Writing a history dissertation

Preparing for a final-year history dissertation you need to bear in mind, firstly, that this is a 9,000 word essay and therefore a substantial piece of work (it is after all, a quarter of your assessed work for the year), and secondly, that to do it justice you need to give adequate time to think about your topic, the approach you intend to adopt, the sources you might use, and the way in which the dissertation is going to be ching a dissertation supervisor should be able to help you with this, once you have decided on a suitable topic and approach. The historiography of your topic is likely to be a significant part of the dissertation and this will come from the secondary y source materials are far more varied. Some of you will be looking at a set of them in connection with your special subject; you may also have encountered examples elsewhere in your history modules. Before starting an interview, you should get permission from the person involved, see whether they mind being recorded or notes being taken, and ask whether they have any objection to being named in your dissertation. If you decide that this is the case, you should fill out an undergraduate research ethics you come to draw up the bibliography at the end of your dissertation you should divide your entries between primary and secondary sources (most academic books do this, so look at how a couple of historians have done it – but keep it simple). This can be very rewarding but it is time-consuming (and in terms of travel and somewhere to stay) can be of the important aims of a dissertation is originality. But, perhaps more often, we are looking for some new source – a collection of letters, say, or a first hand account of some kind – that adds a new dimension to an existing field of scholarship or which tackles a topic that no-one seems to have looked at before or thought to be of much g a g a 9,000 word dissertation requires not just researching a topic but organizing your work effectively. You should have framed your topic (usually) in the form of a question: you (and those who read it) need to be convinced that you have, by the end of the dissertation, adequately addressed and answered that aid to do this is to structure your dissertation into different sections. In a dissertation of 9,000 words you might have 3 or 4 or 5 of these, each with its own (brief) title.

How to write a history dissertation

This should help you and your readers to think more clearly about the natural divisions of the topic, the stages in your argument and the balance between different strands of interpretation and are expected to reference your material (quotations, statements of scholarly opinion etc) through footnotes: you can check on how to do this, if you don’t already know, with the ‘undergraduate style guide’ (which can be located on the history website under ‘final year study’ and then ‘final year handbooks’. This is considered to be bad practice in a piece of history-writing, and you may be marked down for it. Look at writing by established historians to get a feel for how they do and may write up to 9,000 words in your dissertation. This is a strict upper limit, and marks will be deducted if the dissertation is over-length. You will not gain any extra marks, as such, for an appendix, and it should not be used to advance the argument put forward in the main body of the submitting the dissertation, state the word-count on the title page. You do not need to bind the dissertation, just present it in a neat ’t forget to leave enough time to proof-read your work: your examiners will not be impressed if your spelling is incorrect or inconsistent or you have clearly not bothered to check dates or obvious facts. You could (and probably will) lose marks if you don’t pay attention to this kind of y, writing a dissertation should be fun: it should give a real chance to work and think like an academic historian, to experience the pleasure of finding something out for yourself, and to have the satisfaction of presenting a well-researched, thoughtfully written and convincingly argued piece of in doubt about any of this, speak to your supervisor: he/she is there to help you, though not to write the final version for you – that is entirely your ations & ctives on cal advice for writing your dissertation, book, or perspectives on ctives on history in graduate cal advice for writing your dissertation, book, or vayzman, december have a stack of research materials, a nebulous yet promising topic, and a looming deadline. My work as a dissertation coach and academic writing consultant, i am often asked for concrete strategies for writing. Have found that the best recipe for sustained intellectual productivity is a mix of structured writing practices, time management strategies, and holistic lifestyle are eight practical strategies for focused, sustained writing—ways to create the space and structure to shepherd unarticulated ideas into a cogently written argument.

While targeted at the dissertation writer, this advice can be used by graduate students drafting their proposal, junior faculty members rewriting the dissertation into a book, and scholars working on articles. Regardless of the type of project, healthy writing strategies—as opposed to staying-up-all-night marathons—are crucial. My hope is that these strategies also help advisers to support their phd students through the nuts and bolts of the writing process. Use a paper or electronic calendar to block out the times you will reserve specifically for this writing project. Use a timer to break down your allocated two hours, for example, into three 40-minute writing sessions. Such short intense bursts of writing will be more productive than spreading your work over long unplanned days. The operative strategy here is shorter writing times coupled with commitment to a regular writing schedule. Over days and weeks, you will achieve momentum and a healthy addiction to the writing process. You don't need stacks of ungraded papers on the same surface as your dissertation research.

In effect, drawing on ritual theory, i suggest you consecrate a sacred space for the act of writing. Generate ideas, try out organization methods, and process the writing experience in a text separate from the draft you are working on. This is zero draft writing, a way to dump your ideas to sift and shape later. Slowly, you can channel these journal writing sessions into focused freewriting on an aspect of your topic. This simple yet challenging writing assignment forces you to distill your many complex ideas into a single thesis statement. It may take you a minute or weeks, depending on where you are in the writing process. If this strategy seems either overwhelming or reductive, try filling in the blank: "what i hope to show in this chapter/article/dissertation/book is __________. Distilling your argument into a single sentence gives you a destination as you map the writing journey. To create community and accountability, join or initiate a writing group or dissertation support group.

Balance time alone writing with social time with friends, e-mail exchanges with colleagues, participation in academic conferences, and other ways of talking about your writing and giving feedback to others on their projects. Recognize that there is a difference between the drafting stage of writing and the rewriting/editing stage. It's ok to write raw material at the start: at this stage, writing is thinking. Knowing that you can revise your work later—as a concrete writing strategy in its own right—can allow your ideas to flow more freely in the initial chronicle launches the adjunct sions and ted readings for graduate ng teachers to teach history in k-12 our commenting enable javascript to view the comments powered by ts powered by g a dissertation can be one of the hardest tasks a university student has to accomplish – but it will come to an end. Because it's that time of year again – dissertation y for me, my d-day (dissertation hand-in day) has already been and gone. But i remember it 10,000-word spiral-bound paper squatted on my desk in various forms of completion was my allied forces; the history department in-tray was my normandy. Remember first encountering the undergraduate dissertation handbook, feeling my heart sink at how long the massive file took to download, and began to think about possible (but in hindsight, wildly over-ambitious) topics. If you mention working on your dissertation to family, friends or near-strangers, they will ask you what it's about, and they will be expecting a more impressive answer than you can give. Your dissertation will interfere with whatever else you have going on – a social life, sporting commitments, societies, other essay demands.

Even if you're super-organised, plan your time down to the last hour and don't have a single moment of deadline panic, you'll still find that thoughts of your dissertation will creep up on you when you least expect it. I thought i would share my own dissertation journey and chronicle the top 10 steps that i took in order to successfully go from the stage of writing and defending my proposal in september of 2012, to completing the writing and defending my dissertation within two academic years. Like me, you may start your journey by buying several "self help" books, like writing your dissertation in 15 minutes a day, by joan bolker, or writing your journal article in 12 weeks by wendy belcher. I bought and read these books, in addition to reading various articles and blogs online when i stated my dissertation process. However, i soon realized that i had to get to the point of simply just writing the dissertation rather than thinking about how i would write my dissertation. One of the best tips that most graduate students will receive about how to write a dissertation is simply to write every day. By the time you get to the dissertation stage, you have to think through the mechanics of your writing, and figure out your own writing kinks. I was teaching at a community college full-time (5/5 teaching load) during my first year of my dissertation writing journey, and so i knew i needed guidance on how to effectively juggle my time. Through the use of an online platform, called finish agent, i logged in daily to report to my small group of participants on such things as my daily writing goals, how long i wrote, how to monitor my teaching prep and grading time, and what treat i gave myself for achieving my daily goals.

I especially loved this "treat" idea because it made the writing process more fun when scheduling my week of writing to flag my calendar for treats,  such as getting myself a manicure when i editing my introduction paragraph on one day, or going to the movies to celebrate completing "crappy first drafts" of two new paragraphs on another day. Participated in an online academic writing club geared more towards graduate students during one month when the fsp program did not provide the online virtual accountability support in between semesters. During that month, it was crucial for me to have virtual accountability to help me complete editing and submitting my first dissertation chapter by the end of december of y, and more importantly, i learned how to effectively use good time management methods, like using the computer app for the pomodoro technique, to focus on writing and/or research into "poms," or 25 minute increments, followed by a 5 minute break. During one semester early on in my dissertation writing journey, i joined a dissertation support group provided by my university's counseling department. It was great to connect with other graduate students from other departments, and publicly confess to the various ways that the dissertation was stressful. I enjoyed hearing and sharing about personal issues, such as managing relationships with one's dissertation advisor and committee members, juggling various time constraints, and dealing with how to effectively sleep. For the latter issue, i had to grapple with figuring out a way to sleep more, because some nights, i'd wake up in the middle of the night with random thoughts about my dissertation. I also tried to have some degree of work/life balance by having an incredibly supportive husband who often would listen to me ramble about ideas about my dissertation, or would give me hug, flowers, or even a simple a joke at moments when i felt stressed. Some graduate students think that they have to separate out the process of researching data for the dissertation or writing as you research.

Fortunately, my dissertation resulted from the ideas that i already started to formulate based on a seminar paper i wrote several years prior. By the time i wrote my dissertation, i added to this database in order to help me figure out my arguments, such as themes and the changes over time, in my dissertation. Most faculty members will write letters of recommendation letters for you to apply for dissertation completion funding if they have read at least two chapters of your work (obviously depends on the faculty member, the discipline, etc). I began writing what eventually became chapter 3 of my dissertation first because i was most excited about the sources that i included in that chapter. I felt that by following my bliss, it helped me to have more fun rather than starting with a chapter that i was nervous about writing. After writing a portion of that chapter, i shifted to writing what i thought would be my first chapter. By presenting at conferences, it forced me to write portions of dissertation chapters over time at a good pace. Also, i wrote emails to various scholars and most were responsive to scheduling brief phone conversations, or email exchanges about questions and ideas that helped shape my easley-houser is a newly minted phd recipient from rutgers, the state university of new jersey, department of history. She taught as a full-time history instructor for three years at hudson county community college and was the emerging scholar/visiting assistant professor of history at the richard stockton college of new jersey from 2011-2012.

From 2013-2013, arika received the warren susman dissertation completion fellowship from her department at rutgers, and the albert greenfield dissertation fellowship at the library company of philadelphia. After giving birth to her dissertation in april of 2014 and graduating in may, she is expecting a baby boy in june. This upcoming year, she will teach history at rutgers preparatory school in somerset, nj and teach online history courses at new jersey city the first to our free daily ment and t aid and ts and ng and to advertise? 18th street nw, suite 1100 | ph: ary menucontact and our daily news to primary navigationskip to ch at t blogs and ntly asked ational ive and professional the university and colleges ng the dates and ch at es & ies & s & ment of history and philosophy of to organise a history essay or ment of history and philosophy of ng at the department to find the ch projects for survival: a global history of seed igating fake scientific instruments in the whipple museum hiv: homosex and venereal disease, c. Casebooks tion to discussion email ng a visiting scholar or visiting ng a visiting scholar or visiting student ng an ng for research grants and post-doctoral stration ation for new ation for examiners and ation for examiners and assessors ion of the hps plagiarism ation for ation for supervisors ising part ib and part ii ising mphil and part iii ising phd ch fellows and teaching raduate study ucing history and philosophy of our students ntly asked into history and philosophy of te study study hps at cambridge? In history and philosophy of science and in health, medicine and in history and philosophy of in history and philosophy of science g for graduate ntly asked t information 1: early science and 2: sciences in transition: renaissance to 3: science, medicine and 4: science, medicine and technology since 5: philosophy of 6: ethics and politics of science, technology and y source ch methods g support tation -paper options ophy and ethics of medicine and biomedical ib students' ib students' guide ies and of ii students' ii students' guide dates and ng strategies and exam iii students' iii students' guide and and dissertation ines for the critical literature dates and students' students' guide and dates and students' guide ration exercise and annual supervisor and ission and working away from ting your ch guide to organise a history essay or and events rs and reading rs and reading groups mental mental seminars cts for departmental eth century think eth century think tank cts for twentieth century think with t of natural t of natural history cts for cabinet of natural y of medicine te seminars and methods of histories of the gies of ophy of biology reading eth century reading y and theory reading intersection of gender, race and disability with philosophy of e and literature reading ophy of medicine reading ophy and history of physics reading ge groups therapy graphy of latin language te and postdoc te and postdoc training ic skills and career ch focus events and calendar of y of medicine enth cambridge wellcome lecture in the history of to organise a history essay or are many ways of writing history and no fixed formula for a 'good' essay or dissertation. Before you start, you may find it helpful to have a look at some sample dissertations and essays from the past: ask at the whipple people have a clear idea already of what they are going to write about; others find it more difficult to choose or focus on a topic. Many dissertations and essays turn out to be overambitious in scope, but underambition is a rare defect! Don't use words without knowing what they essay or a dissertation has three components: the main text, the notes, and the main text is where you put in the substance of your argument, and is meant to be longer than the notes.

Macdonald, mystical bedlam: madness, anxiety, and healing in seventeenth-century england, cambridge: cambridge university press, m clark, 'narratology and the history of science', studies in history and philosophy of science 26 (1995), 1–72. Macdonald, michael [1981], mystical bedlam: madness, anxiety, and healing in seventeenth-century england, cambridge: cambridge university , william [1995a], 'narratology and the history of science', studies in history and philosophy of science 26, 1– system has the advantage of making your foot- or endnotes shorter, and many choose it to save words (the bibliography is not included in the word limit). In some fields of research there are standard systems of reference: you will find that this is the case if, for example, you write an essay/dissertation on classical history or philosophy of science. System you decide to follow for your footnotes, what matters most is that the end-product is accurate records of all the relevant bibliographic information as you do your reading for your essay/dissertation. There are many professional guides to thesis writing which give you more information on the style and format of theses – for example the mls handbook (british) and the chicago manual of style (american), both in the whipple, and a booklet, h. Now and then you should read through a printout of your whole essay/dissertation, to ensure that your argument flows throughout the piece: otherwise there is a danger that your arguments become compartmentalised to the size of the screen. A table of contents, with titles for each chapter of your essay/dissertation, page numbers and all;. A page with the required statement about length, originality ment of history and philosophy of y and cookie history and philosophy of and e whipple collections.