Have you been assigned the task of making a chronology? Start choosing a topic to study, then find the most important dates in the period under review. The next step is to create an interesting visual representation of the chronology you have in mind. Read on to learn more about how to make a timeline.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Deciding What to Understand in the Timeline
Step 1. Give your timeline a title
What is the topic for the chronology? Decide which topic you want to cover in a timeline. You can focus on a particular period or on an entire era, on the history of a neighborhood, or on that of an eminent character. A particular period can also refer simply to the life of a tree, or to the evolution of events in a memorable time. Here is an example of some titles to be inspired by:
- Life and History of Nelson Mandela
- Beverly Hills, 90210: A Recent History
- The Legendary Career of JD Salinger
- The Carabinieri, Yesterday and Today
- History of Forests in Sardinia
- NASA, to the Moon and Beyond
- The Story of Eleonora d’Arborea
- A Day Together with the Praying Mantis
Step 2. Make a list of events to include
The events you choose to include in the chronology may concern a list of banal and well-known events, but also other less known and inspiring, sometimes funny, events related to the topic in question. Consider important events, such as births and deaths, but add little-known details. Include information that may be of interest to the public. You decide whether to include many or few events. Here are some examples of events to consider:
- Relevant personal events such as births, deaths, marriages, divorces, more serious illnesses, family breakdowns, transfers abroad, career advancements, and so on;
- Other useful events to create the plot of the topic. For example, if you are creating a chronology of a centuries-old olive tree, you could include the date a community settled near the tree, the date the trees around it were cut down to make wood, or that of a fire that destroyed the surrounding area, and so on. The picture of the life of the secular olive tree begins to be drawn on the basis of these important events.
- Historical events that took place simultaneously with the topic you are dealing with. For example, if you are doing a chronology of Jerome David Salinger's career, you might include notable events like World War II, or the date the man first walked on the moon, so people might have reason to worry. reflect on how these events may have influenced Salinger's work.
- Little known and intriguing facts that could make the timeline more original. Do research to uncover facts unknown to most people. Look at your topic from a perspective not usually considered by others.
Step 3. Decide when the history starts and when it ends
Technically, your chronology could be infinitely long and wide, from the beginning of time and include every little fact that has taken place. Include a manageable number of events to make the history easy to read. A timeline should present what you consider to be the most essential information on a topic, and if you include too much content, the most important parts are likely to go unnoticed.
Step 4. 15-20 events are sufficient for most histories
You don't always have to start a timeline with a person's birth and end with their death. Try to be creative with the start and end dates
Step 5. Set yourself the goal of presenting a well-balanced story
Read as much as you can on the topic of the chronology, so that it accurately reflects what happened. Remember that a story is subjective; for every little piece of information you include in your chronology, an avalanche of others overlook them. As a historian you are sculpting the history of your topic. This can never be a complete story, however you can do your best to make it as true and interesting as you can with the information you have. Here are some tips to keep in mind when defining the content of the history:
- Don't forget the losers. It shows an original perspective compared to what you can find in a typical history book. Are you dealing with the history of your city? Think of those who lived a lifetime there and were rarely remembered. Are you summarizing the evolution of jazz music? There are many musicians who have given their contribution without being the subject of history books.
- Use a lot of research sources. If you gather all your information from just one textbook, you risk not having enough to build a balanced story on your topic. Check the online resources, call and do interviews, go to the library, read essays on the subject, autobiographies, scientific journals and articles from old newspapers, etc.
- Body your assumptions. Maybe you think you already know your topic. You already know the chronology of Christopher Columbus' voyage, for example, because you've heard of it before. Dig deeper to find out more about what happened in 1492. A routine task such as presenting the chronology of a character you think you know is a great opportunity to discover something new, and through that, to route other people.
Part 2 of 3: Organizing the History
Step 1. Draw a line on a sheet of paper
To give an idea of what your chronology should be like, take a very large sheet of paper, a pencil and make a sketch. In the upper left corner, draw a vertical bar. This represents your start date. Draw a horizontal line that crosses the sheet and ends with another bar on the right side. This represents the end date. The rest of the information will fall within these two signs.
- The final timeline doesn't necessarily have to be represented with a straight line, or any other line - you can be as creative as you need to. In the first place, work in this way to understand if all the information can find a place and in what way.
- It may be helpful to use a very large sheet of paper so that you have room to report all the details.
Step 2. Decide which intervals to use
Based on the period you are considering, you can choose intervals in decades, years, months, or even days. Try to imagine what makes sense for the topic and number the events you want to include. Report a corresponding number of bars along the line between the start date and the end date, distributing them evenly.
If you are narrating a person's life, having a reference every 5 years or so makes sense. If the starting date is a person's birth in 1920, and the ending date is their death in 1990, you might have 14 bars along the line
Step 3. Fill the history with events
Go along the line and mark the points where the events are to be indicated. Mark the bars to highlight the years in which the events happened, and write a short description for each of them.
- Events don't necessarily have to fall into a bar; these are placed just to mark the passage of time. So if the subject in question had an important event in 1956, you can add a longer line or arrow just after the 1955 bar to indicate when the event happened and to make it evident along the line.
- Size the timeline as needed. If you notice that many events are collected in the same interval, consider redesigning the history taking into account a shorter period. For example, if the person was born in 1879, but nothing interesting happened until 1920, you can skip these years and start the chronology later.
Step 4. Evaluate the need to create more parallel lines
If you find that there is too much information to include in a single line, you can create multiple parallel lines with the same dates, which, however, contain different themes. In this way you can compare two events that take place in the same period of time, or represent the same period in history seen from two different perspectives.
Part 3 of 3: Adding Creative Elements
Step 1. Decide how much description to include
Some timelines have simple annotations, such as "2008: Elected President". Others include one or two paragraphs of explanation to insert the annotation in the story. How much information to include depends on the research you did, the nature of the assignment, and your personal preferences.
- If you decide to include longer paragraphs, you need to be creative with the representation, because it can't fit all in one line. You can write a long paragraph in a box and use an arrow to indicate where it falls in the timeline, for example. Alternatively, you can write the information above and below the line.
- Some chronologies come with a combination of short and some longer annotations. There might not be much to say about a character's birthday annotation, but a longer paragraph could be written about a change in his career that occurred later.
Step 2. Use colors and bold for emphasis
To make the information more interesting and readable, make it stand out by using different colors for the most important events. You can also use a different font size, bold text, or make other changes to create visual interest.
Step 3. Consider including images
You can increase the visual interest of the chronology with some images to associate with the events you are reporting. Find pictures online, copy them from books, or get creative and make your own.
- If you include images that you find online or copied, be sure to report the acknowledgments. Make clear the name of the artist or photographer, the date, and the source.
- You can also arrange the history with a background image. If the timeline is about NASA history, you might have space as a background.
Step 4. Conclude the history
Now that you've got the structure and content organized, it's time to do the final draft. Use suitable paper or a poster so you have plenty of space. You can also create a hand-finished timeline using a thin pen and markers, or use a computer program to create and print it. Either way, use your sketch as a template.
- Remember that your timeline can be vertical or horizontal, slanted or straight; it doesn't have to be a simple horizontal line.
- If you are creating the timeline by hand, use a ruler to make straight lines and vertical bars.
- Do your best to present the information in an orderly and clear manner. Do not overfill - the history must be legible.
- Add the title above the timeline. Use larger and more marked fonts, to immediately give the idea of the topic.
Advice
- If necessary, alternate the place where you are writing the events. Write one event above the line and the next below.
- Make sure you refer to sources appropriately. The general criteria for citation will work for most chronologies.
- If you do a chronology of historical events, research library books, newspapers, encyclopedias, magazine articles on timely facts and dates.
- Try to write in small print unless you are using a poster.
