Critical thinking and questioning are essential skills for any historian, whether you are a student, a teacher, or a researcher. In this article, you will learn how to formulate a clear and relevant historical question for your research or project, and why it matters for your understanding and analysis of the past.
Historical questions are not just trivia or facts that you can look up in a book or online. They are inquiries that help you explore the complexity, diversity, and significance of historical events, people, and sources. Asking historical questions helps you to define your topic, narrow your focus, and guide your research. It also helps you to develop your critical thinking skills, such as evaluating evidence, comparing perspectives, and making arguments.
A good historical question is one that is clear, relevant, and open-ended. A clear question is one that is specific, concise, and understandable. A relevant question is one that relates to your purpose, audience, and context. An open-ended question is one that invites multiple answers, interpretations, and explanations, rather than a simple yes or no. For example, a good historical question could be: How did the abolitionist movement influence the Civil War?
From my experience, it is important to ensure that the question is measurable and authentic/ unique. A question that is measurable follows clear steps/ guidelines and can either be quantified or qualified with pre-determined indicators, variables, a standard or custom set of parameters/ variables. This ensures that the findings can be replicated by an independent party if the same steps are followed. Authenticity is important because research questions rely on, and contribute to, the scientific body of knowledge. For example, good researchers explore other works of science, art and literature to understand what has been previously researched and determine if their research questions will contribute new (and relevant) knowledge.
There are many ways to generate historical questions, depending on your interests, sources, and goals. One common method is to use the 5 Ws and 1 H: who, what, when, where, why, and how. These words can help you to identify the main aspects of your topic, and to explore the connections, causes, and consequences of historical phenomena. For example, if you are interested in the topic of women's suffrage, you could ask: Who were the main actors and opponents of the suffrage movement? What were their motivations and strategies? When and where did the movement take place? Why was it important and controversial? How did it affect the political and social landscape of the country?
Once you have generated some historical questions, you need to refine them to make them more focused and manageable. This means that you need to narrow down your scope, clarify your terms, and specify your criteria. For example, if your question is: How did women's suffrage affect the political and social landscape of the country?, you could refine it by asking: How did women's suffrage affect the political and social landscape of the United States in the early 20th century? This question is more refined because it limits the time period, the geographical area, and the aspects of the landscape that you want to examine.
I find that the step of refining research questions is often the tie breaker and what determines how good and acceptable the paper would be. It requires one to be adept at identifying the interests of the audience and their priorities. Avoid ambiguity, in terms of the scope, by identifying, early enough, the best manageable population size that confidently fulfils the research objectives. Good research should address the need even as it contributes to the body of knowledge. Objective-driven sample size calculations by experts, for primary research, or a systematic review of available literature (for example, the PRISMA) for secondary reviews can help narrow down to the most important elements.
To answer historical questions, you need to do research, analysis, and synthesis. Research involves finding and evaluating primary and secondary sources that are relevant and reliable. Analysis involves interpreting and comparing the sources, and identifying the evidence, arguments, and perspectives that they offer. Synthesis involves integrating and organizing the information, and presenting your own answer, argument, or thesis, supported by the evidence and the sources. For example, to answer the question: How did women's suffrage affect the political and social landscape of the United States in the early 20th century?, you would need to research the sources that document the suffrage movement and its impact, analyze the evidence and arguments that they provide, and synthesize your own answer, argument, or thesis, based on the sources and your own critical thinking.
Evaluating historical questions is an important part of critical thinking and questioning in history. It helps you to assess the quality, relevance, and significance of your own and others' questions, and to improve them if necessary. To evaluate historical questions, you can use some criteria, such as: Is the question clear, relevant, and open-ended? Does the question address a historical problem, issue, or debate? Does the question reflect historical thinking skills, such as causation, change, continuity, or significance? Does the question allow for multiple answers, interpretations, or explanations? Does the question inspire further research, inquiry, or discussion? For example, to evaluate the question: How did women's suffrage affect the political and social landscape of the United States in the early 20th century?, you could apply these criteria and see if the question meets them or not, and how it could be improved or modified.