Introduction to Historical Research & Writing

Catalog description

Introduction to Historical Research acquaints students with how historians practice their craft in interpreting events from the past. As a class, we will work together through a variety of tools in the historian's toolbox, using episodes from American history as case studies. By the second half of the semester, students will have identified their own topics, in any time period or field of history, and will write research papers incorporating the analytical techniques covered earlier. The goal is for students to learn the skills required to identify a research topic, find and work with many kinds of sources, create a strong thesis statement, design a persuasive paper, and produce a properly formatted and well written research paper. Course Website: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/history/