"What is my subject?" is probably the first question which a student must
consider. Unfortunately, when working on an essay, this is rarely the
first question that one can answer. Certainly, one should begin with a
general theme for the research paper - perhaps "Newton's Physics" or "The
Chemical Revolution." The key is to find a narrow topic, which will permit
a detailed discussion within the span of the essay. A subject such as
"Galileo's Life and Work," for example, is probably too complex to treat
ade quately in a thick volume, let alone a term paper. "Galileo's Concept
of Inertia" - or, better yet, "The Role of Experiment in the Formulation
of Galileo's Concept of Inertia" - present more reasonable titles.

"How does one arrive at such a precise subject?" The actual process which
a person might follow in order to find a topic is too circuitous to
schematize. Luck, flashes of brilliance, hours of concentrated thinking,
dream visions, and mystical experiences all entail potential steps in the
psychology of writing. Superficially, however, one must do some reading.
The library catalogue, textbook bibliographies, and suggestions from
instructors provide an initial pool of secondary sources. You will
probably wa nt to start with a few of these, as a stimulus for formulating
questions and as a guide to reading primary sources. When reading, it is
crucial to take notes (some people find note cards indispensable) and to
read critically.

The ability to "read critically" is hard to define and even harder to
learn.  Ask questions while reading: "What is the author trying to show?",
"Does this make sense?" and "Does the author present compelling evidence
for this argument?" The puzzling, con fusing, and intriguing issues which
arise from your reading may help you to find a topic. The contemporary
historian, Robert Darnton, advocates this kind of hungry and inquisitive
stance while reading documents. He claims that the strangeness and
distance which we might feel when reading a source may lead us toward
understanding. 

The perception of that distance may serve as the starting point of an
investigation, for anthropologists have found that the best points of
entry in an attempt to penetrate an alien culture can be those where it
seems to be most opaque. When you realize that you are not getting
something - a joke, a proverb, a ceremony - that is particularly
meaningful to the native, you can see where to grasp a foreign system of
meaning in order to unravel it.

Darnton's discussion is couched in anthropological terms; yet, he provides
a striking suggestion. This approach offers the challenge of reading
documents through the eyes and with the conceptual framework of their
authors - Darnton's "alien culture" - and to come to terms with how
certain individuals looked at the natural world in the seventeenth
century, for example, rather than the way we do today. 

The goal of this reading and questioning and puzzling is to find an
original theme for discussion. It is almost impossible to write an essay
on a subject which nobody has ever considered, but one should strive to
offer a new way of looking at even the most traditional topics. This can
involve an analysis and discussion of the claims of the historians you
read, as well as a fresh look at primary sources. Above all, try to put
yourself into your paper. Make certain that its pages reveal your own
imaginative survey of the subject. Do not be content with merely recording
the words of historians who have preceded you. Think through their
explanations, challenge them, transform them, make them your own.

The art of composition defies simple description. Any writer will benefit
from the elegant, witty and concise treatment of the matter in The
Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E. B. White. Another classic
study is A Dictionary of Modern Usage, by H.W. Fowler.