Historical research is a process of choosing the area or topic to write the history about, collecting data about events that happened in the area or about the topic. It describes what happened in the past and then makes a critical inquiry into the truth of what happened. It must be interpretative which describe the present situations in terms of past events.
4 major activities in historical research
- Choosing and defining the problem. The researcher must consider his resources, availability of data, time constraint, and his professional competence.
- Collecting the data. There are many resources available from which historical data may be gathered including written source such as official and public documents, books, master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, newspaper and periodicals with news item, personal materials, tape recordings, and relics and remains.
- Analyzing the data. Historical data have to analyze to determine the authenticity or genuineness as well as the truth of the statements.
- Writing the research report. After analyzing the historical data and prove to be authentic or genuine, finally, the research report is written.