Introduction to Research
Introduction to Research: Picking your topic is research.
Concept Mapping:
A concept map is a tool you can use to define and narrow your topic. It allows you to visualize the relationships between different concepts. For example, if you are writing a term paper on the American Expansionism but you aren't sure what aspect you would like to focus on, creating a concept map can help you think about the topic possibilities. Watch the video below to see how to create your own concept map!
Writing a History Research Question
Criteria
Keeping your research question in mind, if you can answer TRUE to the statements below, your research question is probably workable.
It cannot simply be answered with a yes/no.
It has social significance/a problem associated with it.
There is reliable evidence available to address it.
It has appropriate scope.
Be careful about investigating questions that you think you already have the answer to or that do not fit into the theme.
HOW AND WHY? are better beginnings to consider.
Source Types for Historical Research
What is different about college level history research?
Historians know about the past because they look at what relics have lasted through the ages which are called primary sources. For some periods and cultures (20th century America, for example), there are tons of primary sources—political documents, newspapers, teenagers’ diaries, high school year books, digitally-recorded phone conversations, etc. For other periods and cultures, however, historians have very few clues to work with; that’s one reason we know so little about the Aztecs.
They also consult other historians’ ideas. These ideas are presented in secondary sources, which include textbooks, monographs, and scholarly articles. Once they’ve studied both primary and secondary sources, historians link together all these bits of information— which answers a question about some past event or phenomenon.