EE Topic: Antikythera Mechanism?

[Electric_Violinist]

I'm nearly at a loss with my EE topic... I'd like to do something on the Antikythera Mechanism. A research question i think would work is "How important of a creation might the Antikythera Mechanism have been?".

Im not sure if that would be considered worthy of study or not, since my history teacher had no clue what i was talking about when i told him about this.

Another topic that I would be interested in is world religions, specifically a comparison between Catholicism and Islam.

I'm interested more so in the Antikythera Mechanism, but i not entirely sure i could turn it into a good paper. On the other hand, I could probably come up with more stuff for the world religion paper.... help?

[iblyf]

Well, I also did my EE in History so I'll try and give you some advice!

I have absolutely no idea what the Antikythera Mechanism is so I did a quick google, and unfortunately I don't think your question is quite focused enough, although it's great that you have found an area of interest already. I'm not sure how relevant it is to History- what kind of application has it had? It is a nice idea though to try and explore something that hardly any other students have done before...

Although 4,000 words sounds like a lot at first- it's really nothing. My first draft was 6,500 words and it just kept getting bigger! Thus, your question needs to be super focused.

I think that if you want to stick with the Antikythera Mechanism as your main topic of investigation, I would try and refine your focus of 'importance.' What kind of importance- economic? Social? Political? Why as it important? Did it help an individual achieve something?

Or, if your interested in taking a focus on World Religion, you could perhaps explore something along the lines of persecution? I would definitely suggest asking your History teacher for advice- their the best possible person that you can talk to- probably more so than any of us!

An EE in History has to have a lot of evidence and strong analysis of historiography, facts, events and statistics. You need to be able to present some kind of evidence, e.g. a fact, event or a statistic, try to back this up with a credible historian, and then try to kind of 'prove' or 'disprove' the historian along that line. Do you agree with their opinion? Why? Just because someone is a 'historian' doesn't mean that they are necessarily right- they just have an opinion; like you! Use a statistic or fact to reinforce what the historian said if you can. You are even allowed to disprove historians if you feel that it's appropriate.

For example, I did my EE on Marie Antoinette, and one historian said that she was one of the biggest spenders that France had ever seen, and that her spending was completely immoral and over the top. I then said why this historian might feel this way (but never used the word bias), and then I disproved what they were saying using a statistic to compare her spending to that of the overall French monarchy- it was pretty minor! The person marking your EE wants to see lots of evidence of independent thought- not just a summary of all of the historical opinions about your question.

Unfortunately I'm just not sure how 'historical' your topic is and how much research there is to talk about. I had over 100 footnotes in my EE and a bibliography of around 50 sources. Although that's a bit OTT I think that you need to be able to choose a topic that is focused with plenty to talk about.

But, my biggest piece of advice is to choose a topic that you are passionate about. You will be stuck living and breathing this topic for around 12 months, so it needs to be something that you won't get sick of! I love French history and I am passionate about the French Revolution and Marie-Antoinette, and the EE gave me the opportunity to pursue this passion, especially given that my school did not cover it as part of our syllabus. Given that you have said that you're interested in World Religions, I would definitely consider trying to pursue a topic in that area. Although we can't tell you what your topic is, or give you ideas, we are more than happy to help you refine something existing that you already have

Right now I wouldn't be too worried about refining your research question. Priority number 1 is to find a topic. Your research question will come later. Don't try to fit your research to the question- rather, fit your question to your research. Don't worry, your question will undergo lots of refinement before you hand in your EE- mine changed a lot!

Feel free to ask me any more questions

Edited October 23, 2013 by iblyf