Wondering "How-To" start a research paper in History? Read on...
 
The first place to start is to ask yourself: What am I interested in? Whatever it is, it probably has a history, and might work as a research topic or area of inquiry. For example: 
Social situations (equality, gender differences in a society, status of the rich/poor, class, caste, prejudice, globalism, ethnicity); 

Intellectual areas (philosophies like Confucianism or Aristotelianism, ideas like progress or cycles in life, various views of reality -- "if my subjective perception is reality, and the objective image that another projects is reality, then subjective perception is objective image, i.e., subjective=objective=image??" -- logic, intuition, romanticism, enlightenment); 

Religion then (e.g. the Greeks' Zeus & Hera, Judaism, Early Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism) later (medieval Judaism/Christianity etc) and now (changes in ...., or radical developements like Al-Qaeda); 

Politics (origins/developments of democracy, medieval kings/queens, leadership, the current presidential election); 

Aesthetic or Artistic fields (like Classical/Medieval/Modern Architecture, Renaissance painting, sports, literature, music, scultpure); 

Geographic shifts (Civilization moving from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe to New England to Utah to California); 

Economic ideas/changes (Capitalism, Marxism, Medieval Manors, SLC Olympics) 

Or, how any of these areas interact with each other to produce revolution/evolution. 

Still lost? Re-read your class notes for something that caught your interest/attention.

 
Having settled on an area, remember that history is an Inquiry 'done' through your Interpretation of Primary Sources concerning some issue dealing with humanity. That definition requires Primary or eyewitness sources from which you build your interpretation. So if you want to research the leadership qualities of Julius Caesar, you must begin by finding sources, and for this topic there are plenty (by Caesar himself, by Plutarch, Suetonius and a number of Roman historians). Put those sources under your pillow.

Sources are Crucial! How you approach and apply Sources are equally crucial! As Sherlock Holmes once said, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." [Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Scandal in Bohemia"] In other words, Get the Data!
  

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