First in an occasional series

For almost every research project, my worst error has been picking a topic late. Without a firm idea for a topic, I’ve usually squandered much of the available time reading the secondary literature without much profit because I didn’t approach the sources with specific research questions. When the time came to start writing, I had only a superficial grasp of the historiography and little time left to read and analyze primary sources. For my master’s thesis, I vowed to reform.

When I began work on my master’s thesis this summer, I had three goals: first, to read the secondary sources with specific research questions in mind; second, to begin reading primary sources early; and third, to pick a topic before the semester began. May and June were taken up with working two jobs and finishing some other projects, so I began serious reading in July.

My first idea was to study the development of New England secession movements in the early nineteenth century. That topic proved too broad for a thesis, though a dissertation I read covered it adequately. I decided to focus on the newspaper debate surrounding the Hartford Convention.

Picking a topic involves several considerations: what sources are available, which themes are appealing, and especially which topics existing historiography has covered adequately enough to provide a framework but not comprehensively enough to preclude additional research. The newspaper debate over the Hartford Convention seemed to balance those considerations best. It can be difficult to write on a topic for a distant region–I can’t make any research trips from South Carolina to New England–but I have access to all the relevant newspapers. The historiography is perhaps closer to being comprehensive than I would prefer, but it is not conclusive.

For my thesis, I think I planned better and began earlier than I have on other projects. I hope to keep refining my method. In future posts, I’ll discuss further the process of writing my thesis.