Extended Essay- help

[Mathemagician]

Hello guys,

 

So I need a topic/research question by Monday, and I have no idea what to do my EE on. I know I want to do it on History, but I don't want to do it on something overdone like WW1, WW2, Cold War, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. 

 

I was thinking about doing it on the history of video gaming; perhaps the history of a video gaming console, a video game series, or even a single video game. However, I don't know if I'm allowed to do that. 

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Guest]

Have you read the EE Guide yet? If not, that's a great place to turn to, and I'm pretty sure it's available for everyone to download on Files and Notes (otherwise, it's here).

 

If you don't know what to do it on, firstly, narrow down your interests, preferably something historical. It may be in an overdone area (i.e. World War II) but may be something that is generally unheard of, or rarely discussed in class (you can talk about the involvement of a certain group, maybe from your country, two opposing countries).

 

The only problem I have with the video gaming topic is that I doubt you will find many sources on it. History EEs are about analysing sources to come to a conclusion, not just describing what happened. The likelihood of being able to write a critical analysis on the history of video games is probably very unlikely. Generally, I think the best thing to do is pick an area of history that interests you (an ancient civilisations - maybe an Eastern one as they aren't discussed often, the Middle Ages, Civil Wars, etc, etc. Anything that's able to be analysed and allows you to draw a conclusion.

 

Knowing possible question formats can be helpful too. This website has some under 'Formulating a question' and it's very useful.

 

I hope that helped!

[Mathemagician]

I guess I’ll do it on something World War related. World War 2, in particular, interests me and I was only avoiding it due to the fact that its been overdone, and so I thought it'd be hard for me to get a good mark in it. I was thinking about doing it on a film (on WW2), and explaining perhaps the historical accuracy of the film or the usefulness of it to the viewer (watching the film).

 

The film I have in mind is the German war movie Der Untergang (Downfall in English) that came out in 2004- the film depicts the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's reign over Nazi Germany in 1945. The film is based off of many different sources- Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich by Joachim Fest (Historian), Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary by Traudl Junge (Hitler's private secretary), Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer (Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich), Hitler's Last Days: An Eye–Witness Account by Gerhardt Boldt (Officer in the German Army), etc. Some of the sources used for the movie are secondary sources, and others are primary sources (from the actual time).

 

The possible research questions I came up with are: “To what extent-taking into account historical accuracy-did the film Der Untergang depict the final ten days of Adolf Hitler’s reign over Nazi Germany in 1945?†“How useful is the film Der Untergang to the historian studying the final ten days of Adolf Hitler’s reign over Nazi Germany in 1945?â€

 

Can someone help me formulate a research question for this topic? I don’t know if the possible research questions I mentioned above are good enough for this topic.

 

Thanks.

Edited November 16, 2014 by Mathemagician

[Blackcurrant]

Hi Mathemagician,

 

Perhaps by discussing why these won't work as formulated will help advance your thinking:

 

Your first question - definitely out. With this question you will only confirm a fact or not. There is little to argue.

 

The second is more interesting, but will not be valid because it is soooo OPEN-ended. You could answer "yes" or "no" and argue one way or the other without much gain or insight.

 

So try to formulate a question that is not 1) so open-ended a merely a matter of opinion; 2) simply confirm/disconfirm factual accuracy.

 

Maybe this helps you with your thinking...?

[Mathemagician]

Hi Black,

 

Well, the film is nearly 100% historically accurate, so there really isn't much to argue about it not being historically accurate. That being said, there really is only one opinion and one fact about the film, which is that it's historically accurate and for that reason should be useful. As there can't be any argument about that, should I just do another topic? 

 

I have to submit my topic and question by tomorrow, and I'm completely lost now.

[khimberleigh]

You ideally want a topic that does not have a certain answer so that you can explore multiple points of view. Analysing different perspectives is what gets you good marks in history rather than just analysing an event. Maybe look at an event in Canadian history such as Canada's involvement in WW2. Your little flag says you're from Canada and the IB tends to look positively upon EEs about the candidates local area and on topics that are not overdone.