This guide will assist you in developing your research topic and subsequent paper for HIST 1950: History Capstone (British History).  It will also provide you with links to helpful sites and people.

According to the Pitt-Greensburg program sheet for history, this discipline "is concerned with the broad range of experiences, events, and decisions which have taken place in the past and which have shaped our current world."

• Develop a topic that asks a question or poses a problem that interests you.
• Select appropriate search terms for your subject. In the field of British history, you may want to be more specific in your search term to yield better results. For example:
  • Queen Victoria/Victorian Era
  • Crimean War
  • British rule in India
  • Relations with Ireland
  • Working-class movements and factory legislation
• Search PITTCat+ and subject oriented databases.
• Revise your topic. Determine how you will answer your question.
• Evaluate your resources carefully!
• When in doubt, contact your librarian.

These sample worksheets will help you refine your research topic and understand how to evaluate a scholarly journal article.