Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Women in WWII

Just posting for a few ideas - I've recently began research for my dissertation and I've settled on the very broad topic of women in WWII in Britain. I like the idea of propaganda, the land army, mobilisation, factory work etc but I really need to narrow it down to make a real start ASAP! Obviously the decision needs to be my own, but I really like the idea of all of these and can't settle on a thesis statement - any ideas?

Reply 1

returnmigrant

For an undergrad dissertation you need to make the subject very small and and the question very specific - you simply dont have time or space to do anything more ambitious. Many undergrads think they have to do something astonishingly new, original or groundbreaking and end up picking something more like a PhD thesis. You only need to be able to show that you can handle primary sources, formulate a research question to be answered, and then answer it efficiently using both primary and secondary material. It doesnt need to be any more ambitious than that.

To keep it small, try narrowing down the field - look at something very local to a specific town for instance (women's ammunition factory work in your local or Uni town?), or a very specific idea (like the perception of women's relationship with coloured GIs for instance). You need to be able to draw on an existing literature so make sure this exists (JStor or Google Scholar etc) before going any further with an idea. Actually somewhere like Jstor might be a good place to start anyway - put in a few relevant keywords and read a few articles. This often helps you see what the key issues in this area actually are.

Good Luck!