Originality in History IA

[IbTrojan]

So I have to write my year one History IA and I don't know what topic to choose. I did an IA on Student Protests in America during the Vietnam War and how they affected American public opinion but I don't know what to do this year.

Loads of people recommended anything on Fidel Castro, Vietnam War, and Soviet Union (Cold War) stuff but I can't decide on what to do that's informative yet original enough. I know that I don't want to do anything that's overdone. 

Help please?

[Thrashmaster]

Well, originality isn't the most important thing for a history IA. I was going to say it couldn't hurt, but even that might not be true. You know who is going to grade your IA right now, so you can judge if you think your teacher cares or not. What a grader should care about is if you are able to answer your question and meet the rubric requirements. The originality of the question shouldn't matter. A good question for an IA is something you can answer within the word count and with decent evidence and sources. You don't want to be breaking new ground in the field of history - save that for an EE (or a dissertation). History IAs are for writing a really really good history paper, not about being creative.

 

We can't help you come up with a topic, but we can tell you what we think of the wording of a question if you want to bounce ideas off of us.

[IbTrojan]

I do know who is going to be grading my IA this year but the issue is, is that my original teacher had an emergency and we got a replacement teacher who has never taught HL history before and she has not taught any actual history yet. Her way of writing an essay is the TOK way and we are used to writing our history essays the IB way; this conflict is becoming problematic. She wants an original essay which is why I was asking.

 

It's a very sticky situation.

[IbTrojan]

Alright so I have some ideas. I need help narrowing them down or rephrasing them. Anything in the square brackets are different options to phrase the question

 

1) To what extent was the Soviet Five Year Plan successful?

2) To what extent was the 1968 Tet Offensive [a key military strategy for the People's Army of Vietnam?] OR [successful to the People's Army of Vietnam?]

3) Assess the roles of both, media and propaganda, during [WWI or WWII].

4) To what extent did economic resources prove to be vital in [WWI or WWII?]

5) Examine the significance of Fidel Castro's role in [the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 OR Cuban relations with America OR the Bay of Pigs invasion].