Choose the historical person, event or issue from history to write your history paper about. For example, if you're studying the Civil War, choose the issue of slavery as the topic you want to write about.
Choose an approach to writing about the historical person, event or issue. Using the topic of slavery in America, narrow your focus to slavery's effect on the current socioeconomic status of African Americans in the United States today.
Write your topic in sentence form. This is the first draft of your history thesis sentence and should include the historical person, event or issue you're writing about and the approach you will take in your paper. The thesis sentence for the above example of a paper topic could be something like, "The historic enslavement of African Americans in the United States gave this population less time to prosper economically than Caucasian Americans and caused their current socioeconomic status as a group." Add details to your thesis statement in your introductory paragraph, and prove your thesis with evidence throughout the rest of your history paper.