Spelling

Obviously, spelling mistakes are unacceptable in academic writing. This research manual does not provide extensive spelling rules. If you need help, consult an online dictionary (www.oxforddictionaries.com, www.merriam-webster.com) or one of the many websites and online forums (grammarist.com/spelling, forum.wordreference.com)

Subject-verb agreement

The general rule is that subject and verb must agree: a singular subject takes a singular verb, a plural subject takes a plural verb:

The King issues a decree.
The Franks were a union of Germanic tribes.

Some combinations of nouns and verbs are exceptions to the rule. For example, the names of some countries may be plural, but when they are the subject, the verb is singular.

The United States is a democracy.
The Netherlands was a Republic.
Similarly (and unlike Dutch usage): The United Nations has adopted a resolution.

Most collective nouns can take either a singular or plural verb: (The government is of the opinion…. or The government are raising taxes…). In formal writing the singular verb form is preferable. One exception is ‘the police’, a collective noun that always takes a plural: The police were late to arrive at the scene.

Although ‘a number of’ and ‘a lot of ’ are grammatically singular, they often take a plural verb when the noun that follows denotes a plural, hence:

A lot of people were present. (but: A lot of money was spent.)
Only a small number of slaves were able to buy their freedom.

Percentages are either singular or plural, depending on whether they refer to a singular or plural.

Some 25% of the GDP was diverted to military spending.
About 90% of the residents were against the proposed changes.

Pronouns

Which or who?

‘Who’ refers to people, while ‘which’ refers to groups or things.

Gavrilo Princip was the man who started the First World War.
Many people in former East Germany were keen to read their Stasi files, which were opened to the public in 1992.

That or Which?

‘That’ introduces an essential clause. Essential clauses add information that is vital to the point of the sentence. ‘Which’ introduces a nonessential clause, which adds supplementary information.

The bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were designed to force Japan to surrender.
The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.

Note that essential clauses do not have commas introducing or surrounding them, whereas nonessential clauses are introduced or surrounded by commas.

Which or What?

Which and what both refer to a choice, but ‘which’ refers to a choice from a limited set of options and ‘what’ refers to a choice from an unlimited supply. Therefore, both of the following examples are correct:

We need to assess which changes are required. (which of a given set of changes)
We need to see what changes are necessary. (what changes from all possible changes)

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns (his, her, its, their) must agree in number with the noun they refer to. Most nouns that do not refer to people are referred to as ‘it’, using ‘its’ as the possessive pronoun. Only ships are referred to as ‘she’ and ‘her’.

The government and its relationship with Poland….The United Kingdom is changing its tax system.

Tense

Simple Past or Present Perfect?

Historians tend to write about the past. However, the English rules for writing about the past differ from the Dutch rules. One key rule is: if the sentence describes (or even implies) an occurrence or series of events from a specific time in the past (which is now over), you must use the simple past.

WRONG During the war, Churchill has continued as First Lord of the Admiralty.
RIGHT     During the war, Churchill continued as First Lord of the Admiralty.

WRONG He has been the Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945.
RIGHT     He was the Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945.

WRONG Thatcher has signed the contract a few minutes ago.
RIGHT     Thatcher signed the contract a few minutes ago.

Present Perfect

Another important rule for writing about the past is: when something started in the past, but it is still the case or going on, you must use the present perfect (rather than the present as many native speakers of Dutch tend to do). The words ‘yet’ and ‘since’ (in a temporal sense) are a clear signal that you need to use the present perfect.

Mark Rutte has been Prime Minister of the Netherlands since October 2010.
He has not yet told the full story.

‘For’ may also be a clue that you should use the present perfect, but ‘for’ can also be used in conjunction with the simple past. Using a different tense changes the meaning of the sentence.

David Cameron was Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications for seven years. (it is no longer the case)
He has been Director of Corporate Affairs for seven years. (he started 7 years ago and he still is now)

Present

Limit your use of the present tense to the content of documents that can still be consulted today:
‘His memoirs show’ or ‘In his overview, the author mentions…’

Sometimes the present tense is used to list a series of past events. This use of the present tense is known as the ‘historic present’. It gives the narrative an immediacy it would lack in the past tense: ‘Minutes later, a second plane crashes into the other tower. It is clearly no accident, but a deliberate attack.’ Although this technique is acceptable, its use is far more limited in English than in Dutch. Use it sparingly and only for short passages of text.

If and When

If and when have distinct meanings. ‘If’ is used to express a possibility, ‘when’ to express a certainty.

If they win the election, they will lower taxes. (they might lose)
When the polls close in Wyoming, the Republicans will surely come out winners. (The polls will close; there can be no doubt about that)

Both ‘if’ and ‘when’ are used to write about the future, but as you can see only the main clause takes the future tense (will). The ‘if/when’ clause takes a present tense.

If Drees wins, he will keep his electoral promises.

Note that when you write about the past, the difference between ‘if’ and ‘when’ is visible in the tenses as well. Using ‘if’, the main clause takes a past future tense (would), while the ‘if’ clause takes a past tense:

If the Conservatives had won the 1945 elections, Churchill would not have become leader of the opposition.

Using ‘when’, both clauses take a past tense:

When the Conservatives lost, Churchill was relegated to the opposition.

Introducing Individuals

When you first mention a person in your text by name, it is good practice to briefly introduce them. For example: ‘British historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote extensively about….’

• At first mention, it is preferable to include the person’s first and last names (Eric Hobsbawm). Subsequently, use their last name only. ‘As Hobsbawm argues, …..’ Do not include people’s academic titles in your main text, unless the title itself is pertinent to your research.

WRONG ‘British historian Eric Hobsbawm, PhD. wrote extensively about….’

• Introducing someone only by their first initial followed by their last name, as is still frequently done in Dutch academic writing (e.g. E. Hobsbawm), is no longer common practice in English.

When to use italics

• Italicize the titles of magazines, books, newspapers, academic journals, films, television shows, long poems, plays, operas, musical albums, works of art and websites.
• Use italics for words in a foreign language and include a translation or explanation in English in square brackets at first mention:‘The Romanians passed the information on to the Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS [the intelligence wing of the SS and the Nazi party].’
• The names of hotels and famous buildings are capitalized: ‘The Ritz’ and ‘The Flatiron Building’, for instance. The same goes for names of ships, trains, aircraft and spacecraft, but they are italicized as well: USS Missouri, Soyuz, The Orient Express. Note that the tag USS preceding Missouri is not italicized.

Translation

• Do not translate the titles of well-known non-English institutions, books, operas, films and so on, unless there is already a commonly used translation; the ‘Bundestag’ and ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ for instance, require no translation. ‘Die Zauberflöte’, however, is generally known in English as The Magic Flute. More obscure titles can be translated if the wording or meaning of the title is particularly relevant to your paper. Should you need to translate such a title, do so only at first mention [in square brackets] after the original name. Alternatively, give a short explanation of the title or name if you think this is important for the readers’ understanding. See: Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, above.
• Retain the original diacritics in non-English proper names, and words in a foreign language or of foreign origin. So write ‘Slobodan Milošević’ instead of ‘Milosevic’ , ‘Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir’, not ‘Johanna Sigurdardottir’, ‘façade’ rather than ‘facade’ and ‘ménage à trois’ instead of ‘menage a trois’.
• Always use the original English or existing translations into English if you can find them and include these in your notes and references. If you make your own translation, include the original text in a note. Do not assume that your readers can read French, German, Dutch or ancient Greek and Latin, and always provide a translation. In English, fewer Latin phrases are used than in Dutch. Some of those that are common in Dutch do not appear at all in English. For example, ‘quid pro quo’ and ‘ex post facto’ are common in English, but ‘cum suis’ is never used. When in doubt, just rely on plain English.

Abbreviations

• Generally avoid using abbreviations in running text. Use generally accepted abbreviations such as etc., e.g. and i.e. in parentheses only. Write names in full (Second World War, not WW2). Do not use contractions (don’t, can’t) either.
• Never use non-existent abbreviations of your own making (‘a.o.’ for ‘amongst others’). Amongst others is overused by Dutch academics anyway; try using the verb ‘include’ instead: ‘A total of 53 leaders including the Prime Ministers of India, Spain and France were at the funeral.’
• The first time you introduce a concept or proper name, write it in full, followed by its abbreviation or acronym in parentheses, e.g. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Thereafter, refer to this organization by its abbreviation.In a paragraph where the acronym UNHCR appears four times, you could opt to replace it once or twice with the phrase ‘the UN refugee agency,’ as long as this alternative description cannot be confused with any other entity mentioned in your text. Similarly, many other bodies have a commonly used description which you can use to vary your prose.

• If your paper or thesis is full of abbreviations, consider adding a list of abbreviations. Also remember that the more abbreviations a text contains, the less readable it becomes.

When to Use ‘I’

• You may use ‘I’ when describing the research process, your personal interest in the research or your personal conclusions, i.e. in the preface, introduction and conclusion to your paper or thesis. Never use ‘we’ to refer to yourself unless you are part of a team.

Gender-Neutral Language

• Unnecessary gendering of your text can be avoided by using gender-neutral pronouns. One tip is to use ‘their’ to refer back to a generic singular noun in order to avoid the cumbersome possessive ‘his or her’.A global citizen is anyone who sees it as their responsibility to build a sustainable world community for all.

However, English has better ways to avoid gendered language. It is no longer acceptable to include a disclaimer stating that ‘the male pronoun is intended to include women’. Use plurals instead. It is one of the simplest ways to avoid sexist language. Rather than writing ‘Every historian should take his responsibility seriously,’ write ‘Historians should take their responsibility seriously.’

Active, Not Passive

• Writing in the active voice forces you to name who the ‘actor’ is in your sentence: the one who is doing something. Do not make your readers guess who it is by writing passive sentences; this will only irritate them. As soon as you catch yourself writing a passive sentence (it was assumed that….), ask yourself who did the assuming. It is almost always possible to rewrite such a sentence and turn it into an active one (the government, the minister, the people assumed that…).
• Be precise in your wording. Do you actually mean ‘all of the nobility’ when you write ‘Prince Frederick of Prussia was responsible for destroying the German nobility’? Perhaps you mean ‘part of the nobility’ or even that Frederick merely curtailed the German nobility’s political power.
• It is very imprecise to invest nations’ capital cities with agency, therefore do not write ‘London instructed its ambassador in The Hague’ or ‘The Hague’s surprised response…’. Who do you mean when you write The Hague: the government, Parliament, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the King, the Queen or some other person or organization? The more specific you are, the better.

Cui Bono? For Whose Benefit?

• A sentence like ‘The Triest issue was a bone of contention in the relationship with Italy’ is very imprecise and does not tell your readers what was actually going on. Explain who stood to gain (or lose) and what they stood to gain (or lose). In other words, tell your readers exactly what was at stake.
• Similarly, when you write about a ‘clash’ or a ‘conflict’, specify what type of clash or conflict you mean: military, verbal or otherwise. And do not forget to specify who clashed over what, and when.
• What are your readers supposed to think of the following sentence? ‘In their 3000 years of history, they had to deal with the Persians, Romans, Turks and Russians.’ What does this mean? Did they have the same type of relationship with all these different peoples? Did they trade with them? Were they at war with them? Were they occupied by them, or did they look down on them?
• Avoid vague wording like ‘The natives had been restless for a long time.’

About Time

• Be as precise as possible when you mention a time or timeframe. For example, when writing about the ‘first post-war elections’, include the date of those elections.
• Even statements like ‘a long-standing conflict’ or ‘a brief war’ deserve clarification. Why do you consider this long, why brief, and what are you comparing them to? It is always good to mention how long an event or situation lasted: ‘The war in the Dutch East Indies lasted a long time’ should be followed by a sentence specifying the period in which it took place.

 

• Avoid tendentious, populistic or journalistic language. Be consistent in terms of tone. Use formal language, but not overly formal language: ‘In my opinion….’ rather than ‘I am of the opinion that…’ Academic writing contains neither slang (unless this is part of a relevant quote), nor archaic expressions like ‘asunder’ and ‘the fruit of his loins’. Your goal is to inform, not to impress. Emphasize clarity and avoid needlessly complicated sentence structures.
• Explain complicated concepts and historical terms; do not assume that your readers will know what you mean.
• Do not use bullet points and lists, as these do not work in a running text. Bullet points suggest that every point has equal weight. Try incorporating these into the running text and you will find you have to prioritize and emphasize one over the other. This will benefit the logic of your argument.
• Vary the length of your sentences. Take care not to write run-on sentences with lots of subordinate clauses, but also avoid ‘telegramese’. Always write full sentences. These contain at least a subject and a verb. Without a verb, you do not have a full sentence.
• Try to avoid using the same word in two consecutive sentences. Look for synonyms. Instead of ‘administration’ use ‘cabinet’, ‘government’, ‘ministry’, ‘the King and his ministers’, ‘government officials’. Be aware of possible differences in meaning though. ‘Cabinet’ is not exactly the same as ‘government officials’. The latter may include Deputy Ministers, who are not Cabinet members.
• Texts that lack conjunctions can strike readers as stilted. To understand your argument, readers need to see the logical relationship between one sentence and the next. Therefore, pay close attention to your use of conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. Use coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but), correlating conjunctions (not only…but also, neither… nor) and subordinating conjunctions (although, because, even if), and include conjunctive adverbs (subsequently, meanwhile, therefore) wherever appropriate.
• By using signposting, you can ensure your readers do not get lost in the text. If you use ‘firstly’, make sure you follow up with ‘secondly’, ‘thirdly’ and perhaps ‘finally’. If you use ‘on the one hand’, start your next sentence with ‘On the other hand’. If you use ‘not only’, make sure to follow up with ‘but also’.