Where Do I Go If I Need A History Dissertation Sample?

Dissertations take Time, Patience, and Effort—Take Lots of Good Notes as You Go and Work only With Respected Historical Sources

I don’t know where I would have been without sample dissertations to view while I was working on my own. Although at first I burrowed and read, first taking notes on legal-ruled notepads and, then, transferring these into documents and files to cut and paste from – quotes from authors, quotes from critics of the books I was reading from respected presses, peer reviewed scholarly journals, and respected scholarly journals (ask your professor for the best in history) , you’ll want to document all works you are citing as you go.

There are Respected Sources in Each Historical Era and Locale

In fact, the works cited pages – mine at least, was thirty pages long. You’ll want to cite as you go—don’t leave it till later when it seems an impossible task. Ask your professor to tell you the most respected journals in the historical period you are writing on and do some internet research on this yourself. Is it American history—there will be the most respected American history journals and European history journals as well.

Books from scholarly presses are best for a dissertation, as they will demonstrate your knowledge of the importance of peer reviewed literature. University presses are often the way to go, and we all know the upper echelons of these—or Google them. Again, the best way to go is your professor.

The Best Way to Find Sample History (Or Any Dissertation)

There is one best way you can go with this. Your university library—especially for formatting reasons.

Why?

Well, this is the reason. Your university library houses all dissertations in all the disciplines (and each uses its own citation methods---MLA, APA, Harvard, Chicago Style). If you find a recent history dissertation in your field – say, an American history dissertation from last year or the year before, they were most likely using the same format as you. This is important because as new internet resources continue to emerge, and they will require new citation methods.

You can lay this dissertation out and view how they have cited, footnoted or parenthetical, in the body and in their works cited. You can make copies of these for reference or check these out for whole semesters at a time—these are also great for getting source ideas from—especially if your topic is the same in nature/focus.