Expand your bibliography Range broadly in your search for source materials. Often, students get so engrossed in their topic that they fail to establish a broad research base. Just because you have tracked down a substantial body of relevant primary material does not mean that your paper has a complete bibliography. What is often missing is the supporting secondary literature to show that you haven't written your paper in a vacuum and that you understand the basic historical issues connected to your topic. Be creative in building both a primary and secondary bibliography.
Many students limit themselves to materials on the immediate topic at hand.
That should not be the case. Block quotations should be indented one half inch on the left margin, but never on the right margin. Any quotation longer than five lines should be put into a block. Avoid short paragraphs that are only two or three sentences in length. In some cases this works well for effect, but more often than not it makes your writing sound choppy.