History Report

Your assignment is to write a history report. Now what do you do? Sometimes you are given the subject of the paper but your teacher may have only given you a theme or maybe a time period, such as Turning Points in History: People, Ideas and Events which was the theme for National History Day some years ago. Topics for a history report are often deliberately vague; it's up to you to narrow the subject.

A general definition of history is a systematic account of what has happened in the life or development of a people, nation, etc., usually in chronological order with an analysis and explanation. But how does that help you write your paper?

You will need to consider the purpose of the report. What does your teacher want you to write? A Historical Narrative is a straight narrative of a period of time for a specific area. An Analytic Essay will require you to think about/evaluate the subject, come to a conclusion and then support your conclusion in your paper. Most history papers are analytic essays.

Narrowing Your Subject and Beginning Research

How are you going to narrow your subject? The best thing is to write about something that catches your attention, not something that puts you to sleep. Within your assigned subject what interests you? Don't try and narrow your topic too much right now while you're still working on your ideas.

Make sure you understand what your teacher is asking you to write about. If your subject focuses on social reform you don't want to be thinking about sports unless you can show how sports help lead to or repress social reform in a specific time period.

Once you've got a general idea of what you want to write about, its time to find sources such as magazine articles, books, etc. that cover your idea. This usually involves a trip to the library to see what materials are available or not available.  Make sure you bring your assignment paper and any notes you have written so far with you to the library. This will help keep you focused on the assigment and will help any librarian assisting you to know what your looking for.

As you begin to search you will find your chosen topic changing as you discover more information about it. That's good! It means you're actively thinking about what you want to write. By now you should be narrowing your topic to a single idea or statement. Is your topic too small? Is it too large? A good way to determine this is to see how many primary sources you have for your subject. Not enough and your subject is too small, too many and it may be too big. Don't try to address too many ideas in your paper. Focus on one. If you find you have too many good ideas, see if some of them go together to form one larger idea.

You will need to sort all of your sources into two categories: Primary Sources and Secondary Sources. A primary source contains firsthand testimony or direct evidence on your topic. They are actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters or a journal from someone who lived through it, newspaper articles, maps, music, pictures, government documents even articles of clothing. A secondary source is an account of the past written by people long after the event happened. Your History Paper, when completed, will be a secondary source.

Once you have narrowed your subject to a workable idea it is time to start researching your paper. Here are some specific sources for doing historical research. Check them out and then proceed to Doing Your Research.