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History EE Help

hey people

i'm going to start on my history ee soon, but i haven't started reading :rolleyes:

okay, but the question here to people who have done history ee is how do you write the bulk of the essay of facts and events without making sound too much of a commentary.

and when should you throw in the analysis? as you go along the events, or at the end?

i'm really lost. thanks in advance for the help.

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Reply 1
It really depends on what topic you are doing!! What topic are you thinking off?
how to make it not sound commentary? SOURCES! they love sources, these history examiners. analyse at least 2 major sources you have (probably better if they weren't internet sources), look at what my history teachers loves and calls OPVL - origin, purpose, values, limitations.

BTW this is coming from someone who did not do History EE and just picked up a few tips from my history teacher's talk with his history EE student last year. so if i were you, I'd wait for andy cole to come and reply!

Oh yeah and it does depends a bit on your topic.
*drum roll* :p:

yeah i did my EE in history really enjoyed it and was relatively painless for me. The ones i saw online weren't much like the one i did but the ashbury college website does have some that i spose are ok to look at. basically the steps i took:
1) discussed it wtih a teacher, said what i was interested in why etc, we messed around and came up with a question a 'to what extent' is probs the best, most of the people i spoke to did one along those lines.
2) did a basic plan, i was shocked at how carefully he looked at my plan but with my to what extent i did why it was and why it wasn't kindof thing in two different columns, basically working out the two sides ot the arguemnt.
3) i didn't worry too much about conclusion introduction all that rubbish because it simply wasn't relevant at this early stage, as long as you have a skeleton; the main ideas nothign else is required.
4) i went to a big research library. i dunno where your from but senate house in london, bodleian in oxford, any decent library with lots of books in it is great. then u look up stuff about ur question. it relaly doesn't matter what as long as you can relate it relatively strongly to the question you can look up anything. the stuff i found in books was suprisingly different to a lot of the stuff i had originally planned to talk about. what ul probs find is that there are many obscure points that relate directly to ur title that aren't included in the standard text books cos their not relevant enough. thats the advantage of a good reserach library
5) i did laods of photocopying and REFERENCING whatever you do when you visit fdon't forget to reference loads it really helps and ul have to do it later on anyway. i put down on each sheet i photocopied the page number and then on one of the sheets from the book i wrote the details.
6) i took the work home and started writing. intro first obviously, then i would recommend looking at the histiography ie sources reliability famous problems like for example USSR history is often distorted by politics etc. just talk about the different schools of thought.
7) u then do the counter-argument what you don't agree wtih, then what you do agree wtih and conclusion
8) i think what helped me most as i was writing is that i put in subheadings each one describing in one or two words the purpose of the paragraph, i could then read the paragraph or paragraphs and ensure that what i said related back to the aim i had given in the sub heading.
in terms of commentary vs analysis, u should never simply comentate. normally when i started an idea i would say the point of it for example 'hitler's rise to power was due to his excellent ability to pick his nose' i would then explain HOW hhe picked his nose followed by WHY this helps and then, most importantly of all mini conclusions. at the end of your paragraphs put alittle bit about the relative importance of the factor compared to the other factors. to avoid commentary linking factors and ordering them properly is really useful.

i hope this helps, i think i probs missed out a whole bunch of stuff, if u want any more jsut ask :biggrin:
Reply 4
wow, andy, that's a lot and i really really appreciate your help!

yea, i'm also doing a 'to what extent' topic and its regarding the history of communistic politics in my country.

so to summarize what you've said, the outline of the essay should be something like that:

1. introduction
2. historiography
- point
- how
- why
- summary
3. counter arguments
4. personal views - agree and/or disagree
5. conclusion

but i was wondering if say i state 1 point, analyse, then move on to the next point, wouldn't it make the essay seem a bit disjointed. i know that i should obviously try to create the flow in the essay, but, i was just wondering.
Reply 5
oh, and did you include the following in your essay?

- literature review
- limitations (in general of the whole ee)
- further study

or is it okay to leave them out? cause my school says it would be good to include them.
erm i asked my teacher about them because obviously there in the marking criteria and he said not to worry about limitations i spose in a way its in the histiography, i mean you look at limitations in sources, not explicitly stated though. anyway further study no i didn't mention that. i think both of these things contradict themselves really. because if you have space to put in limitations etc then you probs haven't written enuf, i really had to battle mine down to get it within the word count. but then as long as you miss the limitations i think that you should have the space to fully examine the topic such that further study is not required. I think their kindof crude in a histoyr essay 2bh, they seem more relevant in somethign like science where obviously yor experimentation is never done. if you answer a quesiton than surely its done. i'm not entirely sure of what you mean when you say literature review. as i was going along if i cited a source i mite give a comment on the author, relevant background information, that is information which mite affect his judgement.

to link the points together i think the best way is through mini conclusions, at the end of each point compare what you said about that point and the one above, for example, just keep reiterating the relative important of factors, showing that you see them as tied in, part of the same thing. at the end of the day your not really being marked for the linking of paragraphs, its not english, but the importance of linking factors is important so doing it any point is good.

although stating point by point is effectively what i did i combined the points through the miniconclusions. hoep this helps

my main point overall is the research library. when the teacher suggested it i thought it would be pointless but esepcially if ur doinga topic thats done a lot the same old textbooks is boring and shows a lack of effort, if you have a wider range of sources it looks better. so i would advice going further afield,,,needless to say keep internet sources to a minimum.
yeah. I'd like to emphasise on minimising the internet resources and as many books as you can. I got away with almost all internet resources in my secondary resources section despite my essay being in Eng A1 because I did mine on Harry Potter and there aren't that many books writing literary criticism on this yet but tons on the internet. however, history they'd want to see solid books. My history teacher actually told us (did NOT recommend but it's something you could use if you're desperate) that a student he supervised History EE for made up some books to fill out her bibliography. you know, just an author's name, a title, and some obsure publishing house. likely that the IBO won't check. but only do that as a last resort to make your bibliography look fuller, if you havent' done enough reading (or not able to get enough book-resources)
Reply 8
Well I can't apply this to all subjects, but the Bibliography doesn't have to be massively long.

By lying about reading books you:

a) are wasting your time - you don't need to - you won't get marked down (as far as I know)
b) leave yourself open to suspicion :p:
yeah i saw some massive biographies for some history EE,s where they had descriebd each source there instaed of in the essay. realistically the guy who wrote would not have read or even looked at the 35 odd books he suggested, i mean seriousl yno one has that kindof time on their hands...do they?
Reply 10
hey, but if your topic really has like only a few books - not a very conventional topic, then its alright to have like only 5-10 books right?

i only had 7 books and i did mine on russian revolution where there might be a billion books... it does not matter at all. and although u may think there are only that many i would question whetehr you have found somethign that obscure that it doesn\'t come under other books.
Reply 12
i reckon you got an A right?
lol i wish :p: i dunno what i got, no matter what i get it could be moderated down the ****ter when its sent off so... he never told me a mark
Reply 14
then the bonus points?
*confused*

our school automatically predict us 3 bonus points, but i don't know what i got
Reply 16
ah, but that is the predicted grade. don't you know the actual bonus points you got?
nope don't have a clue what i got, and anyway someone else might hate it and mark it down... you just dont know :p:
Reply 18
OK i hv to hand my question in for 2moro nd am kinda stuck i ws thinkin of 'How did hitler establsh a dictatorship its th onli thing i no about in depth bu cud sum 1 help me out pls...?
Reply 19
can sum 1 help- again ok am thinkin of doin my essay on hitler nd hw far he went nd wah he did to get power nd remain in power tht includes alot of things to talk bout bu its js th mater of formulating a question cn any 1 help me out? pls?