Hi there,
Calling out to all of you wonderful, fascinating, historical beasts out there for assistance in writing my first historical dissertation., I am doing this outside of uni, and do not have access to that kind of material (pre application work)
Some quick questions:
How do you yourselves find historical sources? Validate them?
What is the nature of historical research? (and what do you enjoy about it :D )
How do you feel you organise your writing and research best? Any guidance? Im a little intimidated but want to prove my passion
Any insight on: Orthodox interpretations of history, Revisionist interpretations of history , Marxist interpretations of history, Feminist interpretations of history which i need to include in my Assesment Objectives
Thank you
Read as much as you can. Don't come up with a question/focus until you've exhausted your reading. I used the bibliography of good overview books to get deeper reading. Local university libraries often let you in for free but don't let you borrow books.
I referenced books/journals/articles as I researched to save time at the end. I typed up all the parts I wanted to use so I basically had a database for my topic.
Get some solid sources to use. History can only happen from strong sources. Read them till you know your topic inside out.
Don't be afraid of going down a rabbit hole. In that I mean it can be worrying going of piste as you look at references and look at the references from this references but they can sometimes broaden your knowledge or lead you to some other area that can aid your research.
Other than that, enjoy!