BLDE University


Writing An American History Dissertation: Tips To Consider

Dissertations about history can be easier than those about future technologies or discoveries, because they are about things that have already happened. When you’re writing about history, you can use the documents and discoveries other people have already found and documented. The research part might be long and in depth, but it’s easy to find more than enough sources for your argument. The hard part might be to come up with a unique topic, because history is already in the past so there’s no way to add new ideas or information. You should look at some examples before deciding on your topic so that you can choose a new angle or compare something differently. You don’t want to end up with a commonplace topic idea.

How to write a dissertation for American history

The history of your country is important, and the way you portray that is going to speak about you, your perspective on the events, and the reader seeing them. Once you have your topic idea for American history, you should organize your thoughts into each section. Typically, dissertations have chapters in the main body of the work, and you can put your sources into the appropriate chapters as you write. After the abstract and other formatted pages, having each chapter properly separated and titled is very important.

You can do this as you write, or plan ahead of time how long each section is going to be, and where your research will fall. It is good to plan some things, even if you’re the type of person who likes to go by the feeling of your gut. Organization will help you save a lot of time when working on such a large scale project.

Here are some ideas for keeping your research organized and tips to consider:

  • If you get an idea, write it immediately, even if you’re in the middle of researching something else
  • Research should be labeled, categorized and have a specific purpose to be there
  • Think about writing like stepping stones: each chapter gets you closer to a finished dissertation, and each one is important in that way
  • You can break up your chapters any way you like, but it’s a good idea to end on something controversial or poignant to keep your professor reading on
  • You can do research online or the old fashioned way, in a library or interviewing historians