History Subject Guide

Gathering a list of sources with which you will attempt to answer your focus question is one of the more demanding tasks involved in research. It will involve looking for both primary and secondary sources. Because of the nature of historical research, you should put extra priority on primary sources. This will help you construct your own argument later on. Use secondary sources to determine what other historians are saying (or not saying) about your research question. (Take notes because this will be important in the historiography you will write later.)

For help in this step, browse the subpages on finding primary and secondary sources. You can also set up an appointment with a SPRC!

Once you've read your sources and familiarized yourself with your topic, it is possible to develop an argument. A history paper's argument is the centerpiece of the assignment; you will organize your entire paper around it. 

Here are some characteristics of a good argument:

1. They are succinct and specific. Readers should be able to identify your argument and understand it easily.
2. They are provable. You should have evidence to back up your claim(s). 
3. They are arguable. Other scholars should be able to refute your claim(s). 

In order to develop your argument, simply refer back to your research question and assert an answer based on what you have learned from your research. From this point on, be sure to stick to your argument. It may be tempting to garnish your paper with extra facts, questions, and assertions, but in the end, your paper should clearly defend your argument in an organized manner. Establishing a strong argument will help you keep this in mind.

Some historical research projects will require you to provide an explanation of the methods and procedures you used to conduct your research. This typically looks like a relatively short section of your paper describing your collection of evidence and how you gathered it. To put it briefly, a methods section explains how you approached your research question and what evidence you will analyze throughout the paper to find your answer.

Are you relying on recently declassified government documents? Are you using newspapers to bolster your claims? Is there a particular radio program that you may use? Whatever you use will be described in detail in this section.

A historiography is a literature review. This section of your paper determines what other historians have (or haven't) said about your research question and determines where your paper fits in the existing scholarship. This section uses secondary sources and should be succinct. The best process for writing a historiography is determining the arguments of other scholars and assessing the evidence they use. Then, attempt to synthesize their arguments. It may be easier to first create a flowchart to better understand which scholars have similar arguments and ideas. Consider the following questions as you write your historiography:

• What is each scholar arguing?
• What evidence are they using to argue this (e.g., newspapers, archives from a specific location)?
• Does some scholarship have the same argument (or at least similar)? Are there multiple, different arguments?
• What does the existing scholarship tell you about this area of study? Is it oversaturated or under-researched? Is there a common type of evidence or argument? Is there leading research on the topic?
• Where does your paper fit in this scholarship? How is it different?

The goal of your research paper should be to provide something different from the existing scholarship. Whether you support a less popular argument or you use a different type of evidence, your paper should seek to hold a unique role within the scholarship so that you simply don't repeat what has already been said.