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U.S. History Research Skills

Find Your Topic: 

  • Browse the issues in the above library database.
  • Read the summaries to help you choose a topic that is interesting.
  • Select your topic.
  • Open and save the timeline to your Scrible library.  This will be your reference source.
  • Open and save one newspaper article to your Scrible library.
  • Read and annotate your two sources.

*Reading focus:  What does the source make you wonder about?  Are there any controversies?  Mysteries?  Debates?  

Create your research question.

  • After conducting background research, determine what aspect of your topic to investigate.
  • Create a concept map or a list of ideas to help brainstorm ideas.
    • Consider the issues, mystery, debate, problem, or controversies.
    • What interests you?  What needs to be solved?
  • Use question starters if needed, to help create a question: 
    • Who
    • What
    • Why
    • When 
    • Where
    • Which
    • How
    • To what extent
  • Put your question through some tests:

    • Answerable but not obvious?

    • Open? (not yes or no answer)

    • Simple?  (not multiple questions in one)

    • Debatable? (multiple perspectives)

    • Judgement or evaluation needed?

    • Narrow and focused enough?

  • You will eventually develop sub-questions that support your primary question.
    • EXAMPLE: 
      • Main question:  To what extent was Harry Truman justified in dropping the atomic bomb?
      • Sub question: How extensive was the damage and loss of life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
      • ****The sub question still answers the primary question.****
  • You may find your primary research question changes slightly (or a lot) after beginning your research.  That's okay!

Select and brainstorm your keywords.

  1. State your research question/topic

    • EXAMPLE: "How do cigarette companies target children with their advertising?"

  2. Identify main concepts:

    • EXAMPLE:  "How do cigarette companies target children with their advertising?"

  3. Brainstorm synonyms, related terms, broader terms, scientific/technical terms, and more specific terms based on your own background knowledge:

    • EXAMPLE:

      • Cigarette companies:  Philip Morris, Camel, Imperial

      • Children:  child, adolescent, teen, teenager, students, youth

      • Advertising:  ads, marketing, commercials, promotions, product placement

  4. Avoid the following:

    • Abbreviations - spell them out

    • Relationship words - words like compare, contrast, causation, etc.

    • Judgement words - words like best, worst, pro, con, etc.

  5. If needed, search Wikipedia and other reference sources to further develop your list of keywords.

  6. Create a keyword map before you begin searching.