Please help me to narrow down my topis on IA.

[Seiron]

So I want to write about Canada and might be her political stuff but I have no idea how to narrow down it because we haven't such topic in the course. I'm thinking toward Quebec.

[Sandwich]

Okay well why don't you think of some political issues relating to Quebec which would give a good IA question?

At least throw out some ideas - not only to get your brain working but so people here aren't doing your work for you! Once you've come up with some suggestions people can give you feedback on them, but this isn't a site where people make the suggestions for you. Take a look online or in a bookshop (most bookshops I know of have usually got a section dedicated to local history and that's a great place to start if you do live in Quebec) and see what you can turn up. People on IBS are happy to help but there're some limits when that help transforms into doing the work! You're meant to come up with your own IA topic.

[Seiron]

Okay well why don't you think of some political issues relating to Quebec which would give a good IA question?

At least throw out some ideas - not only to get your brain working but so people here aren't doing your work for you! Once you've come up with some suggestions people can give you feedback on them, but this isn't a site where people make the suggestions for you. Take a look online or in a bookshop (most bookshops I know of have usually got a section dedicated to local history and that's a great place to start if you do live in Quebec) and see what you can turn up. People on IBS are happy to help but there're some limits when that help transforms into doing the work! You're meant to come up with your own IA topic.

Sorry for doing this.

Know, it's the first time when somebody is going to take an exam on history in my school. So even teacher doesn't know how the topic on IA should look like. We have only few English books about American history in 20th century in our library. And there is no chance to get specialized books from other libraries or bookshops in my city

If it's possible can somebody give me some piece of advice where I can find reliable sources?

[Caltha Palustris]

Well, our history teacher strongly advised us to choose a topic related to what we have studied, something that we already know something about and what we are interested in. A lot of people are investigating local history so that they can acquire information from primary sources, such as interviews with people who have (or know someone who has) experienced what you intend to write about. In your case, I would really suggest to choose the topic based on what kind of information you can get because there would be no point in defining a topic only to find out afterwards that you cannot find any materials to use.

Like, there really is no point in making your life more difficult than it already is.

Edited September 30, 2011 by Caltha Palustris

[Seiron]

Well, our history teacher strongly advised us to choose a topic related to what we have studied, something that we already know something about and what we are interested in. A lot of people are investigating local history so that they can acquire information from primary sources, such as interviews with people who have (or know someone who has) experienced what you intend to write about. In your case, I would really suggest to choose the topic based on what kind of information you can get because there would be no point in defining a topic only to find out afterwards that you cannot find any materials to use.

Like, there really is no point in making your life more difficult than it already is.

Thank you.

We thought about local history but the problem is "Can we translate the sources?" and "How it should be?" (I mean it might be just pieces of the texts or it should be whole paragraphs/chapters/articles; and how I can prove that my translation isn't bias or stuff like this ).

[hehe101]

Oh my there is so much you can talk about for Quebec. Do you at least know what period you want to talk about? I'm guessing around the Quiet Revolution? Again, there is an abundance of topics for Quebec (I can think of at least 3 topics on the FLQ alone). Figure out what you're interested in and then talk

[aberrant_apple]

Well, there are a lot of things you could do about Canadian History, specifically Quebecois History. My suggestion is to choose a time period that is somewhat related to your own history course or a general time period that your class is studying. For example, if you're doing History of the Americas or British History, Canada in the early 20th century, especially during the 1920s and 30s, is a good place to start. That way you could keep it relevant to your studies and possibly even include information you learned in the exams.If you don't want to take that route, you could start by using a larger timeline of Canadian History and narrowing it down from there (our history isn't particularly long or eventful so it shouldn't be too hard).It is in these cases where Wikipedia comes in handy.

Regarding your concerns about topic specification, I would try and look up past HIs and compare those that did well with those that did not. Generally, you want it general enough that you can properly analyze various aspects and draw a reasonable conclusion but narrow enough that you aren't swamped with a mass of evidence that is far too broad to successfully answer your research question. You want a thesis that can be reasoned with specific evidence providing well-reasoned response backed by multiple sources. For example, for my own HI, my question was "To what extent did the French Philosophes influence the reform policies of Catherine II of Russia?".

Regarding Quebec specifically, I agree that the FLQ is a good idea for a topic, as is the Quiet Revolution or anything to do with Duplessis. There are also the many tensions between French and English-Canadians that have persisted over the years and the effect it had on various policies, minorities, etc. An analysis of the effects of the Great Depression on Canada is a good idea as well as the effects were similar to those in America.

Finally, for sources, Statistics Canada is a pretty good start. There are also many databases of Canadian history across the web as well as peer-reviewed journals (IB loves them) on the web that a quick google search could find. Other sources include political documents, memoirs, films, first-hand accounts and more. Again, Canada has only been a true country for c. 100 years so most information should be easily accessible, in English, recent, and relatively varied. Your only issue is the fact that, as they primarily speak French in Quebec, and did so even more in the past, you may come across documents in French.