Want a head start? Try this: Spend an hour reading 'round your topic in the library. Much learning happens when you are in this browsing mode, but just in case, take extra water, food and a blanket in case you get involved. Ultimate goal? Besides gaining background and stimulating grey cells, the first major goal of this course is to write a proposal for your project. It is not due quite yet, but reading and thinking before doing is worthwhile. What to think about? What to read?
Find topics and books that interest you. You know them. Think about ideas where you would like to dig deeper. Think about ideas that move your heart and soul. As it says here, marry your topic. Be aware if a thesis starts to jump out at you. Grab it before it gets away! Write it down. Also (especially), look for sources that disagree (secondary and primary). Find out why these sources are so disagreeable. Take notes! Conflict makes for interesting reading and can make for a great project, especially as you work toward resolving that conflict.
Find a good, modern secondary book that deals directly with your topic, something that is tops in the field. How do you find this book? Ask an instructor in the field. Ask a librarian. Look through the online catalogue. Look at bibliographies in good textbooks or monographs. Start with many and pare down. Browse the shelves around the books that you do find -- its neighbors may prove to be interesting and useful too. Peek at the book's footnotes. Sit down at the computer and jot down notes. Or write them on a napkin.
Take these wonder-books home with you. Put them around your bed, at the places you like to sit, wherever they can call to you and you can easily pick them up and cradle them. Love them and they will love you back. They will be there for you, morning-noon-and-night! Then go through these five pages on writing history papers -- you might have this down, but the basics are always worth getting very right.
Scour your most excellent sources. Use their citations to find more good books. Don't limit yourself. Stretch out! Especially be on the look-out for original sources that you are interested in -- from them come the most important part of your work: the evidence.
In my experience (with students and my own work) the thesis is a chameleon for weeks. It may well wriggle and morph as you continue to read and think. Or it may fade away. As your thesis goes, so goes your research. This happens! Don't be afraid of re-doing, re-thinking, re-ordering and re-searching your work. Again and again. It (and you) will be better for it.
Your proposal IS the most important part of the project. Your thesis and notes will form the nexus, the life-core, of your work. Dive into the depths of your topic! You will meet ideas good, bad, indifferent and impish. Get to know them all. Keep them with you and try not to miss anything. Note-taking should be "full-ish." Not to take notes is a mis-take.
