History dissertation writing is a daunting task for many students. With much information to sift through, selecting a thesis and creating a quality argument may cost you many sleepless nights.
However, you don’t have to spend multiple nights worrying about how to approach your dissertation. This guide will analyse various elements of a history dissertation and highlight the tips to guide you through topic selection. We will also cover some history dissertation titles to inspire your thesis.
How to write a history dissertation
1. Choose a topic
Topic selection is a crucial step that dictates the writing process and the overall quality of your paper. If poorly selected, the topic may prove challenging to complete within the provided time and push you from your main argument.
Additionally, selecting a hard topic may inspire fear, causing you to procrastinate on your paper and thus struggle with meeting the deadline.
How to choose a history dissertation topic
When selecting your topic, it is essential to ensure that it can be managed within the allocated time and with the resources at your disposal. Some considerations for selecting a history dissertation topic are:
- Select a narrow topic that can be exhausted without surpassing the word count.
- Ensure that your topic is within your area of interest as this will motivate you to do thorough research.
- Don’t go for a very easy topic as this may be exhausted by other researchers, making it hard to determine a unique perspective. This could result in plagiarism and failure to please the members of the panel.
- Develop an outline to properly assess the elements of your arguments and organize your claims in a manner that is easy for the reader to follow.
- Ensure that your topic is unique and relevant within the scope of your general question.
2. Develop a thesis statement
Before writing your dissertation, highlight a specific idea on a historical event and analyse the evidence available to support your claims. Next, analyse the counterarguments to your thesis and plan on how you will refute them within your paper.
Note that a thesis should be clear and debatable without reflecting any biases. You may also consider revising your thesis to reflect the changes you have made within your paper.
3. Organize your information
Logically presenting your information is vital for winning over your examining panel. As such, it is crucial to familiarize yourself with the institution’s guidelines and master the content to include in various chapters.
History dissertation structure
The common structure for a dissertation comprises the:
- Abstract – this part should highlight your main argument and the aims of your paper. The abstract should give your reader a gist of your key argument and show the method used to analyse your topic. Be keen to restate the thesis and show the key results that support your hypothesis.
- Introduction – this chapter outlines the topic, purpose, and relevance of your study to your field. Also, state your research questions and objectives and outline the methodology you intend to use in analysing your thesis.
- Literature review – the literature review evaluates the sources you’ve gathered during your research and gauges how well various aspects of your topic have been covered in these resources. Also, draw the connections between your sources and gauge the gaps in the existing research thus setting the ground for your claims.
- Methods – this chapter should highlight the criteria used to analyse your topic and gauge their relevance to addressing your research question. This section should also justify your selection criteria and highlight various challenges you faced during the study and the solutions applied to overcome these challenges.
- Results – here, show the tables, graphs, and comments that break down the results into absorbable bits.
- Discussion – this section should analyse your results in relation to your hypothesis. Here, analyse various counterarguments and how they hold in light of your findings.
- Conclusion – the conclusion should discuss your key objectives and show the reason why the research matters. The length of your conclusion should take a maximum of 5% of your word count.
Sample history dissertation ideas
- Gender Relations and Women’s Roles in the Ancient World
- Why did the Berlin Wall take so long to fall?
- Julius Caesar’s Personality and the Impact He Had on Rome
- Background and Implications of the Battle of Waterloo
- Aspects of WW1 that may have been prevented
- The events in Fife that led to the Allies’ triumph over Germany
- Napoleon’s leadership style had historical ramifications
- Napoleon’s chances of victory over the Russians
- The Church’s Function in Medieval Life
- Mussolini as the most influential Italian leader
- A Cuban Revolutionary History
