History Research Topic

AdMMM

I was aiming at writing out this over the weekend but it occured to me that I forgot to bring home the sample answers from school. I was wondering if anyone could give me a quick jumpstart by just outlining what's needed in each of the seperate headings.

Thanks,
Adam

Enemy Of Fate

Hey I'm doing mine at the minute too, although I'm waiting till after the break to fill in the outline plan and evaluation of sources headings (teacher said she'd have more information on them after the break).But if you want to fill them out now, then I suggest you download RTE's ''Getting It Right'' History research project podcast.It saved me from throwing away 10 marks (apparantly you HAVE to refer to your sources, which I just didn't bother to do), and is actually a really useful podcast.By the way whats your research project on?Mines on ''The Manhattan Project and the resulting destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki''.Its pretty kick-ass if I say so myself!

Andeh

Just doing mine atm to

Mines "Erich Hartmann on the eastern front"

Amazing man, amazing pilot. 352 confirmed kills, was selected for me262 training, survived 10 years in the gulags, and then returned, married his childhood sweetheart and helped found the modern luftwaffe.

boger

Enemy Of Fate wrote:

Hey I'm doing mine at the minute too, although I'm waiting till after the break to fill in the outline plan and evaluation of sources headings (teacher said she'd have more information on them after the break).But if you want to fill them out now, then I suggest you download RTE's ''Getting It Right'' History research project podcast.It saved me from throwing away 10 marks (apparantly you HAVE to refer to your sources, which I just didn't bother to do), and is actually a really useful podcast.By the way whats your research project on?Mines on ''The Manhattan Project and the resulting destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki''.Its pretty kick-ass if I say so myself![/QU

our history teacher told us that you cant do a project on something that comes up in the course. the man hatton project comes up under nuclear power section in the european section. just wondering why are you doing this title.

Enemy Of Fate

boger wrote:

our history teacher told us that you cant do a project on something that comes up in the course. the man hatton project comes up under nuclear power section in the european section. just wondering why are you doing this title.

No you can do it on something that was covered in the course (for instance my friend is doing the project on the Cuban Missle Crisis, something that is directly covered in the course), but it can't have been covered in depth in the course (ie you couldn't do an account of Stalin's Show Trials or something like that).Hiroshima and Nagaskai only got a half-page mention in the book about WW2 (Dictatorship and Democracy) and I don't think i've even come across the term ''Manhattan Project'' in any of the history books we've done (Dictatorship and Democracy and Division and Realingment).What book was it mentioned in, and how in-depth was the description?

boger

i see you do a book for each topic ( 4 books) we only use 2 books ones called modern ireland and thats were we get are two irish topics from and the others called modern europe and the wider world its author is dermot lucey. the manhattan project is mentioned in this book under the chapter on nuclear power. you are right though, they only go into little detail about it.

Naikon

Mine is on the Chernobyl Disaster and its longterm effects.

marco murphy

Ive done nothing (6 day war/Arab Israeli war). Just couldnt be arsed :P

Naikon

Dont worry, I only done mine a few days ago and got it checked over for mistakes etc.
I still have to write up the final draft.
just do not make the mistake of not handing it in on the 28th april as thats the final date of submission.

Enemy Of Fate

boger wrote:

i see you do a book for each topic ( 4 books) we only use 2 books ones called modern ireland and thats were we get are two irish topics from and the others called modern europe and the wider world its author is dermot lucey. the manhattan project is mentioned in this book under the chapter on nuclear power. you are right though, they only go into little detail about it.

What the hell?Aren't you meant to do 4 books?2 on Irish history and 2 on world History?Although you only get to choose 1 of the Irish history books (because the document questions are based on a certain book, so it has to be done).So you only do 2 books for the entire course?But you have to do 3 essays and each one has to be on a different topic from a different book (not to mention the document questions).How does that work?

Spank

I'm starting my project tomorrow. oops.

AdMMM

Enemy Of Fate wrote:

What the hell?Aren't you meant to do 4 books?2 on Irish history and 2 on world History?Although you only get to choose 1 of the Irish history books (because the document questions are based on a certain book, so it has to be done).So you only do 2 books for the entire course?But you have to do 3 essays and each one has to be on a different topic from a different book (not to mention the document questions).How does that work?

A simple answer to your question:

There is more than one book publisher out there

yurmothrintites

Im doing mine on the 1798 rebellion in mayo, really interesting

Enemy Of Fate

|.Murderer.| wrote:

A simple answer to your question:

There is more than one book publisher out there

Really?But I thought the entire history course was based around the 8 book system?Oh well.

Corruptedmorals

Yeah, we have the 2 books, Modern Ireland and Modern Europe and the Wider World.

Mine's on Geisha of a district in Kyoto. I love it.

spurious

The history course is based on the syllabus. If a teacher chose to teach it using no textbook at all that would be fine. It's about covering the course, not what books you use.

It's only for convenience that schools use the books published by certain companies in Ireland.

fillefatale

We have yet to fill in the booklet as some girls didn't bother starting their topic until a month ago. We are fill them in next week.
I have successfully finished my topic these past two months, I worked on draft after draft over the year.
Mine is...
Battle for Britain: Laurence Olivier and British Propaganda - 1940-1945
I'm quite pleased with it.

analyse this

I still think the person doing the geisha project is a genius!! best idea ever!! i don't think he's on this thread but there was definately another history thred somewhere.

Enemy Of Fate

Hey has anyones teacher given them any good gudelines on how to fill out the Evaluation of sources/outline plan/review bits, cause my teacher is useless (she hasn't even mentioned anything bout the review section yet!Must ask her tomorrow)?Its ****ing ridiculous that they're worth 40% of the marks for the project.The essay should be worth 100% of the marks!!

Haven't a Clue

Enemy Of Fate wrote:

Hey has anyones teacher given them any good gudelines on how to fill out the Evaluation of sources/outline plan/review bits, cause my teacher is useless (she hasn't even mentioned anything bout the review section yet!Must ask her tomorrow)?Its ****ing ridiculous that they're worth 40% of the marks for the project.The essay should be worth 100% of the marks!!

Look for the RTE "Getting it Right" Podcast. They've got a wee five minute one for the project alone and it's the business. Really helps for all the nooks and crannies in it.

alancork

im fecked altogether!! hardly nothing done..im doing it on Bloody Sunday in Derry..almost everyting i have is straight from a library book..will i be shot?!?

chocoguy

what are the possiblilities that if you copy out pieces of your sourses..that the examiner will find out!i mean he/she isnt going to check the essay word for word!:( :rolleyes:

Selphie

chocoguy wrote:

what are the possiblilities that if you copy out pieces of your sourses..that the examiner will find out!i mean he/she isnt going to check the essay word for word!:( :rolleyes:

I've four sources. One of them makes up practically my whole essay. I doubt the examiner will ever look at them....at least I hope not!
Mine's on women in TCD.
You have to refer to your sources in your essay? Really?? I had so much trouble getting my word count down!! I won't be able to fit it!
Also, did anyone else run out of space on the outline plan page? My teacher says you have to list your sources on that page, but they won't fit.
We've got Modern Ireland and Europe too.....

Haven't a Clue

Selphie wrote:

I've four sources. One of them makes up practically my whole essay. I doubt the examiner will ever look at them....at least I hope not!
Mine's on women in TCD.
You have to refer to your sources in your essay? Really?? I had so much trouble getting my word count down!! I won't be able to fit it!
Also, did anyone else run out of space on the outline plan page? My teacher says you have to list your sources on that page, but they won't fit.
We've got Modern Ireland and Europe too.....

4? Are you not only allowed 3?

Enemy Of Fate

Haven't a Clue wrote:

4? Are you not only allowed 3?

No.For higher level you need a MINIMUM of 3 sources (1 of which must be non-internet) but I don't think theres a limit.I had 6 originally, but I cut it down to 4 after I realised I had to fitt their strengths and weaknesses onto one little page.Oh and as for referring to your sources in the essay I just said ''accoring to my second source'' or ''some historians, such as Robert G. Grants'' 2 or 3 times in the essay.Easy 10 points!

Enemy Of Fate

Oh and the Getting It Right podcast is great for giving you info on everything else, but they don't go into any detail on the review part....In fact nowhere seems to go into detail bout it.Stupid review.

Haven't a Clue

Enemy Of Fate wrote:

Oh and the Getting It Right podcast is great for giving you info on everything else, but they don't go into any detail on the review part....In fact nowhere seems to go into detail bout it.Stupid review.

All you really need to do is and account of 1/2 to 3/4 of a page long saying where your interest/inspiration for the topic came from, where you got your sources, the way you approached the topic mentioning the skills of a historian along the way (ie. note taking, editing etc), and that you hoped you achieved whatever aims.

Throw it in at the end of the extended essay somewhere and you'll be grand.

Enemy Of Fate

Haven't a Clue wrote:

All you really need to do is and account of 1/2 to 3/4 of a page long saying where your interest/inspiration for the topic came from, where you got your sources, the way you approached the topic mentioning the skills of a historian along the way (ie. note taking, editing etc), and that you hoped you achieved whatever aims.
Throw it in at the end of the extended essay somewhere and you'll be grand.

Yeah but it doesn't say if it counts as part of the word count, which i'm already well over (bout 1582 words without the review).And my teacher sucks so shes no help.

Mushy

The REview is included in the word-count. I've mine included with the Essay, and its come to 1538 words. Should be ok with going just that very small bit over the limit. My first draft, which didnt include the review, had about 1250 words, and then final draft without it was 1400 or so. Thankfully its nearly done now. I've to write it all up by Friday, then again for next week:eek:

Enemy Of Fate

Mushy wrote:

The REview is included in the word-count. I've mine included with the Essay, and its come to 1538 words. Should be ok with going just that very small bit over the limit. My first draft, which didnt include the review, had about 1250 words, and then final draft without it was 1400 or so. Thankfully its nearly done now. I've to write it all up by Friday, then again for next week:eek:

****!!!What kind of review am I going to manage to write in 70 words??!?!?It'll suck!!

Mushy

Yeah, mine is quite long aswell. Theres quite a bit that has to go into it. How you chose your title, Problems, Skills gained, What would you do differently if you were starting now...they are the headings I worked under. I'll have to ask the teacher bout it tomorrow, but i'm sure a small bit over the total wont spell disaster. My teacher told us about 250 words...actually, ****. Mine has 274, if only I could keep it within that 250 limit, I'd be pretty much ok, about 10 words over. Heard they werent the strictest last year on it, but that was all cos of it being the first year

Haven't a Clue

I'm pretty sure the review doesn't count as part of the essay. Our teacher said it didn't anyway. Jesus, it better not, otherwords I'm about 150 over the limit and I've it handed up.

Enemy Of Fate

Haven't a Clue wrote:

I'm pretty sure the review doesn't count as part of the essay. Our teacher said it didn't anyway. Jesus, it better not, otherwords I'm about 150 over the limit and I've it handed up.

I sure hope it doesn't.I mean its only 2% of the entire exam, but every little helps!!Why the **** is this info not easily available to us?They should have all this stuff up on the CAO website or something.It really is a pain in the ass.Can't imagine what a nightmare it would have been doing the project last year.

JC 2K3

The review is counted as part of the essay, but apparently last year they didn't seem to care if you went over the limit. It appears to be simply a loose guideline.

Enemy Of Fate

JC 2K3 wrote:

The review is counted as part of the essay, but apparently last year they didn't seem to care if you went over the limit. It appears to be simply a loose guideline.

Ah but last year was the first year for the exam.Nobody really knew how to approach the exam, so they were marked very easily (if I remember correctly there was a fall in the number of A1s earned, but a large rise in honour grades earned).I'm just worried that the review will be counted as part of the extended essay, making me well over the FINAL word limit (1650) and the project will be discounted, thus throwing away 20% of the marks.....Which would be absolutely devestating.

Haven't a Clue

Enemy Of Fate wrote:

Ah but last year was the first year for the exam.Nobody really knew how to approach the exam, so they were marked very easily (if I remember correctly there was a fall in the number of A1s earned, but a large rise in honour grades earned).I'm just worried that the review will be counted as part of the extended essay, making me well over the FINAL word limit (1650) and the project will be discounted, thus throwing away 20% of the marks.....Which would be absolutely devestating.

It'd mean certain failure for me. And a bullet in the head of my history teacher.

Enemy Of Fate

Haven't a Clue wrote:

It'd mean certain failure for me. And a bullet in the head of my history teacher.

While it wouldn't mean certain failure for me (I mean 80% of the exam is for the written part, i'm sure I could at least scrap a pass from it) but yes my history teacher would certainly receive a few blows to the back of the head with a metal bar if that were the case.I've decided i'm going to go over the limit........But only just.I'll make my review as small as humanly possible, and lie about the word count and hope for the best.

JC 2K3

They won't just discount essays over 1500 words. Mine is c. 1650 and I'm happy with it.

Enemy Of Fate

JC 2K3 wrote:

They won't just discount essays over 1500 words. Mine is c. 1650 and I'm happy with it.

We'll we've actually been told that they'll accept essays that are up to 10% over the limit (so for honours that would be a REAL limit of 1650), but apparantly if its over that they don't count it at all.........which is why this damn review thing worries me greatly.

JC 2K3

We haven't been told that... In fact a girl in my class's one is like 1900 words and my teacher said that they mightn't be too hard on her if it was all very good and solid...

I just checked my essay's length on Word and it's 1532 words without the review of research process. I should be OK it seems....

Selphie

Mine's 1470 without the review. It was way above 1500 and my teacher told me it had to be underneath that. She also said that the review, which I haven't written yet, doesn't count as a part of the essay.
Isn't it funny how different teachers say different things.

spurious

What teachers say isn't worth a damn unless they know what they are talking about.

If your teacher is involved in correcting, by all means listen to them, if not, then they are just some randomer who is guessing as to what counts.

Same goes for any teacher who 'knows' what is likely to come up on the exam - no they do not 'know' unless they were involved in setting or drafting the exam, in which case they will get into a lot of trouble for giving out information.

Enemy Of Fate

Selphie wrote:

Isn't it funny how different teachers say different things.

No.No it isn't.In fact in a situation like this its nowhere near funny.Its absolutely ****ing ridiculous and shows both a severe lack of knowledge about the exams and the course, and the incompetence of quite a large number of teachers.For instance my teacher never even mentioned the review part!!Not even once!!Shows how good she is.

Kurtosis

Now I did History last year, but I'm gonna try and remember things as best I can.

First of all, my history teacher is a member of the History Teacher's Association of Ireland and quite an active one at that. Also, any time while we were doing the normal course and completing our research topics, if any of us had a problem or a question which she couldn't answer, she either brought it up at a HTAI meeting or phoned a contact she had in the exams commission and put the question to them.

The review is most definitely part of the word count for the essay and the recommended word limit for it is 200-250 words. I took a look at mine just there, 206 words long. The way I structured it was recounting the process I went through in searching for sources, evaluating each source and actually writing the report with a sentence or two at the end of each paragraph commenting on the value of performing these tasks (e.g."I familiarised myself with the library system through carrying this out." or "I found my editing skills improved through having to identify which parts of my report to cut down")

That actually leads onto the discussion of length of essay. The upper world limit is 1500 words, including the review. Now last year, there was never any mention of including a word count anywhere in out booklet. Unless that has changed the examiner will not know what your word count is exactly (they aren't going to waste time counting every single word). So depending on the size of your handwriting, you'll probably get away with about 10% over the limit as the examiner wouldn't be able to tell whether you're within the limit or not. Essays the examiner knows are over the word limit are not going to be just thrown away, however they will take this into account when marking you. I'm not sure of the terminology but 40% of the marks go for the overall impression of your report. Now if you're way over the word limit, this will show the examiner that you lack the editing skills to evaluate the information and cut out what is less worth while, and their overall impression will go down as such, as you are not exhibiting the skills of a good historian.

Wow, sorry about that little (or not so little) blurb. I got an A1 in the exam last year by the by, can't say how much of that is due to the research topic or not though. A classmate of mine however did check his script and found out he actually received full marks for his research topic, so our teacher's guidance must have had some value! I'd say if you're still unsure, take a look at the marking scheme on the exams commission website to give some idea at what the examiner will give marks for etc.

Hope this was of some help and best of luck.

JC 2K3

penguin88 wrote:

Now last year, there was never any mention of including a word count anywhere in out booklet. Unless that has changed...

It has

There's a box on the front where you have to write the word count....

Kurtosis

Ah...that does make things trickier

Mushy

Could ya not just write down something thats between 1200-1500 words then in that box? Make it look like you counted, despite using MS word to do it for you.

Corruptedmorals

There is a box for word count- for the extended essay ONLY, not the review. Mine was sealed before Easter there.


IT'S NOT INCLUDED IN THE WORD COUNT THIS YEAR.

JC 2K3

^The review is part of the extended essay and yes it is included in the word count.

Mine was c. 1800, I wrote 1700 on the cover of it and it was sealed today.

JC 2K3

Mushy wrote:

Could ya not just write down something thats between 1200-1500 words then in that box? Make it look like you counted, despite using MS word to do it for you.

The examiner will have read loads of essays and will be able to tell approx how many words are in an essay.

Corruptedmorals

JC 2K3 wrote:

^The review is part of the extended essay and yes it is included in the word count.

Mine was c. 1800, I wrote 1700 on the cover of it and it was sealed today.

We do it seperate actually, though I know you're allowed integrate it. But extended essay actually means- just the essay, and that's what we were told, that they only want the word count for the essay.