Formulating+a+research+question

= The question... =
 * Must be debatable
 * Must be specific – narrow it down as much as you can
 * Should have focus – date, time frame, geography, event (turning points are good)
 * To what extent . . . or How far . . . style questions best. (See command terms)
 * Must be able to be answered within 2000 words
 * Must be focused on an event with a cut off date of 10 years before the submission date.
 * Is there a sufficient range of resources for the study of the topic?

Do not explore the obvious. A title like, "Was Lenin an important figure in the Russian Revolution?" is redundant because everyone knows, without exploring or investigating anything, that he was. Remember, this is an investigation. Your title should enable you to explore and investigate different views of the historical period you choose. " To what extent was Lenin's political ambition more important in bringing about the Russian Revolution than the failures of Nicholas II's reign?" would be a more appropriate title.

Planning your historical investigation
How to start your IA? Below are some tips from the IB:


 * 1) Start by identifying a general area of interest.
 * 2) Narrow it down to a specific question or area of investigation.
 * 3) Choose a working title that may be changed or refined at a later stage.
 * 4) Make sure sufficient resources can be obtained for the planned investigation. (See: Finding information)
 * 5) Consider section A, the plan, and evaluate the suitability of the research area.
 * 6) Read widely around the area of study and note down resources used.
 * 7) Review the research question and refine it if necessary.
 * 8) Take notes from resources, gathering evidence and diverse opinions.
 * 9) Ensure accurate use of referencing.
 * 10) Sort evidence thematically or chronologically.
 * 11) Choose two suitable sources to evaluate in section C.
 * 12) Review your analysis. Check for differing viewpoints where appropriate.
 * 13) Write the investigation, according to IB guidelines.

Ideas for finding a topic and formulating a question
Your IA can be about any topic in history. However, you should strongly consider choosing something that falls within the realm of your IB course. Start with your course overview and pick an area of interest from there. This will allow you to gain extra depth and detail in a part of your syllabus which may come in handy for your exam.

The range
The IB History guide lists a few possible topic ideas for the IA;


 * a historical topic or theme using written sources or a variety of sources
 * a historical topic based on fieldwork, for example, a museum, archeological site, battlefields, places of worship such as mosques or churches, historic buildings
 * a historical problem using documents (this could include newspapers)
 * a local history study
 * a historical study based on oral interviews
 * a historical investigation based on interpreting a novel, film or work of art
 * a historical investigation of cultural issues.

When choosing a topic for the IA, your research question should not be too broad nor too narrow. The title of your IA should be phrased as a question. Your topic should be approved by your teacher prior to doing the research.

Narrow it down ( Redrafting research questions)
The topic: ** Slavery in the Americas. ** You could ask: ** What was the impact of the abolition of slavery in the economy of Brazil? **

You could use a case study approach so that you can get some more depth in your analysis. With this question though, there is a danger of just telling the story without evaluation and analysis. Far better, then, would be the following:


 * How significant was the impact of the abolition of slavery in the economy of Brazil between 1888 and 1910? **

This question invites an analytical approach, as well offering the opportunity for the consideration of different interpretations as to how the end of slavery explains economic processes in Brazil, during a specific time frame. It is also manageable within the word limit.

The following is from the examiner’s report for a May session:

//“There were a few research questions that did not assist the candidate towards meeting the assessment criteria. Questions could be a little too broad and/or were not specific research questions at all. This led the candidate to write a rather vague narrative, which was based on inadequate evidence. // //It is, therefore, good practice for students to have research questions which are expressed in terms that do not invite the narrative. //

**Work backwards** If you only have a broad topic like "Appeasement" or "Why did the Americans not take in more Jewish refugees?" or "The Spanish Civil War", you can narrow it down by first looking at what sources are available to you. Locate a really good primary (or secondary) source and build up your research question from there.

Exploring historical debate
Choose a topic where there is some historical debate & opinion, otherwise you might struggle to score highly in Section D. Weaker candidates failed to do this. Try this: Go to google, type in your topic and the phrase "historical debate" and/or "historical interpretations" (note, the "" quotation marks are important) and see what comes up. This sometimes leads to more interesting, provoking questions. So, with "Wall street crash" the response to a Google search was on Wikipedia:
 * Academics see the Wall Street Crash of 1929 as part of a historical process that was a part of the new theories of [|boom and bust]. According to economists such as [|Joseph Schumpeter] and [|Nikolai Kondratieff] and [|Charles E. Mitchell] the crash was merely a historical event in the continuing process known as [|economic cycles]. The impact of the crash was merely to increase the speed at which the cycle proceeded to its next level. [|Milton Friedman]'s [|A Monetary History of the United States], co-written with [|Anna Schwartz], advances the argument that what made the "great contraction" so severe was not the downturn in the business cycle, [|protectionism], or the 1929 stock market crash in themselves - but instead, according to Friedman, what plunged the country into a deep depression was the collapse of the banking system during three waves of panics over the 1930-33 period.

Okay, so maybe I wouldn´t recommend this as it is very ´economic´ but it does give an interesting debate if you really are into your economic history. With regards to "Slavery in the Americas", here is what I came up with, a post by John Simkin on the education forum... What an amazing IA that would be. E.g. "**How useful a source is the autobiography of Equinao in understanding the transatlantic slave trade?**"
 * Olaudah Equiano is one of our best primary sources on early life in Africa and the slave trade. Chinua Achebe called him “the father of African literature”. Another critic has described him as being the “founding father of the Afro-American literary tradition”. Equiano’s importance concerns his autobiography. It includes a detailed account of his birth and childhood in Nigeria. His account of crossing the Atlantic on a slave ship is used by virtually every one who teaches the subject in the classroom. However, recent research by the historian, Vincent Carretta (Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man) has established that Equiano was actually born in Carolina on 9th February, 1759. It is now believed that his account of his early life in Africa and his journey on a slave ship is pure fiction. That it is a work of propaganda (Equiano was active in the abolition movement). However, Carretta, claims that Equiano’s autobiography is “a monumental 18th century text, a unique mixture of travel-writing, sea lore, sermon, economic tract and fiction.” Does this mean that Equiano's writings should be used in the same ways as in the past? Is it a primary or secondary source (it is based on interviews with people who did live in Africa and did endure the slave trade)?

A good IA relies more than anything else on a good starting point: a well defined, narrow question with some element of a debate.