History Special Topic

Yamato_99

Looking for a few guidelines on the special topic, I was thinking of doing it on Nietzsche but I'm unsure as to what I actually have to write and what to include or even if Nietzsche is just a bit too obscure, as our teacher at the school is no real help I have no idea where to even begin.

mavis94

Okay, first off hello and it's good that you already have a general idea of what you want to do.

The thing is, if you're doing a person/biography for your special topic, you have to be very careful. It's easier if you narrow the topic down- instead of a general study of Nietzsche, focus on something specific. The most important thing is to show, from the very first, the historical relevance of your topic- why does it, above lots of other topics, merit research?

So if you're doing it based on a person, you have to really underscore that X thing that Y person did during Z period had an important effect on history. That's trickier than just picking a historical event (i.e. the first council of Nicea) and discussing it, which can be done in the simple form of 1) what was it? 2) why did it happen? 3) the effects of it.

A great resource if you have any queries about the special topic are Chief Examiner's Reports, which can be found in the material archive over at examinations.ie. A specific section of the report focuses on the special topic and is very helpful.

Best of luck.

ADowling

For the evaluation of sources, it's 25 marks but I'm not sure what to include apart from the names of the books and websites I used. Do you need a very detailed description of what each website/book offered you as a source? Help much appreciated ! Thanks