Junior Thesis

Help With Your Junior Thesis

Last Updated on Saturday, 03 December 2011 16:26

Written by Library Teachers

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1. Find a topic you like
2. Narrowing your topic: Example #1 | Example #2
3. Turn your question(s) into a thesis statement (See also "What is a thesis statement?")
4. Find exactly what you're looking for.

If you already have a topic, start your research here.

Get started: find a topic you like

Watch a screencast on this

Getting Started with your Junior Thesis Screencast

You have your assignment, but you have no clue what do to it on. You'll be spending a lot of time on this, so make sure its something you are interested in. Where can you look for ideas?

Your own head. What do you like? What would you like to know more about? There's a history to everything, not just the stuff in your textbook.
Seek advice. Ask your teacher. Ask a librarian. Ask friends and family. You'll find interesting ideas you didn't know about.
Use these sources to browse for subjects:

"Hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in U.S. History." Includes "full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience."

Check out the Media Collection. Links to reference articles and encyclopedia articles.

Over 700,000 reference articles from published reference books. Click on "Social Science" ·or "History" to browse. Includes History in Dispute, a fantastic series that basically acts as an encyclopedia of junior thesis topics.· The best volumes in this set for you include:

United States History Topic Browse
Great starting point for looking for a topic. Links to articles from magazines, journals, and books. Database also includes government documents and primary sources. Password is required to access outside of school.

Opposing Viewpoints: Browse Issues. Another great place to start. Find two sides of many issues.

Explore for a topic with this database. Check out the History in Motion section for old film clips, the Voices of the 20th Century for old sound recordings of important events in history, and the Spotlight On section that features famous events from various time periods.

42Explore.com
Scroll through a list of history topics that may spark your interest. Some topics that may be of interest: Women's Suffrage Movement, The Salem Witch Trials, and World War I and 11.

Already have a topic? Continue here

2. Narrowing your topic: Example #1 | Example #2
3. Turn your question(s) into a thesis statement·(See also "What is a thesis statement?")
4. Have a topic?·Find exactly what you're looking for

	PowerSearch (Gale) Search across Gale collections [about]
	Questia School (Questia) An online library [about]
	JStor (ITHAKA) Journal articles [about]
	Virtual Reference Library (Gale) A digital reference collection [about]
	MAS Ultra (EBSCO) Magazines, journals & more [about]
	Knowledge Source (SIRS) Magazines, journals & more [about]
	BrainPOP (BrainPOP) Exciting animations! [about]
	Opposing Viewpoints(Gale) Two sides of many issues [about]
	Britannica (Encyclopedia Britannica) The entire encyclopedia and more [about]
	Marshall Cavendish Digital (Marshall Cavendish) Specialized encyclopedias [about]

Help Citing Sources

Two free services to help you create citations:

"Leave the formatting to us"

For more, see "How do I cite my sources?"

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Help With Your Junior Thesis

Get started: find a topic you like

Already have a topic? Continue here

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Help Citing Sources