History Research Guide

Many history courses have major research papers due at the end of the semester.

It is important to start planning your research for this and gathering sources early so that you have time to read them and integrate them into your paper with proper citation.

To help you stay organized, you might want to divide a big project into smaller steps and set deadlines for when you will finish them.

Try out this assignment calculator from SFU to get started!

In History, a primary source is a work, document or record created at the time of an event or by a person who directly witnessed or experienced that event. Primary sources are contemporary, first-hand accounts or descriptions of events, people, things or environments.

• Examples:
  • diaries, photographs, letters, journals, newspaper articles
  • government documents (ex. census forms, military service records, school attendance records)
  • creative works (ex. songs, poems, paintings, novels).