To better understand what you, as a researcher, should focus on, it would be wise to read these pages from the National History Day rulebook. Even if you are not creating a project with the aim to compete, you will have a clearer understanding of what makes a successful historical research project.
IF YOUR TOPIC DOES NOT MEET ANY ONE OF THE REQUIREMENTS, YOU MIGHT NEED TO REFINE YOUR TOPIC!
NHD Research Guide for Students
National History Day, in collaboration with the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium, created this open-access student guide filled with hints, tips, and activities to encourage student inquiry and historical research. Finding, Analyzing, and Constructing History: A Research Guide for Students was developed through a Teaching with Primary Sources grant from the Library of Congress.
Begin your exploration by reading the
ANNUAL THEME BOOK: RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES As you read, think about something that topics that appeal to your personal interests and also relate to the theme. Then begin exploring a variety of secondary sources to determine whether there are enough sources to create a strong, in-depth project.
BALANCE: Graphic Organizer: Rights and Responsibilities
Questions determine the direction your research may take. You are not just looking for a list of facts, but rather, reading to understand ideas and motivations, to understand the CONTEXT of why things happened. In order to do that, you want to think of your search in terms of answering questions. Use the worksheet below to develop your own questions, both simple and complex, as you select your sources. Questions and sources dovetail together to create the foundation for strong research. Think about the questions you have, then ask yourself where or who is the most likely place to investigate the answer?
When you are searching for sources, it is helpful to identify what you are looking for. Repeatedly searching for the same information is fruitless. By organizing your inquiry, you will be able to develop searches that yield answers to the many pieces of the research puzzle. Use this graphic organizer to help you organize and identify what it is you are looking for. Adapted from Minnesota History Day.
Your research is only as good as your sources. Begin with secondary sources to give you a solid understanding of the scope of your subject. While you are learning and reading, make note of important dates, ideas, people and places as these will become part of the keywords you will use when looking for primary sources. Books and databases should be foundational to your research. You will want to access information that is accurate ( has been fact-checked), has breadth and depth, and is organized; books and databases lend themselves as the best bet to sink your teeth into a subject. Web sources require the reader to fact check as well as draw together multiple websites to create a deep understanding of the topic. Use the Sources checklist to make sure you are using a variety of sources.
Each new source you find should be entered into Noodletools. Leaving citations to the end of the project will be overwhelming. In addition, students often cannot remember where that one terrific bit of information came from, but if the sources you use are cited, you will never have to wonder where it is!
After you have gathered a solid base of sources it is time to begin taking notes. First, read through your material to understand the most important elements of the source. Then, read it again, highlighting what you want to extract for later use in your research. Finally, transcribe those highlighted sections onto your notecards in Noodletools. If you are using a book as your source, make sure to note the page #, as you will need it for later citation.
An outline helps you to organize your notes and identify and gaps in your research. If you create your outline in Noodletools, ( which is highly suggested) you can drag your notecards into the outline, directly to the section to which they pertain. The outline attached here is an EXTENDED OUTLINE- you may be looking at your topic through only one or two lenses, so the outline would be modified.
A thesis is an argument that you are making, which you will support with evidence. It should be 2 to 3 sentences.