History EE Help?

[afern98]

I'm currently toying with the idea of writing something along the lines of "To what extent do dictators use cultural suppression as a means of consolidating power?". I was wondering if I'm better off focusing on one or multiple dictators given the word limit.

[ShootingStar16]

I think you should focus on one dictator so that it'll be a lot more focused. If you just stick with that question you have, it'll be way too broad and there will be no way you can fit all of the info into a 4000 word essay since there have been so many dictators in history and you can talk about so much with just one dictator. 

[Blackcurrant]

I'm going to weigh in here:

 

Are you seriously planning to generalise from one dictator's actions?  You can do that in immigration politics (one terrorist represents the danger of all foreign immigrants...the logic is simple) which works well with a flighty populace, but not so well with EE with examiners. 

 

Then the formulation itself "To what extent..." which implies some kind of proportion. Hopefully you've already asked yourself: In proportion to what? And how will I measure that....? Look carefully at previous examples of this question and see how that appraisal is done in official IB questions. It might save you a lot of angst later.

 

For you the main headache will be:   How many dictator's/teachers/psychiatrists/lawyers/streetsweepers does it take to make a generalisation? I think Shooting Star's warning about your paper becoming un-manageable ... may turn out to be true in the end.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Blackcurrant