IA Is my topic too broad?

[Tianna2012]

For my Historical Investigation I wanted to compare how Richard III is portrayed in William Shakespear's play to the man himself? What do you think?

[CristinaV]

Wouldn't that be too literature-ish?

It is, after all, a Historical Investigation. Maybe that would work better for an Extended Essay, even though I still wouldn't be very convinced.

Try to focus it more on historical events. It usually helps if that event has happened in your country, because you have a lot more access to valuable sources. I live in Spain and I did mine on the Spanish Civil War. Unoriginal, I know, but that's not what they grade

[Tianna2012]

I have a fantastic topic for my country, but my teacher isn't allowing us to do anything related to American history

[Drake Glau]

That doesn't really research history at all, what a person's personality was isn't history and then the Shakespeare thing is the wrong class If you want to research richard III then you can try and find some of his major accomplishments and how they progressed history, did he conquer someone that potentially let to later major discoveries?

The crusades brought maps and compasses to northern Europe from the Muslim people, kind of helped with the whole pilgrimage thing to the US, see what I mean?

[tootall2591]

If you are interested in King Richard III I must preface that he did only reign for 2 years. This will limit the amount of information on him but there still is information about him and his reign. Do you have any other ideas post them and I will help you. If you are truly stuck look at your history syllabus and find a topic that you cover. That is not really right of your teacher to limit your topic to something non related to the US.

Hope this helps.

Post back if you need more help.

[Julie]

Obviously your historical investigation cannot just be titles: RIchard III. The topic is too broad in that sense, but your time period is way to narrow. This is because Richard III is the 15th century, and as someone already mentioned, he only reigned for two years. You are going to have a very difficult time finding any primary sources to analyze and you don't want to use just secondary sources for your historical investigation. You need about 7 "hardcore" sources, nothing vague. Think about other people you are interested in in history, achievements of theirs, movements (feminist, anarchist, bauhaus, whatever), and also look at the time period. You want sources to be available to you. Than find a question that is controversial about the topic or person, and you can investigate it. Remember: don't let your topic be to broad, and don't let your time period be too narrow.