HIST 4230 - The Renaissance : Starting Your History Research Paper
What makes a history paper a history paper?
Not all of you are history majors. What makes a history paper a history paper, rather than an art history paper, or a literature paper?
| Art or architectural history papers | Deal with the development of particular forms or techniques, or the artists and/or craftspeople who developed them or worked with them. Since the focus is on art/architecture or those who create it, context may or may not be at issue, and thus you may not write such a paper. |
| Literature papers | Focus on a particular work or set of works by a single author or group of authors, concentrating on the subject matter, format, language, dramatic presentation, etc. Since the focus is on literature or its authors, context may or may not be at issue, and thus you may not write such a paper. |
| Musicological (music history) papers | Consider a particular work or set of works by a single musician or group of musicians, concentrating on the instrumentation, harmonization, subject, language, performance, etc. Since the focus is on music or musicians, context may or may not be at issue, and thus you may not write such a paper. |
| Biographical papers | Concern a single individual and the role they played in the Tudor and/or Stuart period, from their education to their period of activity to their death. I disallow them because they cannot easily be written as thesis papers. Biography is an important form of history, but does not lend itself well to a course like this, and as a result a biographical paper would likely be too superficial to earn a good grade in this course. |
| Theological papers | Consider beliefs or biblical interpretations in and of themselves or as part of the context of faith. They are not allowed because the course is about history, not belief—it is about human actions, not divine ones. |
| Historical papers | Deal with the economic, social, or religious causes of political change; the impact of political change, the educational policies associated with the change, the different ways social groups responded to change, the participation of certain groups in a given conflict, the economic impact of the political and/or social changes, the literary, artistic, and/or musical changes associated with the time period placed firmly in their context, etc. |
Historiographical debates
Most of your classes engage different historiographical traditions. On your syllabus, you'll see a series of questions which enter into the different historiographical debates.
So what makes a good historiographical debate? There are several components, including these:
- Focus on the documents: For an example, consider the issues we've raised when talking about the English Reformation. Historians disagree, based on their understandings of documents like the Statutes of Praemunire, the Act of the Six Articles, the Act of Supremacy, the Elizabethan Settlement, etc., about when the Reformation started; how popular it was within government; whether or not it was a theological shift; etc.
- Look at how people have constructed their arguments. Using at all the same information, are you seeing what's there, or what's not there? For example, scholars of the illiterate have to find ways to learn about people who left no records. How do you do that? What do you use to read between the lines which are there to find people who aren't?
- Consider audience and motive. Why was some music commissioned? Can this stained glass window be understood as a way to teach people something, rather than just as a pretty decoration? To whom does this law apply?
The past can be interpreted in one or more many historical "schools," including Marxism, gender history, economic history, political history, cultural history, Annales, postmodernism, Whig history, quantitative history, etc. The schools change over time. New documents are discovered; new methods of looking at artifacts emerge; new ways to ask questions of the past are developed. Historians in the 19th century focused on politics and religion. In the 20th, their counterparts introduced new focal points, including class and race. The past doesn't change, but the way we see it does.
How do I select a topic?
Many times, your instructor will assign a project for which you will choose a topic. Often, this can be just as difficult as preparing for an assigned topic. This page will help you answer that question by providing tips and tutorials for selecting a paper topic that both you and your instructor will find interesting and beneficial for the course. Techniques for coming up with a paper topic include:
- Reflecting on topics that interest you or passionate about
- Thinking about current events
- Do some preliminary research. Check for background information in: dictionaries, handbooks and encyclopedias.
- Start thinking in broad terms, then narrow down your topic.
- Think about the who, what, when, and why questions