National History Day Checklist – in
basically this order:
- 1. Talk about participating in
National History Day (NHD) with your parents
- 2. Decide to work on your own
/ in a group
- 3. Scan through the NHD Rulebook
- 4. Figure out your category:
exhibit, website, presentation, and performances can either be solo or
group; historical papers are solo only
- 5. Start brainstorming historical
ideas, concepts, events, and people that interest you
- 6. Choose a topic that
best connects to the theme for this year: Debate + Diplomacy
- 7. Narrow down your ideas. Small ideas > big ideas
· For example, it’s better
to focus on Abraham Lincoln’s treatment of his Civil War generals than it is to
focus on the whole Civil War
· It's also better to
focus on The Culper Ring (the group of spies that helped Washington during the
American Revolution) just spies
- 8. Revisit your category options – make sure whatever you
choose (historical paper, website, exhibit, performance, or documentary)
best complements your topic
- 9. Write your THESIS –
what are you trying to prove with your topic?
- 10. Start researching sources – make
sure to have at LEAST 33% books; entries with tons of websites are usually
frowned upon
·
Click here for NHD's student
resources
·
Collect primary sources
– the words of the people who lived in that time are THE most important thing
to your project
·
Collect secondary sources
– words of other historians are crucial
·
Give credit to all your
sources – not doing so is PLAGIARISM
·
Make sure you save
all of your sources so that you can add them to your annotated
bibliography
- 11. Begin assembling your annotated
bibliography
·
Separate your bib into 2
categories: primary and secondary
·
Projects could have
anywhere from 10-40+ sources
- 12. Look at past
winners' projects in your category (click on each category and then scroll to the bottom to see some winning entries)
- 13. Write/design an outline for
your project
- 14. Begin constructing your project
- 15. Strengthen your THESIS
- 16. Complete your process
paper (all groups except the historical paper)
- 17. Complete your annotated bibliography
- 18. Strengthen THESIS one last time
- 19. Complete your project for Good
Hope / Eagle View competition
- 20. Attend Good Hope / Eagle View competition
- 21. Be prepared to answer judges’
questions
- 22. Strengthen your project,
bibliography, and paper for Regionals
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