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| Once you have a topic in mind, you need to find out what other scholars have written about your topic. If they've used the same sources you were thinking of using and reached the same conclusions, there's no point in repeating their work, so you should look for another topic. Most of the time, though, you'll find that other scholars have used different sources and/or asked different questions, and that reading their work will help you place your own paper in perspective. The bibliography for your paper should include every book and article you consulted on your topic, whether or not it is actually mentioned in the text of your paper. Although you may be accustomed to relying on the Knight library's catalogue when looking for history books, that's not the place you should start here. Now that you're doing your own history research and writing, it's time to step up to the specialized bibliographies historians use for their own work. Here are some possibilities. America: History and Life. For most topics in U.S. history, this index is the place to start. It has some distinct advantages: 1) it is supposed to list every book and article in U.S. history published each year; and 2) its article listings include brief abstracts that can help you weed through the possibilities. For all its advantages, the America: History and Life interface is confusing, and will take some getting used to. I recommend that you start with the subject category, and make sure to use the lists given in the index (click on the magnifying glass next to the "Subject Terms" blank to see them). Define your subject broadly at first, and narrow your sights only gradually. You can get to America: History and Life from this page. Specialized Bibliographies. After you've finished with America: History and Life, you should consult other, more specialized bibliographies, too. Depending on your subject, there may be Ethnic or Women's Studies bibliographies that could help, and if you're really lucky, there may be a specialized bibliography right on your topic. The Library's web page offers a long list of Abstracts, Indexes, and Guides to Research (see especially U.S. History (http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/history/ushist.html), Ethnic Studies (http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/ethnicstudies/) and Women's and Gender Studies (http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/womensstudies/).Don't stop looking until you begin to turn up the same titles over and over again. Put those titles you see most frequently and those that are most recently published at the very top of your list of things to read, since they are likely to be the most significant and/or complete interpretations. After you've located and analyzed some primary sources and read the existing secondary literature on your topic, you're ready to begin researching and writing your paper. |