Robert Hatch

Finding a suitable research topic (problem selection) is the most important and often the most difficult task for an historian. The success of the final product (the term paper or research essay) will depend on your personal interests but it should also be appropriate for your audience. While the success of your essay will be judged on its significance, rigor, and originality, practical considerations must also be taken into consideration. In writing an undergraduate essay, good topic selection involves an assessment of your skills (for example, your research, writing, and language skills), the availability of suitable materials, and a realistic assessment of time constraints. Your topic must be relevant, appropriate, and manageable. The following outline offers general principles and specific advice.

Arguably the most trying element in the process is discovering or limiting what interests you. Perhaps you have too many interests, perhaps none. More likely, you have several general interests that can be developed and focused. The problem is to identify them and bring them into focus. Here are some standard questions:

1. What is it about the four or five topic areas you have identified that seem similar? Are there one or two themes that combine or link these interests?
2. How can these unifying theme(s) be connected into an appropriate topic? Can they be separated and developed as a single topic?
3. With these themes clarified from your general topical interests, apply the History Cookie Cutter: Narrow the general thematic interests into specific topics by space, time, theme, & method (NB: Historians are often categorized (or self-identify) geographically; chronologically; topically, or by method.) Ask yourself if you can focus your thematic interests into a more narrow geographical, chronological, or thematic category. If possible, invoke methodological considerations (textual analysis, quantitative analysis, etc.) to bring clarity and to narrow your topic. Your goal is to write an essay with a clear thesis supported by a strong argument, good evidence, and telling historical examples.

So much for theory. In large part the solution to your problem will require practice. Good writing requires continuous, thoughtful effort. How do you do that?

1. Read actively, critically, creatively. Take notes on what interests you. (See this WebSite for suggestions under Teaching Resources).
2. Follow-up on topics and themes by paying particular attention to footnotes. As we say, follow the foot prints wherever they lead. For our His-Sci Courses, as an example of general kinds of reference and research sources, see the following books at the library:
   The Dictionary of Scientific Biography

   The ISIS Cumulative Bibliography

3. Next, go to my web page and click the button HIS-SCI SEARCH. Search for the relevant word, name, concept on the various search engines in both the biographical and the bibliography programs.
4. Update your bibliography then follow-up. Obtain copies of all articles and books that seem relevant. Read them. Understand them. Make an outline.
5. As you obtain new materials follow the new foot prints. They should lead to ever more specialized sources that focus on your specific interests. This continual sifting & winnowing is central to your research. It may extend into the later stages of writing. Continue to read the new stuff but recognize that some of the best stuff may be old stuff. It may have been written 50 years ago or more.
6. Now the task is to commit yourself. You must have a clear and carefully focused thesis. Continue to re-draft your outline. At the core of this exercise is applying form to all of the stuff you have collected. So once again, impose the Hatch-Mantra:
   1. Develop a strong, clear thesis
   2. State your objectives
   3. Construct a solid and detailed outline (your essay should have a beginning, middle, and end). Re-draft the outline daily as a ritual of clarification. Use this daily procedure for organizing and integrating your new findings, as a vehicle for critical and creative thinking. Continually question your assumptions. Try to focus on the big picture and at the same time note the small but telling historical examples. Good writing joins the abstract and concrete, the particular and general.
   4. Marshall specific evidence to support your argument. As you read take note of possible quotations. Be rigorous about proper scholarly citation. Be clear about your sources and debts.
   5. Use carefully selected historical examples for your analysis of issues. Issues are the key problems that give substance to your theme. Your essay must be issue-driven; analytical in approach, it depends on argument and evidence. Critical issues provide the skeletal structure of your essay; themes provide muscle that give it form and movement. Telling examples bring it to life.

   Avoid simple description, the dull “then-came” narrative and the dubiously-dramatic. We have enough bad journalists. Focus on insightful issues shaped by solid and creative forms of evidence. Write long then cut short. Most of us have a tendency to want to keep all those neat details that we find — after all, those little factoids took a lot of effort to unearth. But don’t do that. Keep your essay focused. Cut the fat. If necessary, carve some flesh — consider whacking off an arm and a leg. On a daily average, we all absorb enough verbal fat and advertising drivel to meet our annual requirement. Scholarly writing should be sinewy, so write responsibly. Emphasize rigor, clarity, and substance.

7. Finally, don’t quit, just do it.
8. If questions arise, review this outline again. Become self-reliant. Consider again your initial interest in the topic. When things start to look messy (they once seemed so clear and simple) remind yourself about the questions and issues that first brought you to the topic. What changed? Think creatively about how you can draw together abstract issues and concrete details. Verbalize. Write out your questions and talk with friends. Put the problem concretely on the table before you. Break it into parts. View it from as many perspectives as possible. Be creative, have fun with unexpected possibilities. If the topic interests you it should be a good topic for conversation. You may be shocked how an outsider goes to the heart of the issue or provides a new perspective.

Finally, don’t fool yourself. Writing is hard work. If writing has value it will challenge your soul. Make no mistake, you will have to confront yourself, and that may involve bouts of self-doubt. But as the philosopher put it, no pain no gain. Be tough on yourself but keep encouraged. Focus equally on extending your existing strengths as improving your increasingly apparent weaknesses. That’s the point. Learning to write is like learning to be your best. You know. So, plan wisely, enjoy the trip.