Introduction is the most important part of the thesis, the whole score is based on it. It must be around 15 pages long :
- The Hook : we have the right to surprise our thesis supervisor with something that doesn't have much to do with our thesis's subject.
- Context : you need to explain why you chose this chronology in particular, which times limits you chose, and why the era you are studying is special and different from others.
- Historiographical assessment : during the whole year, we'll work on our thesis, and create it thanks to our sources. But to do so, you need to make a diagnosis of what has been said before on the subject, which conclusions were made, what are the Disagreements between researchers, what is lacking, what are the problems. It must be 3-4 pages long. You can write it thanks to the studies historians have made. This step is indispensable as it allows us to define our subject.
- The Question(TM) : that's your problem, it allows to establish what the subject is. You need to go 100% in this part, you can't just put it in 3 sentences, it is the very heart of the thesis.
- Sources : with which material will you write your thesis ? In this part, you need to present your sources, who's the author, and what problems are associated to the source. The important thing is to justify your source : why did you choose to study THIS source and not another ? Who or what are you studying in this source ? This is also the moment to talk about complementary sources if you have some.
- Method : how are you going to study those sources ?
- Plan Announcement : it must be 1 page minimum, we need to justify why we chose this type of plan, why this order.
If the opinion of the author is important in the source, we can write a first part on this subject. It is better to write the introduction at the end, once you have written everything else. You need to justify your questions and talk about the limits of those questions, and admit that our work can't cover every details and nuances.
