What can I do to organize all of my ideas? (History thesis writing advice) (B. Zakarin 2011)

According to Professor T.W. Heyck, the thesis writer’s task is to “define a good historical question, the ‘answer’ to which is the thesis.”  This sound advice comes with a caveat: once defined, your historical question (or questions) may change, multiply, or evolve.  Unlike a term paper, a thesis takes shape over an entire year.  With deadlines still over the horizon, you may spin your wheels and jump around from one historical question to another without making progress toward the “good” one that will drive your thesis. 

One way to avoid this trap is to run regular self-diagnostic tests.  Keep a record so you can track changes in your thinking and the new sources that prompt them.  The following prompts will help you think about your research interests and communicate your ideas and goals to professors, librarians, and archivists.

• Summarize in two sentences the period(s), people(s), and place(s) that you want to study.

• Ask two questions that you would like to answer about the period(s), people(s), and place(s) that you want to study.

• List two secondary sources (e.g., books, journal articles, etc.) that are relevant to the period(s), people(s), and place(s) that you want to study.
• Describe two kinds of primary sources (e.g., government documents, periodicals, diaries, photographs) that would shed light on the period(s), people(s), and place(s) that you want to study.