History Subject Guide

Before delving into your research, it is important to make sure that you understand what the assignment and your professor are asking of you. A good way to organize the specifics of the prompt is to identify these details:

• Subject:  Is there a general theme for the assignment (e.g., Vietnam War, American Indians, etc.)?
• Location: Does your assignment require you to focus on a specific area (e.g., Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, etc.)
• Time: Does your assignment require you to focus on a specific time period (e.g., post-World War II, pre-1800s)?
• Audience: Who are you writing this for (e.g., historians, general audience)?
• Format: How does the professor want you to present your final product (e.g., podcast, posterboard, PowerPoint, a 15-page paper)?
• Rubric: How is the professor assessing your work (e.g., number of sources, word count)?

If you have any questions about the assignment, ask your professor for clarification. 

Choosing a specific topic can feel like a lot of pressure, so a good way to navigate this step is by conducting some broad, preliminary research. Start looking into the general subject of your research assignment and take note of anything that sounds particularly interesting to you or anything you would like to learn more about. (Remember to stick to the specifics of your assignment; don't stray too far from the subject, time, or location.) 

There is a fine line between too broad and too narrow, but it is relatively easy to fix either of these problems. If your topic is too broad, just keep digging! Read some articles on the period until you pick up on a more specific theme or idea. If your topic is too narrow (i.e., there are not enough sources available), then expand your focus a bit!

It can be difficult to figure out a topic, so if you need some help narrowing down your topic, visit a SPRC, or your professor for more advice!

Once you've settled on a more narrow, specialized topic, you can begin asking questions. A research question is what you would like to learn through your research. Good research questions should, in general, be open-ended, debatable, and succinct. 

Robert C. Williams provides multiple examples of good, historical research questions. For example, good research questions may:

• "ask how or why an event happened"
  • Ex. Why (or How) did Peter the Great "westernize" Russia?
• "ask what the consequences were of a particular event"
  • Ex. How did the Treaty of Tordesillas shape European expansion and influence the developments that followed?
• "discuss the intellectual origins of a particular idea" (Williams 52)
  • Ex. What factors influenced the beginnings of the second wave feminist movement?

Williams, Robert C. The Historian's Toolbox: A Student's Guide to the Theory and Craft of History. Second ed. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2007.

Frequent Mistakes to Avoid!

Kristin Poling from the History Department of Harvard presents seven frequent mistakes in formulating a research question:

1.  Questions should not be able to be answered with one sentence or a simple yes or no. It should be nuanced enough that multiple different answers could suffice, prompting deeper analysis.

2. Questions should not deal with "what if" dilemmas.

3. Questions should not be based on hasty assumptions or generalizations. These limit your ability to research all sides of an argument.

4. Questions should not be too specific or excessive. It might be hard to tell if your question is too specific at first, but you will be able to tell once you start looking for resources.

5. Questions should not be based on predictions or vagueness. Research requires an actual historical basis.

6. Questions should not provide any moral assessment (unless otherwise stated). It is important to use an objective view in research.

7.  Questions should remain relevant with the time period at hand. A lot of present-day concepts did not exist until more recent centuries; it would not be effective to apply these modern ideas to past events.