You've probably heard of the six “journalist's questions”: who, what, when, where, how, and why. To a large degree, they are also the historian's questions; and may be good things to know about before you write that great paper about history.
Thus, I will spend some time here on each one of them, and show you the issues that might be raised by any one of them. You might not have to answer all six of them for every one of your papers, but giving some thought to each of them is not necessarily a bad idea, and might make the difference between a hit paper and a miss paper.
Who
For some historical questions, a particular name is all that's needed. When most people ask: “Who was the first president of the United States?”, the only answer that they typically want is “George Washington.” They don't want to know what kind of person he was, what his personality was, or why his presidency was significant. They just want to know his name – and for many historical things, that may be all that's needed.
George Washington
But we don't always know the exact identity of all of the participants in some historical events. In discussing spies in the Cold War, for instance, you don't always know the identity of certain Soviet agents or American agents – you sometimes have to make a guess. Just as with a murder mystery, “whodunit” may be an important question for this paper. For the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, for example, most people know the identity of his killer – “John Wilkes Booth.” But for other historical assassinations, the murderer's identity may be something of a mystery, and may be the key question to consider for that paper. If so, be prepared to support your theory of who did it, who helped them do it, and whose bungling failed to prevent it from happening (if any).
Double agent Aldrich Ames, whose real allegiance was to the Soviet Union
Even for more ordinary “who” questions, it may be helpful to talk about who they are – supplying a mere name might not be enough. What kind of person was John Wilkes Booth, for instance? What were his social and political views? What was his grievance with Abraham Lincoln's policies? These things might give some insight into other important questions (like why he did it), and give some context that might be appreciated in your paper. It's not necessary for every assignment, of course, but consider finding out about major participants in most cases. What you learn about them could change everything about how you approach your paper.
John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Abraham Lincoln
What
For some historical questions, the “what” may be fairly easy. It might not even have to be phrased as a “what” question for all assignments – you just say what it is, and go from there. For example, “The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest that the world ever came to nuclear war.” This is true, and this sentence doesn't have the word “what” anywhere in it. It just said what the Cuban Missile Crisis was, and went from there.
Photos of the missiles in Cuba taken from a U-2 reconnaissance plane, 1962
Of course, a good paper about the Cuban Missile Crisis might need to go into more detail on some of these things. A good paper, for example, might say that “The Americans blockaded Cuba, but they couldn't call it a 'blockade,' because a 'blockade' was legally defined as an act of war. Instead, they called it a 'quarantine,' and the Soviets never officially accused them of 'blockading.' They just tried to fight it through other means, and got some of their ships through anyway without the Americans knowing it. By the time the Americans discovered that more missiles were getting through, it was too late – they were already unloaded on the island, within range of the United States. At that point, only an American invasion could have gotten them off without Soviet consent.” This is a very powerful descriptor of “what happened,” and can add considerable drama to your paper. Your paper doesn't need to be an Emmy-award-winning drama series, of course, but nor should it be boring. The teacher will probably like these interesting details, and might actually grade you better if you show your knowledge of them.
American blockade of Cuba (a. k. a. “quarantine”), 1962
People get bored when they read nothing but facts, and teachers are no exception. Be mindful of their interest, and consider livening things up with a good story. This may actually go a long way toward answering the questions of “what?” for your paper.
Top-secret meetings in the Kennedy administration about the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
When
For some historical questions, the exact timing is not known for certain. We can only say “circa such-and-such a date” for certain dates – or in other words, that it happened around a particular time, and not necessarily at that time. For other events, the chronological question may be comparatively easy. For example, if one were to ask: “When did the United States declare independence from Great Britain?”, your task may be a little easier. Many would just content themselves with saying “July 4th, 1776” – and for many people, that's all that they would want to know. But if you were writing a paper about the Declaration of Independence, you might actually want to know something about the true significance of this date.
John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence
For example, you might want to ask: “Did the war start that day, or did it start sometime before then?” “Actually, it had already been going on for over a year.” “When did this war begin?” “April 19th, 1775.” “What happened that day?” “Shots were fired at Lexington and Concord.” “Which side fired first?” “No one knows for sure.” “What led up to the Declaration of Independence?” “The Stamp Act, the 'Intolerable Acts' – things like that.” With answers like these, you begin to sense the true complexity of these issues. Timing can be important, and some assignments might actually require more than just saying “The United States declared its independence on July 4th, 1776.” Giving some context for these events might be helpful (or even crucial), and give the reader an appreciation for why this timing is significant.
Independence Hall
This will not be essential for every assignment, of course, but it may be helpful for many of them. Consider digging deeper into the significance of the timing, especially for the very moment that it happened.
Where
For some historical events, the exact location is not known for certain. In the medieval Crusades, for example, no one knows for certain where the Battle of Dorylaeum took place. Many sites have been proposed, but none of them are generally accepted by everyone. This is thus some debate about this among the relevant archaeologists, and so the “where” of this battle is actually somewhat difficult to answer here.
Battle of Dorylaeum, 1097
For other events, the location question may be comparatively easy. For example, if you were to ask “Where was the Battle of Gettysburg?”, your task is a little easier. But even here, you might want to know something about the significance of this battle's location. “Where's Gettysburg?,” for example. “In Pennsylvania.” “Where's Pennsylvania?” “In the United States.” “Which side of the Civil War was Pennsylvania on – the Northern side, or the Southern side?” “As it turns out, it was on the Northern side.” “So in a war where most of the battles took place on the Southern soil, this one actually took place on Northern soil?” “Yeah, that's what I'm saying.” All of this is correct, incidentally, and it might be important stuff to know if you're writing a paper about the Battle of Gettysburg. Thus, it may be helpful to go deeper than just saying “It was at Gettysburg,” or “it was in Pennsylvania.” If you actually know what's significant about the location, your paper might be a little better, than if you didn't know any of these things.
Battle of Gettysburg, 1863
Consider digging deeper into the location, and why it's significant for the event.
How
Answering “how” questions is often one of the most crucial parts of your paper. “How did the United States crack the Japanese codes during World War II?” is a fairly technical and demanding question. You would probably need some training in cryptanalysis to give a full answer to this question. Fortunately, your history teachers usually won't expect you to go that deep; but they might expect you to know that the Americans had a cipher machine that helped them to crack the Japanese codes, if they were asking you to write a paper on this topic. For some “how” questions, for example, an acceptable answer might be as simple as this. For others, it might be a bit more complicated (depending on the question), and might be one of the most crucial parts of your paper.
American M-209 cipher machine from World War II
For example, “How was slavery abolished in the United States?” “By the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.” “How was the Thirteenth Amendment passed?” “It was passed via the specified amendment procedures in the original Constitution.” “Yeah, but how did it get enough support to be passed in the first place?” “During the Civil War, the abolitionist movement actually grew large enough to have some popular support, which it had never really enjoyed to the same degree before.” “How long had the abolitionist movement been around by that time, anyway?” “Many decades.” “How did the abolitionist movement get so many followers by that time?” And so on, and so forth.
Frederick Douglass, abolitionist leader and former slave
“How” questions are often as much about why as how, and may be crucial questions to answer for your paper. Consider digging deeper into the causes of the matter, and you'll be able to show how great things happened in history.
Why
Just as with other things in life, the “why” question is often the most difficult to answer. “Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor? Why was the American fleet so unprepared there?” Sometimes you have to answer the other questions first, before you can even begin to answer the “why” questions. For example, you might have to know who attacked Pearl Harbor, or how the American fleet was painfully unprepared for this attack. You might have to explore issues of psychological motivation for some events. For others, you might have to discuss technical causation, as with “How did the United States get the atomic bomb when it did?” This might help to answer a “why” question like “Why did we get it before any other nation did?”
USS Arizona sinking at Pearl Harbor, 1941
Either way, your paper's analysis of “why” has to be reasonably well-thought-out, and sufficiently in-depth to satisfy whoever your teacher is. This may be the most crucial part of the paper for some subjects. Be prepared to answer these questions in any case, and you might think about being open to exploring several different causes for a single event. Some things in history have just one cause, of course, but many do not, and we can't expect to account for all of them with just one explanation. You don't have to go overboard on this, of course, but your paper should probably show that you've thought about it, at least. Be prepared to answer the “why” question in some depth, as your teacher desires.
“Trinity” explosion in New Mexico, 1945 – the world's first nuclear detonation
One kind of “why” question may actually be common enough to require some special commentary, which is “Why should I believe your take on this? In other words, what evidence do you have?” In some papers, this may be a major focus, and could be worth an entire blog post all its own. Whatever your theory, be prepared to defend it in your paper; and show that you've thought about (at least some of) the arguments against it. Your paper may be graded more generously if you have.
Closing thoughts
All six of these questions are vital questions for most history papers, but not all of them will need to be answered for every history paper. Moreover, no one has to spend the same amount of time on any of these sections as they do on another, and some of these questions may be easier to answer for some papers than others.
But if you think about the issues raised here in some depth, you'll probably be better-prepared than if you just say “The Battle of Gettysburg was in Pennsylvania,” or “the United States declared independence on July 4th, 1776.” Even a few basic facts may go a long way towards establishing some critical context for these events, and may make the difference between a lousy paper and a great one.
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Some thoughts about history education
Why the distant past isn't talked about
My passion for history
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Learning the basics of Ancient Greek from a book
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