25 replies to this topic

[marauder7]

Could you share the topic of your History IA (and your grade if you already have it) ?
This could be helpful for many!

Do you have any tips about choosing a topic?
I was planning on choosing a topic related to what we've learned in class because it may help me study for the exams. Do you recommend this?
Do you recommend a topic related to Ancient History or to Modern History?



Too bad nobody answered
Well anyways I want to share the process I went when deciding a history topic
First I wanted to do something related to witch hunting:
¿What factors caused the young women to be acused of being witches and imprisoned in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and how was this different from the persecution done by Matthew Hopkins in England during the years 1644-1646?

Then I realized that this topic was too vague and that I didn't have enough information to answer the question.
So I decided that I would change my topic. I thought that it was a good idea to choose something related to the IB syllabus so that it would help me to study for the exams.

So this was my second topic:
To what extent can it be said that the Weimar Republic was weak?
It was a bit boring so I decided to change it again.

My class originally was meant to study the russian revolution. But a lot wanted to study the french revolution. So we voted and studied the french revolution instead. I was still interested in the russian revolution, so a few hours before the investigation plan was due I changed my topic to:
To what extent did the situation, the decisions made by the gorernment or the challenges to authority lead to the failure of the Provisional Government in Russia in 1917?

This topic was OK but it was too broad. My teacher told me it would be ok for an EE, but for the IA it had to be narrowed. She told me to choose only one aspect that caused the Provisional Government to fail and analyse it. In that time we were practising for Paper 1 and she had a book of Russian cartoons in her desk and she showed them to me. So BAM I had the idea to do an IA related to the value of cartoons. I decided to do something related to the cold war since there are many cartoons of that time. Then again I had different ideas that were discarded:
To what extent do cartoons provide information of the Western view of the Berlin Blockade?

What is the role of cartoons on showing the threat of attack from the other party experienced by the USSR and the US during the Cold War?

What is the value of graphical history (cartoons and propaganda) in showing the different perspectives about the Cuban Missile Crisis and its role in the Cold War?

These topics were either too broad, too simple or I didn't find suitable cartoons.
So this is my final topic:
An examination of the contribution that 8 different cartoons, drawn between 1947 and 1949, provide to the understanding of the scope of the Marshall Plan

I wanted to share my experience since I hope it can help people choose a suitable topic

[Tony Stark]

My topic was "To what extent can the CIA be held directly responsible for the 1973 Chilean Coup D'Etat Over Salvador Allende?". Not part of my course, a friend of mine studying International Studies as part of his VCE (local high school certificate) course suggested it for me. I was tempted to do something to do with the fall of the Roman Empire, but not having studied Ancient History since Year 7 I decided it was inadvisable. Score was 20/25 (23/25 pre-moderation-by-proxy); part of my overall score of 7. I was an SL student (Nov 2011 Session), but I'm fairly sure the IA criteria are the same at HL and SL. Would upload it, but then people would pay closer attention to my references.

Edit: I have uploaded it, figure I probably lost marks on the references section anyways (the page numbers are often, ah, guessed)

Attached Files

•  IA.doc   81.5K   55 downloads

Edited by Saurav Das, Feb 03, 2012 - 08:08.

[Dinstruction]

My topic was "What role did Alexander the Great's leadership play in his Indian campaign?" My strategy was to catch my teacher off guard by not doing something related to 20th century history. It hasn't been moderated, but evidently my strategy paid off because he gave me 25/25. I also tried to structure the question so it did not make any glaring assumptions that could be challenged.

[Gabrielle Olivia]

I think it's really important to study a topic that you're interested in, or else you won't be motivated to do it. At least, that's how it is for me! I'm doing something along the lines of "To what extent did Coco Chanel contribute to the Women's Rights movement of the 19th century?" I'm still playing around with it, so it might not stay exactly as is. All in all, I think it's important you choose something you enjoy!

[spereira14]

Gabrielle Olivia, on Feb 07, 2012 - 01:04, said:

I think it's really important to study a topic that you're interested in, or else you won't be motivated to do it. At least, that's how it is for me! I'm doing something along the lines of "To what extent did Coco Chanel contribute to the Women's Rights movement of the 19th century?" I'm still playing around with it, so it might not stay exactly as is. All in all, I think it's important you choose something you enjoy!

That's a really interesting and different topic, what motivated you do that one? Was it common in your class to deviate from politicians/monarchs, etc. ?

[Mar Le Devine]

I'm currently working on the topic "How accurately does the film Gallipoli (1981) depict reality of the Gallipoli campaign"

However, i'm still unsure about the wording of the topic.

I'm looking at the Film's biases, because as it is known, australia and new zealand held a grudge against Britain after their Soldiers (Anzacs) were practically sent to certain death. This was due to lousy Britain's tactics, leadership etc. I have 6 other books which i use as sources and from those one is my Primary source and other primary source being the Film.

Any suggestions please? =)

[marauder7]

We watched that movie last year!

Here is a website I found when I was looking for a topic.
http://geoff-william...-topics-a308141
There are some IAs done about movies. check them out for the wording of your topic.
You could also write about the value of the film showing the australian perspective of the war.

[nanon]

Mar Le Devine, on Feb 16, 2012 - 19:55, said:

I'm currently working on the topic "How accurately does the film Gallipoli (1981) depict reality of the Gallipoli campaign"

However, i'm still unsure about the wording of the topic.

I'm looking at the Film's biases, because as it is known, australia and new zealand held a grudge against Britain after their Soldiers (Anzacs) were practically sent to certain death. This was due to lousy Britain's tactics, leadership etc. I have 6 other books which i use as sources and from those one is my Primary source and other primary source being the Film.

Any suggestions please? =)

I'm pretty confident that Gallipoli the movie was actually made as part of a commemoration of Australia's part in the war, or a certain day, or something similar... My history teacher used it as an example of a biased film when studying history, for that reason.

Its an interesting topic, good luck

[Gabrielle Olivia]

spereira14, on Feb 07, 2012 - 04:29, said:

Gabrielle Olivia, on Feb 07, 2012 - 01:04, said:

I think it's really important to study a topic that you're interested in, or else you won't be motivated to do it. At least, that's how it is for me! I'm doing something along the lines of "To what extent did Coco Chanel contribute to the Women's Rights movement of the 19th century?" I'm still playing around with it, so it might not stay exactly as is. All in all, I think it's important you choose something you enjoy!

That's a really interesting and different topic, what motivated you do that one? Was it common in your class to deviate from politicians/monarchs, etc. ?

In my IB classes, History is probably one of my weaker courses, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I know next to nothing about history. I don't find it that interesting, and I have a horrible memory for dates and figures! Don't get me wrong, I love the maths and sciences, and I love writing critical essays about Shakespeare and Plath. However I can't motivate myself to research a topic (that I consider boring) or one that I know nothing about. I've always had a love for fashion and I've always been interested in Chanel. In fact, I share her first name! (Gabrielle.)
To answer the second part of your question, yes, a lot of individuals in my class have chosen different topics as well. We are a pretty artsy group, and many of my friends are studying Mozart, ballet and Picasso. One of them is even studying the expansion of the NFL into Canada! I have to give credit to our teacher as well, he is the one who inspired us to pursue topics of our own chose and stressed we research something we are interested in. I think the quality of writing improves when someone is passionate about something, don't you think?

[Tony Stark]

Gallipoli... I hated that movie with a passion, couldn't possibly imagine writing a historical investigation on it... good luck

[deraksan]

I chose "How did the polices of the United States, specifically the Carter Doctrine, have a big impact on the initiation of the Afghan Civil War?".  

Historically speaking I find everything that happened in Afghanistan after the 1960s extremely interesting and therefore I also enjoy writing about it but the historical investigation is a pain whether you're interested in the topic or not because it's not like writing an essay.  The different sections are very specific and you need to get a lot of research done which is why I suggest picking a specific topic that's not too broad.

[Emy Glau-ski]

My topic was "Why did the Russians refuse to help the Polish underground’s uprising against the Nazis in 1944?" I'm nearly finished with it, and it's due on the 23rd.

I wanted to do my IA on a World War II topic since it's my favorite area of history, but not on a super-obvious, cliched, boring topic. I also wanted to do it on something that we didn't talk about in class. When we were in the choosing topics stage I saw this randomly while reading an article on World War II, thought it was really cool, and that's how I chose it. And it was interesting to learn about. Plus I get to bash Stalin the jerk for a good 1000 words so this is an additional plus

It's important to choose a topic you're interesting in because it will definitely show through in your writing. Some of my classmates chose generic topics on things like Nazi propaganda and Mao because they wanted an easy topic, but they didn't really care for it, and they're scoring low marks.

[thekupus]

hey people. I need a quick response. What do you think, could I adapt my mock internal, and submit it as a final? I got 7 for the mock, and I have to submit the final tomorrow, but I have not started writing it yet...

[Emy Glau-ski]

thekupus, on Mar 22, 2012 - 16:50, said:

hey people. I need a quick response. What do you think, could I adapt my mock internal, and submit it as a final? I got 7 for the mock, and I have to submit the final tomorrow, but I have not started writing it yet...

If that's all right with your teacher, I suppose that wouldn't be a problem.
But seriously, if it's due tomorrow for you I don't know why you haven't even started? I mean that's procrastination to the max!

[thekupus]

Emy Glau-ski, on Mar 22, 2012 - 19:50, said:

thekupus, on Mar 22, 2012 - 16:50, said:

hey people. I need a quick response. What do you think, could I adapt my mock internal, and submit it as a final? I got 7 for the mock, and I have to submit the final tomorrow, but I have not started writing it yet...

If that's all right with your teacher, I suppose that wouldn't be a problem.
But seriously, if it's due tomorrow for you I don't know why you haven't even started? I mean that's procrastination to the max!

well, I am a professional in a way when it comes to procrastination...

Did my History EE in 6 hours, the night before the final deadline, and got A as a predicted grade

[Emy Glau-ski]

thekupus, on Mar 22, 2012 - 22:45, said:

Emy Glau-ski, on Mar 22, 2012 - 19:50, said:

thekupus, on Mar 22, 2012 - 16:50, said:

hey people. I need a quick response. What do you think, could I adapt my mock internal, and submit it as a final? I got 7 for the mock, and I have to submit the final tomorrow, but I have not started writing it yet...

If that's all right with your teacher, I suppose that wouldn't be a problem.
But seriously, if it's due tomorrow for you I don't know why you haven't even started? I mean that's procrastination to the max!

well, I am a professional in a way when it comes to procrastination...

Did my History EE in 6 hours, the night before the final deadline, and got A as a predicted grade

Are you serious? -___-
You must be an expert procrastinator then. It took me quite some time to finish my EE and IA.

[thekupus]

Emy Glau-ski, on Mar 23, 2012 - 00:42, said:

Are you serious? -___-
You must be an expert procrastinator then. It took me quite some time to finish my EE and IA.

Well, I started reading books for the MOCK exams 2 days before they began,and got 37 points...But I hate it, I have to concentrate way harder than if I just did it on time...now I have to finish my mathematics and biology internals in 2 days

[SmilingAtLife:)]

Emy Glau-ski, on Mar 22, 2012 - 19:50, said:

thekupus, on Mar 22, 2012 - 16:50, said:

hey people. I need a quick response. What do you think, could I adapt my mock internal, and submit it as a final? I got 7 for the mock, and I have to submit the final tomorrow, but I have not started writing it yet...

If that's all right with your teacher, I suppose that wouldn't be a problem.
But seriously, if it's due tomorrow for you I don't know why you haven't even started? I mean that's procrastination to the max!

I kind of did this for my history IA. I wrote a very brief outline, but didn't do the research/write it till the night before (starting at 10pm!) Granted, I stayed up till 5, but I also had 2 World Lit papers due the same day! *sigh* I'm not proud of my procrastination, I just realize it's getting worse and worse, especially considering I'm a perfectionist who really cares about grades.
What was worse was when I studied for my history mock exams the day of the exam I don't know what got into me!

Mine was on the role of women in China under Mao, something along those lines. Sounds ordinary, but it's useful for Paper 2 For topic suggestions, my teacher just gave us a huge list of old exam questions. We were told it'd be killing 2 birds with one stone. I got 23/25, but it hasn't been moderated yet... so it could go down.

[emmanem]

Im still working on mine, but my question is "why were the attitudes of British South Africans and Afrikaners different regarding the policy of apartheid implemented in 1948?"

My teacher suggested Civil War/American Revolution, but this is something I'm actually interested in

[AnastasiaS]

Gabrielle Olivia, on Feb 17, 2012 - 18:33, said:

spereira14, on Feb 07, 2012 - 04:29, said:

Gabrielle Olivia, on Feb 07, 2012 - 01:04, said:

I think it's really important to study a topic that you're interested in, or else you won't be motivated to do it. At least, that's how it is for me! I'm doing something along the lines of "To what extent did Coco Chanel contribute to the Women's Rights movement of the 19th century?" I'm still playing around with it, so it might not stay exactly as is. All in all, I think it's important you choose something you enjoy!

That's a really interesting and different topic, what motivated you do that one? Was it common in your class to deviate from politicians/monarchs, etc. ?

In my IB classes, History is probably one of my weaker courses, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I know next to nothing about history. I don't find it that interesting, and I have a horrible memory for dates and figures! Don't get me wrong, I love the maths and sciences, and I love writing critical essays about Shakespeare and Plath. However I can't motivate myself to research a topic (that I consider boring) or one that I know nothing about. I've always had a love for fashion and I've always been interested in Chanel. In fact, I share her first name! (Gabrielle.)
To answer the second part of your question, yes, a lot of individuals in my class have chosen different topics as well. We are a pretty artsy group, and many of my friends are studying Mozart, ballet and Picasso. One of them is even studying the expansion of the NFL into Canada! I have to give credit to our teacher as well, he is the one who inspired us to pursue topics of our own chose and stressed we research something we are interested in. I think the quality of writing improves when someone is passionate about something, don't you think?

I was wondering, what was the IA topic that involved ballet? I'm trying to integrate anything dance/theatre/music related into my IA, most likely something to do with the Weimar Republic.