- Read the most general sources on your topic first, to get a sense of the context and historical period of your topic.
- Then read the more specific sources. First, read to get the gist of what the source is saying. Does it pertain to your topic? If it doesn't, put it away. If it does, read it again, asking yourself the following:
- What issue is the author addressing in this essay?
- Why does the author think this is an important issue?
- What is the author's thesis? (Hint: pay particular attention to the introduction and conclusion of the essay.)
- How does the author support his/her position? What methodology does the author use?
Basically, you want to answer the questions What? How? and Why? for each source.
- As you read each source, keep in mind that some ideas or points discussed in the source are more important than others. Some sentences contain major ideas; others, minor details or supporting points. Try to sort out the major points from the minor details.
- As you read each source, you'll also want to evaluate it. Is it widely cited by other authors in this area? Is the author biased in some way about the topic? Which are the best sources on this topic? For more information about evaluating sources: Evaluating Information and Evaluating Web Sites.
- Finally, look at the bibliography for each source. Some of the sources listed there might be useful for your own research. Reading the bibliographies of your sources also helps you get a sense of what has been written on a given topic. If you notice that a particular author is widely cited by other authors writing on your topic, it's probably because s/he is generally recognized as an authority on your topic, so you'll want to find sources written by that author.
- As you research your topic, you may be asked to write an annotated bibliography.
Research Guide: Reading Sources
How do I know what to pay attention to when I read?
To handle the sheer number of pages likely to be assigned in a history course or research paper, you will need to practice strategic reading. Having a strategy for reading will be useful to you throughout your life as, in virtually any career, you are faced with quantities of information to read.
Being strategic means being active, using your mind to select and organize meaning. To succeed in this active process, think of the book as living thing, the product of another active mind or minds that are far away and perhaps from another era. Through the medium of writing, distance and time have been overcome.
Talk back. Stop your reading after each few paragraphs or pages and ask questions that will make the textbook respond to you. Then, in your mind, construct the answers, glancing back over the print you've covered. If you write down these answers, you'll end up with a useful and coherent set of notes.
Forget about what speed-reading experts say. You're likely to get little out of your reading if you don't stop for these conversations. As you practice this approach, you should ask questions such as the following:
- What is the main topic or issue here?
- Does the textbook suggest a position or bias?
- Does the topic remind me of anything else I know?
- Do I understand this topic or issue will enough, or do I need to find out more?
- What are the most important concepts or ideas in the passage? Do I understand what they mean?
Understand the Architecture of History
Historians think much like architects. They build structures out of concepts and facts. Reading only for the latter is like reducing a house to lumber and nails. Strategic reading means that you look at the architecture of a text, first at the structure as a whole, and then at the materials from which it is made. Therefore, you might begin with the design of the book itself, to understand how it represents the writers' structuring of the content of history. A typical book, for example, will have an elaborate table of contents section that lays out its content informatively, in some combination of time periods and themes.
The same structural principle applies to passages within the textbook. Usually, each passage contains main ideas, secondary concepts, and supporting details. This web page will help you identify main ideas from secondary ones.
Questions to ask yourself as you read a paragraph:
- How can this paragraph be summarized in one sentence?
- What are the basic elements of this sentence?
- How is each of these elements explained or elaborated in the paragraph?
- What is the main issue in the paragraph?
- What position does the author take on this issue?
- What kind of support does the author give for this position?
- What outcome or conclusion does the author offer?
These passages were adapted from David Pace and Sharon L. Pugh, Studying for History (New York: Harper Collins College Publishing, 1996). They are used here with permission from the authors.
All about annotated bibliographies
- What is an annotated bibliography?
It is a list of sources such as books, articles, web sites, and primary documents that you have read as you research your topic. It includes bibliographic information and an annotation—that is, a summary and evaluation—for each source.
- Why create an annotated bibliography?
It's a useful intermediate step in the process of writing a research paper. It can help you get a sense of what has been written on a particular subject (historiography). It also can help you organize and evaluate what you've learned from your sources, and show you where you might need to get more information. It's a good way of showing a professor that you've gotten a good start on a research project.
- What does an annotated bibliography look like? How should it be organized?
It consists of a list of entries, one for each source you've obtained. Each entry should include bibliographic information (author, title, publication information) organized according to the Chicago Manual of Style. After the bibliographic information, each entry should include a paragraph or so (100 to 150 words, perhaps) that describes the following:
- Author: What is his/her background? Is s/he considered an expert in this field?
- Thesis: What is the main point of this article?
- Evidence: What methodology did the author use to prove the thesis? What kinds of evidence are cited? Is this evidence strong?
- Relation of this source to your topic and to other works: How does this source relate to your topic? To other research on your topic?
You may not need to answer every question for every source; remember that some of these questions will be irrelevant for some sources.
Once you have gathered the information above for every source, you can organize the entries in several different ways:
- Alphabetically by the author's last name
- By theme or subtopic
- By type of article (primary vs. secondary sources, for example)
- Chronologically
- Examples of useful (and less useful) annotations
A useful annotation:
- Ferrer, Ada. Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
- Ada Ferrer is a Latin American historian and a professor at New York University. She makes two main arguments - (1) that the historiography has ignored the true nature of Cubans’ struggle for independence from Spain, and (2) that racial tensions existed throughout the long struggle for Cuban independence. Ferrer uses newspapers, census data, letters between military leaders, and speeches as her main sources. Her use of gender is relevant to my topic. She argues that black and white men constructed racial alliances (and an idea of a multiracial Cuba) on the basis of bonds forged through their partnership in fighting a war against a common enemy. This alliance excluded women. Unlike Aline Helg (Our Rightful Share), she downplays the role of sex in racial attitudes.
A less useful annotation:
- Ferrer, Ada. Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
- Ada Ferrer is a Latin American historian and a professor at New York University. Insurgent Cuba is about race in Cuba’s war for independence against Spain. Ferrer uses newspapers, census data, speeches, and letters as sources. She doesn’t really talk very much about women, so her book might not be very helpful to me.
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