“Doing History” may appear to be an easy task at first. You can just Google the answer to a question, and voila, there you have it! Right? Well, not exactly. History is not that simple. Doing historical research takes dedication, time, comparing multiple sources, verifying accuracy and legitimacy, considering time periods, different cultural practices and religion, and it requires one to let go of all biases and work strictly off of evidence and facts.

History begins when someone wants to find out the answer to a question. This has to be followed up with careful research and analysis.

A general process to follow when “doing History” could be:

  1. Choose a topic.
  2. Find legitimate sources.
  3. Form a thesis.
  4. Create a mind map.
  5. Rethink your thesis.
  6. Draft the research information.
  7. Revise.

Sources

Types of sources:

1. Primary Sources – Original materials that came to us directly from people in the past.

(E.g. diaries, letters, reports of government inquiries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, photographs, audio recordings, maps, and artifacts)

2. Secondary Sources – Interprets or analyzes a historical event or phenomenon, and are often based on primary sources.

(E.g. scholarly or public books and articles, reference books, and textbooks)

Format

Chicago Manual Style (examples below):

Book Bibliography:
Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Book footnote or endnote:
First name Last name, Title of Book (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

Website Bibliography:
Last name, First name. “Title of Web Page.” Publishing Organization or Name of Website. Publication date and/or access date. URL.

Website footnote or endnote:
First name Last name, “Title of Web Page,” Publishing Organization or Name of Website, publication date and/or access date, URL.

Journals Bibliography: 

Last name, First name. “Article title.” Journal title, 50, no. 4 (2008): 580-620.

Journal footnote or endnote:

First name last name, “Article title,” Journal title, 50, no. 4 (2008): 580-620.

Questions

Research should evoke even more questions to arise during the research process. Some questions that may come up when analyzing sources could include:

  • Where/who is this source from?
  • When/where was this source written?
  • What type of society did this source come from?
  • How old is this source?
  • Is there information that this source could have left out?