By Madeline Kauffman

My strategy for approaching a new history research paper topic is fairly systematic. I first begin to research on a broader scale, gaining a general sense of the topic as a whole and finding out more basic, but still important, background knowledge. To do this, I typically use a search engine such as Google. Once I have gathered enough of this kind of information, I am able to understand the larger picture and narrow my focus.

I then shift my attention to book reviews and article abstracts that are geared toward my given subject. This helps me identify what sources may be more relevant in comparison to others. Although this information can be found through simple search engines, I usually use either Google Scholar or Dickinson’s library database. Once I find sources that appear to be useful for my research, I look up the authors or creators to determine the credibility of the information. Though this is a rather time consuming process, it has proven to be incredibly effective in my past experiences.

The chapters that were assigned for this week were, overall, very helpful and informative. For the most part, the information that was in chapters 10 and 11 was mostly review. However, it was quite nice to have a reminder that one must read between the lines to get more information out of a source, and to remember not to jump to immediate conclusions. Chapter 12, on the other hand, was more enlightening. The focus on the different types of generalizations and biases helped me to better understand the complexity of analyzing sources, providing a sort of guide for what to look for when researching historical topics. Overall, I got a lot out of the reading.