does this document demonstrate?
What does it reveal?
What does it suggest about the historical moment?
Those questions naturally lead to analysis.
The document becomes evidence supporting an argument rather than the subject of the paragraph itself.
Historians rarely organize their writing around documents alone. Instead, they organize their writing around ideas and arguments.
Documents provide the evidence that supports those ideas.
This means that the paragraph should begin with the idea.
The evidence comes next.
Once writers adopt this habit, their paragraphs begin to resemble historical arguments rather than descriptive summaries.
Take a paragraph from something you have written recently about a primary source.
Look at the first sentence.
Does it begin with a phrase like “The document explains” or “The author describes”?
Now rewrite that sentence as an interpretive claim.
Ask yourself:
What does this source reveal about the historical moment?
Start the paragraph with that claim, then use the document as evidence supporting it.
You may find that the entire paragraph becomes stronger once the argument comes first.
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