When I began studying Puritan women, I felt overwhelmed. There was something different happening in the primary and secondary texts than what I was used to, even after years of studying historical theology and writing papers. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gleaned the type of information needed to analyze these issues from my previous classes, probably because it is the kind of thing that is mentioned by professors in passing or taught through example and is highly influenced by their areas of expertise. Yet, after making many mistakes, I finally began to understand the shape of historical studies on women and found that other students were coming across the same questions I had to work through. This led me to create a list of guiding principles for those writing their first paper on a woman in church history.