DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY WISCONSIN
RESEARCHING FOR HISTORY: A GUIDE FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS
(Published by permission of Professor Patrick Rael, Department of History, Bowdoin College)
Introduction
For all who have taken history courses in college,
the experience of writing a research paper is etched
indelibly in memory: late nights before the paper is
due, sitting in pale light in front of a computer monitor or typewriter, a huge stack of books (most of them all-too-recently acquired) propped next to the desk, drinking endless cups of coffee or bottles of Jolt cola. Most of all, we remember the endless, panicked wondering: how on earth was something coherent going to wind up on the page – let alone fill eight, or ten, or twelve of them? After wrestling with material for days, the pressure of the deadline and level of caffeine in the body rise enough, and pen is finally put to paper. Many hours later, a paper is born – all too often something students are not proud to hand in, and something professors dread grading. "Whatever does not kill us makes us stronger." While Nietzsche may sometimes have been right, he likely did not have writing history papers in mind. On the contrary, I sometimes wonder if students’ bad experiences writing papers does not drive some them away from history. How can we make this process less traumatic, more educational, and ultimately more rewarding for all concerned?
The assignment of preparing a research paper for a college-level history course is an important one which should not be neglected. In no other endeavor are so many history-related skills required of students. Just think of the steps required:
First, students must find a historical problem worth addressing. This is done most often by reading and comparing secondary history sources, such as monographs and journal articles. Simply finding relevant secondary materials requires its own particular set of skills in using the library: searching catalogs, accessing on-line databases, using interlibrary loan, and even knowing how to pose questions to reference librarians. Reading these sources, determining their arguments, and putting them in conversation with each other constitute another broad set of skills which are enormously difficult to master.
Second, having developed a historical problem, students must find a set of primary historical sources which can actually address the question they have formulated. Once again, this is no easy task. It requires another array of skills in using the library. Students must know how to message the on-line library catalog, and perhaps even (gasp!) use the card catalog. They must be willing to explore the stacks, learn to use special collections, travel off-campus to new libraries, or interview informants. This kind of primary source research demands a diligence and persistence rare in these days of easy Internet access.
Finally, students must put all this information together and actually produce knowledge. They must craft a paper wherein they pose a clear historical problem and then offer a thesis addressing it. In a well-structured, grammatically correct essay, they must work their way through an argument without falling into common historical fallacies. They must match evidence to argument, subordinate little ideas to big ones, and anticipate and pre-empt challenges to their argument.
Phew! It is little wonder that college history students, especially first-years and non-majors, can find the research paper assignment so traumatic. It doesn’t help that history professors often have trouble teaching the essay-preparation process. This is understandable. History professors often represent that portion of the undergraduate population that "got it"; we are the students who somehow, often in spite of our professors, learned how to "do history." Having received the information virtually through osmosis, we often do not understand how we think about the history-writing process, let alone how to teach it. By and large, we follow the advice of shoe companies and "just do it."
Most students do not have it so easy. Many do not have the innate passion for the past which propelled history teachers over their steep learning curve. Many do not have learning styles which make them likely candidates for the "osmosis" technique many of us used. These students deserve every opportunity to succeed, and it is important that they do. Even those with little apparent interest in the past need to approach what they read with a critical, analytical eye. In this age of information overload, they need to know how to pose critical questions, uncover the data which can answer their queries, and present their findings to themselves, their employers, and to the world at large.
Research Papers: The Basics
Arguments and the thesis
The best papers are not droll surveys of historical data, but arguments. That is, they stake out a thesis (a conclusion or historical argument) and try to support it. Arguing a point provides focus for your paper; it engages you as the author and challenges you to think critically.
Developing your topic
The best way to devise a thesis to argue is to pose yourself questions about subjects that interest you. What was behind lynching: was it economic or psychological? How did African Americans feel about participating in World War II: were they happy or ambivalent? How successful was non-violence as a strategy during the Civil Rights movement? These are examples of questions or problems that can lead you into theses. You start out by looking into the question you set for yourself. As you learn more, you refine your question until you develop the problem that will guide you through your paper-writing. Ideally, your question will be interesting enough to let you do a sophisticated paper, yet narrow enough to be manageable.
Sources
The sources you will use will provide the raw data from which you will seek to answer the question you pose for yourself. In order to get you thinking and writing quickly, work closely with your instructor to determine the sources you will use. This will prevent you from spending all your time simply finding material. Some sources are more challenging to get and use than others; be realistic about what you are willing to do.
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Research Papers: Taking Notes
Your research paper is based on your reading from different sources, so your notes must be sufficiently complete to be meaningful after the source has been read (or interviewed or heard or seen). Since you have to document (foot- or end-note) your paper, your notes must contain adequate resource information. Notecard method (using 3"x5" or 4"x6" index cards) is a convenient and flexible method of organizing your research. When you take notes, write only one note on each card. In addition to the note itself, write:
In the upper left hand corner of the card, the appropriate category or topic/subtopic to which the note refers.
In the upper right hand corner, the name of the source.
The page number(s) of that part (or those parts) of the source that you have used in taking the note. If you have used more than one page, indicate your page numbers in such a way as that when you start to write your paper, you can tell from what page each part of your note comes, for you may not choose to include the whole note.
This separate card method will make organizing your information much easier. When you come to outline and to organize your paper, you will be able to sort your notes in any way you please--by subtopic for example--and to arrange them in any order you please. You may even find that you want to recategorize some of your notes. Such flexibility is impossible if you take notes in a notebook. You will also be able to footnote your paper without having to refer to the sources themselves again.
In taking the note itself, paraphrase or quote your source or do both; but do only one at a time. Paraphrases and quotations require special care. Anything between paraphrase and quotation is not acceptable: you either paraphrase or quote, but do nothing in between. To paraphrase a source (or part of a source) is to reproduce it in words and word orders substantially different from the original. When you paraphrase well, you keep the sense of the original but change the language, retaining some key words, of course, but otherwise using your own words and your own sentence patterns. As a rough guide, if you copy more than three words in a row from a source, these words should be in quotation marks.
To quote a source (or part of a source) is to reproduce it exactly. When you quote well, you keep both the sense and language of the original, retaining its punctuation, its capitalization, its type face (roman or italic), and its spelling (indeed, even its misspelling).
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Research Paper: Keeping A Research Journal
The function of the journal is to set down on paper your thoughts about the primary and secondary source material you are reading. It is a record of your questions about the material and your tentative answers to those questions. It documents the connections you make between the materials you read, and provides a place to record the questions this material raises.
The object of the journal is to record your thoughts about the primary and secondary material at hand. You want to do this as close to the moment of having the thought as possible, and you want to minimize anything that hampers this objective. Make your journal accessible and easy to use. Use a special computer file devoted to the purpose, or a spiral-bound notebook, or whatever device works best for you. Don't worry about correct spelling or punctuation. The journal is not for anyone's eyes but your own.
The journal should document the ways you are thinking about the material and connecting it up with other things you've thought about. What surprises you about what you are reading? For example, one journal entry might merely be an expression of personal disgust that anyone had ever held slaves:
How could anyone have ever done this? How could they have ever considered it ok to hold HUMAN BEINGS as property? And the weird thing is that some of these slaveholders look just like normal people -- they have families, they seem concerned about other humans elsewhere. How do I understand this!!!?
Such thoughts are extremely valuable. At first, they might seem like "non-academic" thoughts because they are personal feelings. But every historian relies upon such feelings at some level; they tell us what is important to consider. In this case, the thought above suggests a thesis question: "We tend to vilify slaveholders as inhuman monsters, yet in many ways they looked just like people we do not vilify. How did slaveholders reconcile the practice of slaveholding with their own humanity?"
The journal is not a place to take notes on your sources. A journal entry may begin with, contain references to, or discuss notes, but the notes themselves should be kept elsewhere. The function of the journal is to discuss your notes, not record them. Take your notes elsewhere; if you use the journal to take them, the journal will be of less value.
Before and while writing your paper draft, go back over the journal. How has your thinking evolved on specific issues? By keeping in mind the intellectual journey you have made through the material, you are reminded that your readers will be making a similar journey, through which you must guide them. Oftentimes, properly-edited journal entries may even form the basis of paragraphs. Editing and expanding journal material may help you make the difficult transition from researching to writing.
Here is an example of one of my journal entries:
11/9/95: reading No Chariot Let Down intro (p. 11). speak of respectability demanded of free blacks in the south. check also black masters for this, as well as Berlin. idea of respectability common to free blacks North and South. free blacks of Charleston, when faced with resentment of white workers who competed against them, fell back upon personal relationships with white elites. placed them among white aristocrats, because associating with slaves was dangerous. in North, blacks often Federalist, then Whig. (that Clay etching/cartoon demonstrates this.) piersen mentions it, too. black elites had closer ties to white elites than to white working class. this is the claim, anyway. difficult to test, especially at the lower level. was the boy in the clay etching representative of anything else? also, I can see former slaves maintaining their Whig alliances with old masters, but what about the free elite who sought to distance themselves from associations with slavery? would this desire change things?
A few comments on this entry:
I start with the date. This is the only kind of formatting rule I am concerned with, and I do it only because it helps me trace how I thought about an idea. Other than that, I am totally unconcerned with making the entry look good. I'm just thinking thoughts on paper.
There are many references here that no one but me will understand. That's fine -- the important thing is that I will understand later what I was talking about. In the present case, I'm thinking about other sources that apply to my argument.
In the entry, I'm making connections. I wrote the entry because I was reading a book about free blacks in antebellum Charleston, SC, and it triggered some thoughts about free blacks in the antebellum North. My entry thus makes connections between the kinds of material I've read. Ask yourself, how does what I'm reading bear on the work I'm doing?
The entry also raises questions that are left unanswered. This is the most important thing I can stress about the journal. Good historical writing is the result of a process of asking questions and pondering answers (even if it looks like the historian had all the answers from the start). You simply cannot develop good papers without engaging in this process. The journal is a way to record these internal conversations, and use them to develop your paper.
You probably engage in this process anyway. Whenever you read, you ask yourself questions ("why are they representing slave speech like they are," or "what the heck was the Nullification Crisis, anyway?"). Most of us, however, don't respect our internal questions; we are taught that if we have to ask them we must be deficient, and we therefore ignore them. The journal process is about becoming comfortable with our own questioning. It is about respecting our internal (and external) discussions about what we read, and elevating our trained intuitions to the center around which we build our writing.
The point behind all of this is to develop interesting and worthwhile papers. Too many papers focus on simple, easy-to-answer, "fact"-based questions, such as "How did slaves escape their masters?" These are valid questions, but they tend not to lead to interesting papers. Rather, they produce rather dry narratives or recitations of facts. In the above case, the paper might merely relate the different ways that different slaves escaped.
Such papers lack interest. Your paper is not primarily an opportunity to relate the "facts" about something; it should be a chance for you to explore interesting questions. These are the kinds of questions that don't have simple answers; they are the ones historians and other scholars deal with constantly. With such questions, you may not arrive at the "right" answer, because there is no right answer. Instead, your paper will focus on helping us understand how we might think about a particularly troublesome issue.
Students often shy away from considering such questions because they think they cannot "prove" their point. Yet it is precisely this ambiguity which makes the questions worth asking in the first place; if the answer was easy, it wouldn't be worth asking. In the above case, it is fine to start with the question, "how did slaves escape their masters?" but at some point the issue should get more complicated. For instance, what was the meaning of slave escape? Did it reflect a revolutionary challenge to the system? Or in some ways did it actually support the slave regime? What were the causes of escapes, and what do these causes have to do with the meaning of escape in a larger sense? The list of possible questions is nearly endless; formulating and asking them is one of your first and most important task!
This process of honing-in on a good thesis question can only take place when you listen to your own thoughts about the material you read. For instance, you might start with one of those straight-forward, "fact"-based questions, like "How did masters control their slaves?" In the process of finding out how, you look up slave narratives published in the North in the 1850s. And what you find there -- among many other things -- is tale after tale of female slaves being beaten savagely, often after being stripped of their clothing. You wonder about this, but don't really know what to make of it, so you move on, ignoring it in your search for "real" answers to your question.
You have just missed a golden opportunity. Instead of ignoring your thought, you might have pulled out your journal and jotted a quick note:
on reading Solomon Northup's narrative: All this violence in the slave narrative -- it seems also lurid, so sexual. was this a kind of entertainment as well as antislavery propaganda? What's going on here??
The mere act of writing down this question gives credibility and substance to your thought. Once it is on paper, you may see it again later. Perhaps you will read a similar passage in another narrative, and something will click in your head. You are on your way to developing a fascinating thesis question: What is the role of violence and sexuality in the antebellum slave narrative?
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Research Papers: Working Bibliography
A working bibliography should be started at the outset of your investigation. It has a few functions:
It tells you if there are insufficient, adequate, or overabundant amounts of information on your topic.
It gets you organized and points a direction for you to start researching. It helps you to get down to work.
If you compile your bibliography on index cards, you will have more flexibility in alphabetizing and adding and deleting sources. Your bibliography should always be undergoing change as your research progresses.
Keep a separate card for each source you consult. Be sure to include all of the relevant publication information for each of your sources.
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Research Papers: Paper Writing Steps
Here are the steps involved in writing a paper.
Start out
Find primary sources
Locate the primary sources you will use. Check them out, if possible. If not, determine how and when you will use them (as in the case of microfilm, etc.). Consult with the instructor about useful sources.
Research
Take notes from your primary sources. It is best to do this on note cards, so that you can arrange notes by topic when you prepare to write. Make sure to note on each card the source for the note, so you can footnote it later.
Analyze notes
Every night after you have taken notes, look over all the note cards you have compiled so far. Do this even if you have just started taking notes. Look over your notes, noting interesting recurring patterns in your data, or interesting questions that pop up. The point is that you must analyze your notes as you do your research. Constant analysis will suggest themes to look for when researching, and will help you develop your argument. Do not wait to analyze your notes until you have finished taking them; it doesn't work like that.
Prepare outline and develop hypothesis
After analyzing your notes, prepare an outline of your paper. An outline is your tentative scheme for organizing and writing the paper. The main purpose of the outline is to determine the structure of your paper. Without an overall sense of how the component parts of your research will address your topic (and hence support your thesis), you will have a very difficult time writing your paper. Through preparation of an outline, you should begin to get a sense of the argument you want to make. This argument is your tentative thesis, or hypothesis. You should keep your hypothesis in mind at all times when writing; you should ask yourself if your material supports it, or if you need to modify it.
Write first draft
Once you have a good collection of notes (you needn't have finished all of your research) and an outline, you should write a first draft of your final paper. Arrange your notes according to your outline. Your paragraphs should correspond to your outline, and each should advance your goal of supporting your hypothesis. A first draft will challenge you to articulate ideas that have been floating around in your head. You will probably realize that what you thought were simple ideas are actually complex, and are more difficult to express than you expected. That is normal; most of us don't realize how smart we really are.
Write final draft
Evaluate and edit your first draft. This is a crucial step! After reconsidering your paper, write your final draft, revising your first draft and incorporating the extra research you have completed. Throughout the paper writing process, the most important (and challenging) task will be to constantly edit and revise your work.
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Research Papers: Revising The Draft
After you have written the first draft, you should revise it. You should not begin this revision immediately after you have finished the first draft. Let your paper sit for awhile and then come back to it with a fresh view. As the researcher and writer, you have been too close to your work. You need a little distance before you look at the paper again. You might want to change some of the original organization, or delete parts which are tangential or insignificant to your main argument. You may also need to do some additional research and strengthen your arguments.
Think about how you have arranged the arguments in your paper. Does the paper's organization offer the most effective arrangement of your ideas and evidence to support the theme?
Reread the topic sentence for each paragraph. Does the sentence make your point and does the information in the paragraph support it?
Be sure that you have placed your topic in its historical context, preferably in the first few pages of the paper.
Locate your argument among those offered in the secondary historical works which you have read. At this point, you should have some idea of how your approach/theme adds to the body of historical literature on your topic. How have other historians treated the subject? What is different and/or unique about your approach/theme by comparison to the way previous historians have treated the topic? (Bear in mind that I realize that you have not completed an exhaustive analysis of all of the secondary works on your topic. In fact, you have probably only read a few articles and/or books. I just want you to locate your work in relation to the secondary material you have read.)
Think about your introduction and conclusion. Remember that these are crucial to the paper and you should take some time when writing them. The introduction not only interests the reader in getting beyond the first few pages but it also presents the focus of your argument. The conclusion is your chance to make a lasting impression on your audience; take advantage of it!
The final revision of your paper should include a check of overall organization, style and composition, spelling, proof of thesis, and format (arrangement of title page, pagination, endnotes if applicable, bibliography, citation form.)
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Research Papers: Writing Checklist
Before submitting your paper, complete the following checklist.
Introduction
My introductory paragraph tells the reader the subject of my research, and defines key terms I will use in my thesis.
My introduction contains a clearly-stated thesis which explains how and why something happened.
Paragraph
I have thought about how my paragraphs are arranged, and they are structured in a way that best supports my argument.
I have checked to make sure that I completely tackle one part of my argument before moving on to the next, and I have checked to make sure that I do not unnecessarily revisit arguments I began earlier in the paper.
Each paragraph is focused around a main idea ("mini-thesis"), which is stated in the paragraph's first sentence ("topic sentence").
Each paragraph employs evidence supporting that idea. That evidence is analyzed; that is, I have used my own words to tell the reader why and how my evidence supports the topic sentence.
Each paragraph has a workable transition from its predecessor.
Argumentation
I have thought about the arguments that could be marshaled against mine, and have addressed those through refutation or concession.
Quoting And Citation
All material I have quoted appears between quote marks.
I have minimized or eliminated block quotes. When I have used them, I have indented them on the left, single-spaced them, and not placed quotations at the start and end.
Each time I bring in evidence that is not clearly common knowledge, I have cited the source of that information with a foot- or end-note.
Each time I quote I have checked to make sure the quotation is properly integrated into the sentence.
Each of my quotes clearly relates to a foot- or end-note which offers the source and page number of the quotation.
For each of my quotes, it is clear who the speaker of the quote is, and the circumstances in which the speaker authored the quote (relevant time, place, and context).
My foot- or end-note style conforms to the style in my style manual.
I have included a bibliography of my sources, which conforms to the style of my style manual.
Style
Each page is numbered consecutively.
I have used a common typeface, like Courier12, or Times Roman.
I have double-spaced the paper, and have left one-inch margins at top, bottom, and sides.
The title of my paper clearly relates to its contents, or to the question I have been asked to answer.
Editing
I have proofread the paper for spelling and grammar errors.
I have re-written the paper at least once, identifying and eliminating instances of:
- passive voice
- inconsistent tenses
- subject/verb disagreement
- dangling clauses
- improper pronoun references
- comma splices, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments
I have read the paper aloud to myself or to someone else, listening for sentences that do not work.
[Webmaster note: My thanks to Professor Patrick Rael, Department of History, Bowdoin College, for his permission to use the above material. Additional information on research and writing in history can be found on his website: http://academic.bowdoin.edu/WritingGuides/.]
Evaluating Internet sites
Please click on the following link for a quick tutorial guide to evaluating Internet web sites:
http://www.lib.purdue.edu/ugrl/staff/sharkey/interneteval/intro1.html
Keyword Searching
Please click on the following link for a quick tutorial guide to assist students in keyword searching on the Internet, library catalogs and academic databases:
http://core.lib.purdue.edu/ [click on Keyword Search]
Using Manuscripts & Archives: A Tutorial
This tutorial is designed to orient individuals to the methods for locating primary source material at Yale and to answer frequently asked questions about doing research in our department. The tutorial can also be helpful to those trying to find manuscript and archival material in other repositories. The instruction provided is of a general nature and cannot address all details and exceptions. http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/tutorial/tutorial.htm
