Jump to content

Writing a good Historical Investigation


Survival Robot

Recommended Posts

How soon is the HI due? In my school, our teacher made us to hand in the completed Hi in 1 month. How about you guys

in our class we wrote a practice one in a month in year 11 and then in year 12 we had to hand in a final one by...oh, well, actually its due in like, 10 days...heaps of time really...

but we were allowed to use the one that we started in year 11 and just fix it up a bit to hand in for year 12 because it was never officially handed in during year 11. they just read it and told us roughly what mark we would get...

so i got something like 14/20 last year and now i've fixed it and changed things (plus i never bothered footnoting it last year so this year i had to go through all my books and find quotes and things...PLEASE, footnote as you go. it will save you SOOO much time...) so now i'm looking at around 18/20?

you get a fair number of points for structure so really do it well. it doesnt take that much time and it can easily add a couple marks which makes a huge difference in the long run. like if you had gotten one more point it would've pushed you from a 5 to a 6. if you cant figure out what good structure is, go to you school library and they generally have past papers as examples so just look for one with a good mark in that criteria and do what you can. cover and contents pages are a must.

goodluck!

Link to post
Share on other sites

in our class we wrote a practice one in a month in year 11 and then in year 12 we had to hand in a final one by...oh, well, actually its due in like, 10 days...heaps of time really...

but we were allowed to use the one that we started in year 11 and just fix it up a bit to hand in for year 12 because it was never officially handed in during year 11. they just read it and told us roughly what mark we would get...

so i got something like 14/20 last year and now i've fixed it and changed things (plus i never bothered footnoting it last year so this year i had to go through all my books and find quotes and things...PLEASE, footnote as you go. it will save you SOOO much time...) so now i'm looking at around 18/20?

you get a fair number of points for structure so really do it well. it doesnt take that much time and it can easily add a couple marks which makes a huge difference in the long run. like if you had gotten one more point it would've pushed you from a 5 to a 6. if you cant figure out what good structure is, go to you school library and they generally have past papers as examples so just look for one with a good mark in that criteria and do what you can. cover and contents pages are a must.

goodluck!

i thought it would be better if i write the whole thing at first and then footnote it later... i am now experiencing: i was wrong ...

what are the things i have to footnote? quotations, statistics?

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I recently got my IA topic - my teacher assigns them instead of letting us "explore" - and I did some snooping on the Net. I was wondering three things:

1. Is it possible to get a good mark on the IA - 18 -20?

2. What do you have to do to increase your marks?

3. Where do most people lose their marks?

thanks!

Edited by heronumbazero
Link to post
Share on other sites

I recently got my IA topic - my teacher assigns them instead of letting us "explore" - and I did some snooping on the Net. I was wondering three things:

1. Is it possible to get a good mark on the IA - 18 -20?

2. What do you have to do to increase your marks?

3. Where do most people lose their marks?

thanks!

1. Well, according to my teacher, everyone except 2 got 7s last year (but they were about 10 ppl I think) and well it is fully possible to get high marks. However I think that you only need 15 or so to get a 7.

2. Just be sure that you know the assesment critera, and what you need to include. And also that you have a good and interesting research question which is possibe to discuss from different perspectives. A good thing is to have sources of different time and nations.

3. According to my history teacher, it is in the "analysis" part.

Hope that helped. :punish:

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
I was just wondering if your essay topic had to be in the form of a question or not. Could it be a 'Compare and Contrast' type of essay?

Remember that you will use the introduction to further explain "how" your essay is gonna explore your topic. So if you feel that your topic does not contain all the details you would like, just add the rest in the introduction.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

charmzzz: Anything that is linked to a topic you've studied in class should help further your knowledge in a way that is useful for your exams. But I, personally, think it is more important to choose something you're interested in.

kay: The wordcount should go on the front page, somewhere around where you put your name and candidate number. Just like with WLs, EEs and so on.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I still desperatly need help with this! ...

"If I was planning on doing Part B in point form, how would the format look like??

Would I first state the argument (from scope) then list the evidence for this argument in point form?? and do the rest for the other arguments...?"

Edited by Mahdi7
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
in the historical investigation in part b what are the footnotes suppose to say?

The footnotes have multiple purposes..

Firstly, you should continuously be using footnotes to give credit where it's due. You should do this by putting a full citation in the bibliography (Section F) but then using footnotes to refer to sources in the bibliography.

Secondly, you can use footnotes to clarify any points you have made (ie. to define words, to give short descriptions of people you have made reference to, etc.-)

Thirdly, you can use footnotes to link to things you have put in your appendix. (ie. if you have used a map in your appendix, you would footnote the section referring to the map and label it 'See Appendix X for map of Y"

Hope that helps!

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Who wrote it, who they are (An authority on the subject? Someone who just likes the subject but has no academic experience of it? Were they personally involved in the events?), what time it was written. Don't just state those though, anaylyze their importance. Does the person have an international reputation, or are they unknown? Whata re the advantages of it being a primary source or a secondary source?

e.g. This version of ________ (book) was written/edited by _________, a civilian who lived in _____ during her childhood. This makes the book's evidence significant as it is a recounting of events during the time. However, the book is limited by the fact that the author was only a child when she wrote it, and so her memories may be inaccurate/fragmented and incomplete, as children often do not comprehend the full picture of events. The book was published in the year ___, making it valuable because....etc.

  • Like 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Isn't the History IA marked out of 20?

At my school, the grade boundaries were around (from what I can remember):

18-20: 7

14-17:6

11-13:5

...and so on.

I'm quite sure that these vary from year to year but those were the approxiamate numbers.

To be fair(and correct me if i'm wrong) the 20 marks the coursework is out of directly translates to the percentage of your mark so if you get 17 it's not a disaster as you're only 1% less....

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...