The Amateur Historian

What is historical research?

     Historical research is essentially putting your own interpretation of an historical event, time-period, or person down on paper. The goal is to create a paper that is uniquely your own. A good research paper will be convincing, well-documented, thoroughly researched, well-written, and interesting to read.

Where to begin?

     The first step in historical research is, of course, to choose a topic. If your research is for a college-level class, you may be given a topic, but that does not mean you shouldn’t give careful thought to the scope of your paper. It is crucial that you choose a topic that you can thoroughly examine within the limits of the paper size. Whether you are writing a 3-page or a 25-page research paper, you’ll want to begin narrowing your topic immediately. You’ll want to avoid falling into the endless research loop and never getting to the writing part.

     A good way to start is to take a look at what interests you. If you are given a broad time-frame or region in which to choose a topic, pull out a general history of that time or area and find something that you would enjoy writing about. This is very important, because if you have little interest in your topic, your paper will inevitably be uninteresting. If you are given a specific topic, then take the time to analyze it and look for ways that you can put your own spin on it.

     The next step is to gather information from secondary sources, which are articles or books written by other scholars who came before you. Look closely at what they had to say, analyze their theses. In this process, you are essentially looking for conflicts or disagreements between scholars on important issues. Some of the writers may have had different political agendas they were espousing, which you can capitalize on by throwing your own interpretation in. If you are fortunate, you may uncover new evidence has surfaced since they wrote their pieces that you can expand on. In any case, make sure you have thoroughly researched all the relevant secondary sources so that you avoid repeating someone else’s argument (your work should be new, and should never be a re-hash of someone else’s work—it is a sign of incomplete and substandard research). A useful way to speed this process up and work on your writing at the same time is to prepare a literature review, in which you note all of the various conflicts that you’ve identified. This would most likely be for your use only, but it can often be helpful to get something down on paper and seeing what you have to work with.

     Once you’ve identified or isolated the various issues in your topic, choose one of them. In making your choice, remember that you have a limit on the size of your paper. Ask yourself if you can convincingly discuss the issue in the space allotted. Alternately, ask yourself if your topic is broad enough to fill the paper without you having to go back and add "fluff," which can kill an otherwise good piece of writing.

     Throughout this process, take notes! For more information on effective note-taking, read my section on notes.

Your Value System

     The purpose of an historical research paper is to express your personal interpretation of a particular event, person or theme in history. Like any research paper, the idea is to argue your point by formulating a thesis and supporting it with reliable evidence. A good research paper is both convincing and meticulous in detail—there is no room for subjective opinions or loose interpretation. Stay away from character judgments and leave your personal values aside unless they are pertinent to your thesis and you can adequately support them with evidence.

     The overall theme of your paper will often be connected to your personal value system or ethics, but avoid making judgmental statements in your paper. In other words, let the evidence speak for itself. You are essentially reorganizing existing evidence to suit your thesis, while maintaining the integrity and accuracy of the evidence itself. To put it more poetically, you are shining your personal light on a given subject, filtering information through your mind, and convincing the reader that your interpretation in the correct one.

What about notes?

     After completing your preliminary research on your chosen topic, your next step is to start organizing your notes, and while there is not a right or a wrong way to do this, simply not doing won’t work.

     For some very good guidance in specific styles of note-taking, see the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, by Joseph Gilbaldi. Another excellent source of guidance is The Modern Researcher, by Jacques Barzun and Henry Graff. Something as simple as 3x5 cards organized by author, subject, or publication may be sufficient. The thing to remember is to make them easy for you to use—they need to be simple, but complete.

What is a primary source?

     Primary sources can come in many forms, but essentially, they are accounts of an event or time-period written by someone who lived through it or was an eyewitness. This can include newspaper articles from that period, some types of autobiographies, letters written from one person to another, archived records or transactions, etc., . . .

     To make your paper truly your own, primary sources are essential. They are often more difficult to find and require some work on your part, but they are what make a research paper worth the paper it’s written on. Without them, it is impossible to arrive at your own interpretation, and it will inevitably be a re-hash of other’s work at worst, and a comparative literature review at best.

     The number of many primary sources used in your paper will depend on its size, but for an average 25-page research paper, three to four of the sources cited should be primary.

About plagiarism

     When an author comes up with a thesis of his own, and puts it down on paper, it is automatically copyrighted. That individual owns the rights to that sequence of ideas, concepts and words—it is his or her intellectual property. Using such ideas, concepts, and words without properly identifying who wrote them is the same as acting as if you wrote them yourself, and that is plagiarism.

     Plagiarism is probably the worst single thing an historian can do. It shows utter lack of regard for other scholars and writers, and if you are caught committing plagiarism, you may be held legally responsible at worst, and you may be expelled at best. Your career as a writer will certainly be tarnished, if not destroyed, so DON’T DO IT! Just imagine how you would feel if you came across an article in a journal in which the author makes his point using your exact words and verbage!

Writing the paper

     You can begin writing the paper before you are finished with the research, and if fact, that is the way it is supposed to be done. The research process doesn’t stop until you turn the paper in. The sooner you begin writing, the better it will be for you.

     The first thing to do is to develop a thesis. The thesis doesn’t have to be a single sentence (unless your professor instructs you to make it so), and many very good historians do not limit themselves to single-sentence thesis statements. Regardless of how many sentences there are, however, there should be a discernible thesis statement in the first paragraph of an average-size paper. Exceptions may include larger papers, in which you may choose to present an account of some specific event, or the text of speech for example, to grab the reader’s attention. This is only useful, however, when your assignment is large enough to include something like that, such as in a master’s thesis paper.

     The structure of the rest of the paper should be centered on the thesis or on a related concept, just like an essay or any other piece of writing (excluding poetry or fiction, of course). Dividing the concepts into subsections is a good idea. Explore how long it takes you to convincingly make a particular point. When you feel you have done so, move on to the next subject. Avoid jumping around from topic to topic, and even in your rough-draft stages, strive for a coherent, logical sequence in your writing.

     Remember that your rough-draft is simply that—rough. It doesn’t need to be perfect, and will contain many erroneous details you will later cut out and will probably be lacking in detail in other ways. The point is that if you get something down on paper, you can begin reorganizing it, adding to it or taking from it as you see fit. Expect to read your paper literally hundreds of times before it is complete. Have others read your roughs as well—classmates are perfect for this, but anyone will do. Listen to what they say, but don’t try to please everyone. Your job is to create your own paper, and you have to follow your instincts. Ask yourself if you are convinced by your own arguments, and try to read it objectively when reviewing.

     Even if you are not a writer by nature, if you follow the above guidelines, I predict you’ll end up enjoying it despite yourself. There is something very satisfying about coherently putting your thoughts together in a convincing way, and something very liberating about feeling that you have a way of looking at something that has not occurred to anyone else. What you write is an expression of who you are, so don’t take it lightly.

Writing style

     Everyone has a unique way of expressing themselves in speech, and no one person sounds exactly like another. It is much the same in writing, but with historical writing, there are a few things to remember.

     In most cases, your audience is not your professor. Your classmates will more often be your audience, and you should write at their level. That does not mean you should not use your excellent vocabulary, but don’t try to impress anyone with the words you choose to use. Impress them with your thoughts and your interpretations, instead. If you are trying to show off your $20 words, your readers will pick up on that and you will lose some credibility. Remember, however, that if you are a college student, you are expected to have mastered your language—don’t be caught with substandard writing, bad grammar, or misspelled words. In other words, if you need a $20 word to make your point, and you are clear on what it means and how to spell it, don’t hesitate to use it—people will also pick up on that and it will add to your credibility.

     Probably the single-best book for writers ever written (in my opinion), is a very small and easy-to-read book called The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White. I use this book as my bible in both my career as a journalist and in college. It is indispensable in my opinion, and I strongly suggest you read it, study it, and if possible, know it by heart. It won’t steer you wrong.

Footnotes

     There are numerous ways of taking footnotes, and your professor will make that clear, but to find the standard for historical writing, review the footnotes section in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, by Joseph Gibaldi.

     Closely related to footnotes is your bibliography, or ‘sources cited’ section. This is placed at the end of your paper and should include properly identified names, authors and publications for every source you used in your research. For more on how to do that, review the MLA Handbook.

Revise, revise, revise, . . .

     The most important thing you can do in this process is to revise. If you do so, you will find that all the other parts fall into place naturally. Through revision, you will discover that you need a quote in a certain spot; that you need to bulk up one of your topics with more details; that you need to look for other primary sources; you may even discover that you need to start over.

     Don’t be afraid to re-write. A single sentence that has been looked at 40 different ways, re-written 150 times, will always be better than the original sentence. In the same manner, a paper that has been thoroughly revised numerous times will always be better than the original—it’s the nature of writing, and having to revise doesn’t mean you have no talent, it means you have mastered the craft.

In conclusion, . . .

     A research paper is an expression of yourself, every bit as individual and expressive as a work of art. Use your imagination in writing, but never stretch the facts to meet your needs. Use other people’s work, but never forget to give credit where it is due. Find your topic in other scholar’s work, but find your own angle.

     It’s about you. Don’t ever lose sight of that fact, and remember—it can be fun if you are willing to do the work, and the end result is a feeling of accomplishment that is unique among scholarly endeavors.

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