Writing well at least requires facility with grammar, spelling, organization, and style, as well as a great deal of practice.
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Most problems of formal style (including use of footnotes) result from a failure to follow explicitly the rules in Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. For History papers, follow examples B (for bibliography entries) and N (for notes) in Chapter 11.

(1) History is written in the past tense, not the present, future, or subjunctive. 

        Subjunctive:  He would be elected president in 1992. 
                   Past:  He was elected president in 1992. 

(2) Write in the active (subject-verb) sense whenever possible. Avoid passive constructions. Sentences in the passive voice have no subject and thus obscure the identity of the main actor. Passives make weak and vague writing. 

         Passive:  It was felt that taxes were too high. 
       Awkward:  It was believed by President Clinton that taxes were too high. 
           Active:  President Clinton believed taxes were too high. 

(3) Do not use verb forms of to feel when you mean think, believe, argue, and the like. See the example above. Feel means “to handle or touch in order to examine, test, or explore some quality.” Feel has a secondary meaning of “to be aware by instinct or inference” and carries the emotional connotations of sensation, inclination, and intuition—but not rational thought. 

(4) Avoid first-person language, such as in my personal opinion, I believe that, and it seems to me. Readers assume that you are the author of any ideas, opinions, or conclusions expressed in your paper not attributed to someone else. There is no need to draw attention to yourself needlessly. 

(5) Do not interject yourself into formal writing at all. Avoid writing that relies on I, me, my, and other first person references. Do not explain how you got interested in your topic, how you did your research, what problems you encountered, or anything else about the process of your work unless essential to your essay. In those rare cases, footnotes are probably the appropriate place for such extraneous comments. 

(6) Avoid indefinite use of the pronouns we and us. It is rarely clear to whom these pronouns refer (the writer and her friends, an exclusive group of insiders, all college students—who?). References to we and us rarely add any meaning to what are otherwise clear ideas. 

(7) Take care that all pronouns have proper antecedents. When you write he, they, it, and other pronouns, these pronouns must refer unambiguously to some person or thing just previously mentioned. Pronouns must agree in number and gender with the nouns to which they refer. They and their can never refer to any singular person or entity, such as a country, Congress, someone or everyone. 

    Incorrect:  England started the war. They felt France had broken the treaty. 
      Correct:  England started the war, because the king was convinced France had
                      broken the treaty.

    Incorrect:  Everyone picked their own topic. 
         Awful:  Everyone picked his or her own topic. 
     Solution:  Students picked their own topics. 

(8) Avoid unnecessary use of the word fact, as in the awkward construction due to the fact that. In most cases, because will substitute just fine. 

   Awkward:  Due to the fact that it was raining, Jane got wet. 
        Direct:  Jane got wet because it was raining. 

(9) Do not depend blindly on computers to find the right word. Computer spell checkers can insure that all words are spelled correctly, but you must choose the correct word. A computer thesaurus may also suggest many synonyms, but take care to use only words whose meanings you know. 

(10) Follow the advice of  Strunk and White, The Elements of Style.