History Research Study

Crania

I know there has already been a plethora of threads about this but I'm just really confused about it all. It's not about the title, I have picked that long ago(Alexander Dubcek and the Prague Spring of 1968) and have started it, have the opening two paragraphs wrote. But my useless teacher just doesn't seem to know what's going on, like he keeps changing his mind about what we have to do in it. Like we have to give him every paragraph we write so he can check it but he just writes in ridiculous things into it, one of my friends wrote about 10 First Paragraph Drafts because the teacher kept saying it wasnt right and then eventually he just re-wrote the first draft he wrote and the teacher said that was grand, that's how stupid the whole process is.

But like, I'm just wondering can anyone at all give me some kind of help as to how to write it. Like I thought it was supposed to be written like a newspaper report just detailing what happened with dates and the names of people involved, etc but now my teacher says that I should have more of a personal response(doesn that mean I should include my thoughts on what happened?) and he also said that I need to "delve more into the mind of Alexander Dubcek", I'm not his feckin psychologist!

So basically could anyone, who knows what to do or has done this in previous years, explain to me the way I need to write it. Maybe someone could give me an example of what they wrote, I'm not looking to copy at all(I'm sure nobody picked the obscure title I did anyway!) but I'm just looking to find out the WAY in which to write it.

Thanks very much and sorry if this question has been asked already. I'd really appreciate some help as I'm really very confused about it all.

regob

in my opinion this is a research study so you are researching a particular topic. i did this last year on rosa parks life, she was a highly regarded nurse by florence nightingale. i wrote mine in kind of a biography kind of format if you no what i mean. i dont think there is any need to mention anything psychological, i mean like dont go in and analyse their brain. write it as an explanation of the events you want to talk about, most importantly make it coherent.

lad dont get to stressed out over it.

if you have anymore questions pm me or post them here.

spurious

This is the History Teachers' Association's guide for their members on marking a Research Project, so it might be helpful.
pdf file

Your title is one of the examples used - or at least the Prague Spring is, so more may be doing it than you think.

regob

it is always good to do a prject on something differnt, be individual if you no wat i mean

Fuascailt

Treat it like a normal history essay. Its actually a bit shorter then normal questions and is worth 50 as opposed to 60 marks. Write your report with events dates etc, and in one or two paragraphs at the end, draw your conclusions, put in a bit of personnal commentary here if you like.

brianthebard

regob wrote: »

in my opinion this is a research study so you are researching a particular topic. i did this last year on rosa parks life, she was a highly regarded nurse by florence nightingale. i wrote mine in kind of a biography kind of format if you no what i mean. i dont think there is any need to mention anything psychological, i mean like dont go in and analyse their brain. write it as an explanation of the events you want to talk about, most importantly make it coherent.

lad dont get to stressed out over it.

if you have anymore questions pm me or post them here.

Which rosa parks was that??

nc0987

You have to do drafts, so rather than correct each paragraph, ur teacher should be correcting each draft. But if he's crap then just write out a first draft in a 'history interest book' fashion, like a biography of someone in history or a book on an historic event. Dont be informal in it, keep it factual but you can say "this shows..." "it can be seen..." "this proves..." "it concludes that...", rather than saying "i think..."!
Use ur drafts to put together a finished essay that contains the best material you've written.
Hope it goes well for ya, im struggling through mine at the moment....im worried that i'll sound like ive just copied the layout of the sources, anyone got any tips on that?

regob

brianthebard wrote: »

Which rosa parks was that??

theres only one that i know off ( the nurse )

spurious

regob wrote: »

theres only one that i know off ( the nurse )

Was Rosa Park(e)s not the woman on the bus in the southern US?

Mary Seacole would make an interesting subject for a project.
http://www.maryseacole.com/maryseacole/pages/

yurmothrintites

My advice is do something that is interesting to you. I did a local study last year and got 100% when I looked at it. Local studys are great because the examiner will not be from your area and be able to correct some information if it is wrong.

Get the marking scheme and EAT IT! Seriously, the outline plan, evaluation of sources and review are far more important than the actually essay in terms of preparation. Look at the guidelines and bluff the hell out of them. e.g.

"Before starting my project I made a plan and submitted it to my teacher. I photocopied some of my sources I then read over them and highlighted the sections which would be useful and took notes from each." Review

Hope this helps and good luck!

brianthebard

regob wrote: »

theres only one that i know off ( the nurse )

Can you provide some information about her then, cause as spurious said the only one i've ever heard of was the civil rights activist, and she was born three years after nightingale died.

Mars Bar

Got to agree with ya there...

The Volt

Just typed up my outline plan there. Looks good!

nc0987

Finished my 1st draft!!!! Hallelujiah (wrong spelling there..!?)
1803 words, 303 too many,,,must work on that! but im so relieved now! :D
:D:D:D:D:D

The Volt

nc0987 wrote: »

Finished my 1st draft!!!! Hallelujiah (wrong spelling there..!?)
1803 words, 303 too many,,,must work on that! but im so relieved now! :D
:D:D:D:D:D

**jealous**

I've loadsa research to do still.

Crania

I've did a few drafts, but they are absolutley terrible. They lack analysis of any kind and from reading it, it feels like I'm reading a History Book. I just don't understand the bloody thing though, this bloody essay has given more headaches over the past few months. I so sick of even the thought of it!

regob

sorr in relation to my project it was just a mix up in names i actually did my project on agnes jones.

spurious

regob wrote: »

sorr in relation to my project it was just a mix up in names i actually did my project on agnes jones.

Interesting subject I would think.