As the semester comes to a close for many people, and that paper or final you've put off studying for looms just around the corner, it seems the perfect time to use this series for our periodic revisiting of the "Homework Questions" rule. Not that this time of the year has an exclusive hold on them, but we often do find there to be an uptick either in questions which are explicitly regarding schoolwork, or else smell suspiciously similar without disclosing it (and to be clear, we are pretty good at sniffing them out, even if we won't help you out here by saying exactly what we look for!). To start off, we don't prohibit you asking questions regarding your homework here in /r/AskHistorians. Our rules state:

Our users aren't here to do your homework for you, but they might be willing to help. Remember: AskHistorians helps those who help themselves. Don't just give us your essay/assignment topic and ask us for ideas. Do some research of your own, then come to us with questions about what you've learned.

That is to say, if you are looking for help, don't make /r/AskHistorians your first stop. If you do some research, come here and be honest about what your assignment is and give us a run down of what your research is showing you so far, you'll find users here being quite amenable to lending a hand and pointing you in the right direction.

So what do good homework questions look like?

• I'm writing an essay on the development of the bolt-action rifle, and the effect it had on warfare in the latter-half of the 19th century. I've mainly been focusing on the Austro-Prussian War, and the clear dominance that the Dreyse showed over Lorenz Rifle, and the Franco-Prussian War, where the Chassepot in turn showed itself to be superior to the Dreyse. What I'm tripping up on however is why, after its strong showing (even if the French lost) the Chassepot so quickly was regarded as obsolete. If someone could help me out here, or point me in the right direction, that would be great!

Explains what the assignment is and demonstrates that they have already done research already (although even this is on the brief side of what we'd like to see. You really should be giving us a proper paragraph or two). More importantly, it is about an explicit point of interest within the topic that they are having trouble with.

• I'm doing an assignment about the influence of the printing press on literacy in the 15th to 16th centuries. I've read X, Y, and Z, and my thesis will most likely be ______. I'm looking for any more sources that might help me move further in my research, or that might offer a counter point to the perspective I've gotten so far. Thank you!

Asking for sources is perfectly fine, and if anything, is our most preferred type of homework question! Same as before though, make sure you are demonstrating to us your commitment and prior base of work. Simply asking other people for books though shouldn't be your first stop, and we really hope that you'll first consider using our six-part series "Finding and Understanding Sources" to get started when looking for sources. It is a fantastic resource created by our flaired users, offering great advice on the research process.

A few examples of how not to ask, and how you can improve the question

• I need to write an essay on a topic regarding the Renaissance. What should I write about?

I don't know... What did you learn about in class? What resonated with you? We can throw topics at you, but that isn't going to help you any. You need to write about something you connect with, not what a stranger on the internet happens to enjoy, and that is skipping over the fact that being able to analyze the topic and come up with a good theme for an essay is a key skill that you need to learn in school!

• I have an exam on 13th Century French Art coming up! What should I know about for it?

• I'm writing an essay on the 1968 May Days in France. What points should I talk about in it?

Check your notes. Read through your text books. Check your library or an online resource such as JSTOR for useful sources. No one here is going to do your work for you. Come back when you have specific questions that remain a roadblock for you after doing research. If you are looking for advice on how to get started, check out the "Finding and Understanding Sources" collection, which can provide you with some great advice, but it does you no good to get someone else to do your research for you.

• Compare and contrast the social influence of the works of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.

We have pretty good noses for homework questions, since we all had to answer them ourselves, and many of us are now in the business of writing them. This one is super obvious, but we catch many that aren't. Please, be honest and upfront. And also, Google indexes these pages. We have flaired members of the sub who found us when checking students' papers for plagiarism! So even if we don't catch you, your teacher might, and that is much, much worse! Plagiarism on this sub gets you banned from an internet forum. Plagiarism in school can get you expelled from the institution.

So that's about the sum of it. As we said at the beginning, /r/AskHistorians loves to help those who help themselves, and as long as you show up here being honest about the assignment, and being clear about what you already have done and how we can assist, you'll find people eager to show you the way. But questions which do not conform to this policy will be removed.