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Writing a good Historical Investigation


Survival Robot

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  • 2 months later...

Hi All,

I recently spent a lot of time & effort putting together an HI - I chose a good subject, did the appropriate research & other background requirements, followed the marking scheme and its requirements to the letter and was very pleased with the result. I then submitted the HI for final assessment

The other day I got the result and was shocked at the very low grade awarded by my teachers (marker & moderator) - this was totally unexpected

Whilst there is the possibility that I am a dumbo at history / the HI - I feel that something might have gone wrong, somewhere

My parents and myself are meeting with the teachers soon to discuss this matter - but if they insist on retaining the low mark, is there any form of appeal that anyone knows about please?

Thanks in advance for any advice provided

M

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Hi All,

I recently spent a lot of time & effort putting together an HI - I chose a good subject, did the appropriate research & other background requirements, followed the marking scheme and its requirements to the letter and was very pleased with the result. I then submitted the HI for final assessment

The other day I got the result and was shocked at the very low grade awarded by my teachers (marker & moderator) - this was totally unexpected

Whilst there is the possibility that I am a dumbo at history / the HI - I feel that something might have gone wrong, somewhere

My parents and myself are meeting with the teachers soon to discuss this matter - but if they insist on retaining the low mark, is there any form of appeal that anyone knows about please?

Thanks in advance for any advice provided

Hey!

Sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with your mark, but it's not that uncommon. My first History IA draft, which I thought was fantastic, was marked very poorly. I then worked on it, took into account all the comments and criticisms I received from my history teacher and then improved on it and eventually got a 7.

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Thanks Arrowhead,

Unfortunately I was not able to obtain teacher feedback (circumstances beyond my control) before final submission of the HI i.e. it is now 'locked-in', marked and will go towards the final IB mark / grade following the May exam. Hence my question about any 'appeal' process re the mark awarded (bearing in mind that in UK (not sure about elsewhere) there is no moderation of the HI outside of the school itself - or at least, not in my school)

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone , in analysis can I write f.e. in my opinion the tension between huguenots and protestants increased after Calvin's publications ?

You can write whatever you want in the Analysis section so long as you back it up with evidence from the previous section.

I would avoid using "in my opinion" and "I" in an academic essay though. While it's somewhat okay to do that in American academia, most European academic writing would instead use phrases such as: "It is submitted;" "It is posited;" "The essay proposes;" etc. It's a personal choice though, either way is fine, the latter is just a little more formal is all.

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  • 5 months later...

Hi!

So I wrote my first draft and my teacher said my analysis section would only be like 2/6 points if I don't change it.

My title is "To what extent does the novel War Horse accurately portray the use of British cavalry on the Western Front during the First World War?" so I'm comparing a fictional novel to historical events. Any ideas how what approach should I take when writing section D?

Thanks!

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I did something similar as I compared a work of fiction describing Stalin's gulags with the actual conditions. I structured it thematically, for example one paragraph I think was food, one was work etc. and compared and contrasted what was described in the work of fiction with a number of actual historical accounts and then concluded at the end of each paragraph whether the novel accurately portrayed food, work etc. and also suggested possible reason why (if any) there was differences.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi!

So I wrote my first draft and my teacher said my analysis section would only be like 2/6 points if I don't change it.

My title is "To what extent does the novel War Horse accurately portray the use of British cavalry on the Western Front during the First World War?" so I'm comparing a fictional novel to historical events. Any ideas how what approach should I take when writing section D?

Thanks!

Perhaps you could look at the social, economical, and political aspects to link fiction and history? I am not familiar with using fiction in a HI but I guess you could look at causes and consequences (particularly because it is WW1). Try keeping it more factual and analytical to get the highest points :)

My HI title was : To what extent was the Boxer Rebellion in 1899-1901 due to foreign imperialism? and I looked at all the contributing factors to build a solid essay. Goodluck on yours ^_^

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi!

So I wrote my first draft and my teacher said my analysis section would only be like 2/6 points if I don't change it.

My title is "To what extent does the novel War Horse accurately portray the use of British cavalry on the Western Front during the First World War?" so I'm comparing a fictional novel to historical events. Any ideas how what approach should I take when writing section D?

Thanks!

It would be good if you can fit your analysis of this text's portrayal of British cavalry, in said conflict, in the context of the broader historiographical portrayal of this topic. Your focus should not be purely story-telling or recounting of whether or not this fictional text matches up to reality; your focus should be about why anyone should care about the accuracy of War Horse's portrayal. Did the description given in War Horse have historiographical consequences on how this issue has been approached post-publication? Does the description given in War Horse reflect particular historiographical stances? These are a sample of the kinds of questions you should consider in the process of improving your analysis section.

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  • 1 month later...

Out of the 25 points that this investigation is worth, 6 of them come from the analysis section. However, a part of section D requires that "there is some awareness of the significance of the sources discussed in C." Can anyone clarify what this means? These are the only points on the Investigation that I am missing, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Out of the 25 points that this investigation is worth, 6 of them come from the analysis section. However, a part of section D requires that "there is some awareness of the significance of the sources discussed in C." Can anyone clarify what this means? These are the only points on the Investigation that I am missing, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

When you discuss Section D, you are allowed to (and should) mention the major sources that you analyzed in Part C. This doesn't have to be more than a few sentences here and there, but by doing this you can show that you fully understand what the sources are saying/getting at. If one of your sources is heavily biased or has some other significant limitation, it is best to show briefly how that impacts your analysis. However, save the majority of Section D for analyzing the stuff from Section B. :)

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Hi everyone!

I found out today that I have to complete redo my IA, which isn't so much of a problem, except my new teacher (who has no IB experience) is giving us very different information RE how to write it than my old teacher, who I started doing the IA with (he was also an experience IB teacher and marker.) So I just wanted to clarify a couple of things, if anyone could help me out:

  • Is it absolutely necessary to include a primary source? (I have a few, but with the new question that I had to choose they aren't as relevant)
  • Is it true that the Summary of Evidence section can be written as bullet points?

Thanks in advance! Just wanted to check before I write it completely wrong (again).

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Hi everyone!

I found out today that I have to complete redo my IA, which isn't so much of a problem, except my new teacher (who has no IB experience) is giving us very different information RE how to write it than my old teacher, who I started doing the IA with (he was also an experience IB teacher and marker.) So I just wanted to clarify a couple of things, if anyone could help me out:

  • Is it absolutely necessary to include a primary source? (I have a few, but with the new question that I had to choose they aren't as relevant)
  • Is it true that the Summary of Evidence section can be written as bullet points?

Thanks in advance! Just wanted to check before I write it completely wrong (again).

1. This really depends on your topic. Primary sources typically are good to include if you can find them, but if you are doing a topic that happened a VERY long time ago (such as some sort of medieval/ancient history topic) you might not be able to find any at all. Don't just throw in a primary source just to have a primary source, it should benefit your IA in some way.

2. Yes, you can do the summary of evidence as bullet points. However, the remaining sections should be paragraph-style.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello again! I was just wondering if someone might be able to help me with section F, the bibliography. I've used Harvard referencing in the IA, so do I need a reference list AND a bibliography? This is the first time I've had to Harvard reference and the internet seems to think I don't need a bibliography, just a list of sources, so does this still count for section F?

Thanks in advance! :)

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  • 1 month later...

Hello!

I have a question about Section C, both of my main sources are written by the same author, coincidentally, and i realized that my analysis of both sources are nearly identical. Does this matter? It is very clear that these are my two main sources and I'm hesitant to turn to another source instead.

Any help is appreciated!

If it helps you my RQ is: "To what extent was the danish defense bound to fail during the Schleswig - Holstein war in 1864?" and the author's name is Tom Buk - Swienty.

Thank you!

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  • 1 month later...

 

Guessing it's by mid-march essays have to be already sent for examiners to grade. biggrin.gif

wait... isnt it internal assessment?

i thought the grades were just sort of reported to the ib, but not actually SENT to grade?

 

The grades are moderated by the IB. They will ask your school for papers that received a variety of grades, and based on those various grades, the IB can raise or lower your mark that your history teacher gave you. 

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