How to Write a Thesis in History
(Advice from Prof. Tom Isern)

A good thesis is both personally satisfying and professionally advantageous to the writer. This page is my attempt to provide advice so that you write a good thesis and we get along amicably while you do so.

Choosing a Topic

Let's don't get overly sentimental about choice of topic. Practicality and opportunism are common motives in choice of thesis topic, motives not to be disparaged. So let's approach this with common sense, keeping these considerations in mind.

· What sources are readily available for the topic? I mean fresh primary source material sufficient to compose a thesis that will make a contribution to knowledge.

· Is there any money available to support research on the topic?

· Can you complete work on this topic in reasonable time?

· Where will this topic situate you professionally? Will it present the profile you wish to future employers or directors?

We should talk about this, of course.

Organization of the Document

I have definite opinions as to organization of the thesis. Since my way of doing things has been proven to work, I commend it to you here. You'll find that it has two virtues: it makes the thesis seem like a surmountable task, and it makes it easy to mine papers and articles from the thesis. The key is to think of the thesis not as one long, seamless document, but rather as a series of connected papers, or essays. You don't write one big document; you write a number of short ones, essays of a length and scope that seems within grasp; then you connect them in such a way that the whole exceeds the sum of the parts.

The first chapter of the thesis, the introduction, does three things.

1. It provides an overview of your general topic, context for the chapters to follow.

2. It reviews the secondary literature on your topic.

3. It states a main point that will be developed in the chapters to follow.

The second, third, and fourth chapters are discrete essays on the theme of your general topic. Each, if the introduction and conclusion were modified, could stand alone. Each, in the context of the thesis, adds to development of the main point. These interior chapters are case studies or essays treating particular aspects of the topic.

The fifth and final chapter, the conclusion, does three things.

1. It synthesizes the findings of the preceding chapters.

2. It connects these findings to the secondary literature.

3. It explores the significance of the findings.

The Proposal

The thesis proposal is an important document, for two reasons.

1. It compels you to organize and articulate your intentions, and thus keeps you from wasting time.

2. It constitutes an agreement among all concerned—you, and all the committee members—that your concept is OK, that if you do good work along the lines you have proposed, it will be acceptable to all.

Here is a page providing a template for the thesis proposal.

Matters of Style

There are two important manuals that govern the format and style of your thesis:

§ A Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press

§ Guidelines for the Preparation of Disquisitions, NDSU Graduate Office

Other matters of style, the rhetoric of History, are treated in my tutorial website, Hardhat History.

The Wizard / Tom Isern