STEP 1: Topic Selection

• The most important criterion for your topic is that it is something that interests you.

• If you are planning on applying for a career in science, art, philosophy, law, etc. it may be slightly advantageous to write a IA related to your future college major/university degree

• There may be a small advantage to choosing a topic that could be a Paper 2 or Paper 3 exam question and becoming an expert in that content area and its historiography.

• Try to choose a topic where there is some historical debate and difference of opinion. Not only does it make your research more interesting but there is likely to be a largely body of research available.

• Possible methods include looking at an aspect of your country’s history, an event that has affected your family, a theme (imperialism, feminism, war, terrorism, revolution), or a concept (causation, consequence, continuity, change, significance and perspective).

STEP 2: Question Selection

• Your question needs to be specific enough that it can be treated in approximately 1300 words, but broad enough that accessible historical scholarship is available.

• There are a variety of ways to narrow or expand the scope of your question: chronologically, geographically, conceptually

  • • For example, you may be interested in writing about Mao’s China but should narrow down to something more focused

      • • • conceptually: foreign policy, the Hundred Flowers Campaign, or his swim across the Yangtze River

          • geographically: Mao’s impact on a particular city or region

          • chronologically: Mao’s early life, his life in Yan’an, or latter year (’71-76)

• It is important at this stage to do some basic research to ensure that you are confident you are going to be able to find relevant primary or secondary sources.

• You question should provide opportunity for you to evaluate rather than simply describe.

• Keep the title of your IA concise.

  • • Why did Stalin begin the purges?

    • Did political motives dominate Mao's intentions during the Cultural Revolution?

    • Could the Dutch have prevented the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in 1942?

See Past IA Questions

IA Question - Sentence Starters

Did...

How... (successful/strong/important/significant/etc.)

To what extent...

Was...

Were...

Why...

In what ways and with what... (effect/success/consequences/etc.)