Extended Essay in History

1
Extended Essay in History

• Initial tips from Þorsteinn and Guðmundur

2
The Research Question

• Is it suitable?
• Can it be asked and answered?
• Is it worthwhile to answer?
• Dangerous research questions
• Those that are too wide.
• Those that are obivous.
• Those that you can not answer due to lack of
  sources available to you.
• Those that are too narrow.
• Those that are subjective.
• Those that are purely hypothetical (pseudo
  history)

3
Bad Questions and Topics

• How did the Versailles treaty affect world
  history?
• too ... ?
• How was Jónas frá Hriflu dressed at his funeral?
• too ... ?
• Who was Adolf Hitler and what was he like?
• too ... ?
• Why was Joseph Stalin so cruel?
• too ... ?
• Would Germany have gone to war without Hitler?
• too ... ?
• Governmental phone taps in 1990s Iceland extent
  and purpose.
• too ... ?

4
Forms of Research

• Dont restrict yourself to a narrative!
• This is perhaps the most common problem with
  history essays
• The point of a research essay is not simply to
  tell a story regardless of whether it has a
  happy ending or not.
• Comparitive essay
• Compare and contrast examples A and B with
  regards to question X.
• Bibliographical essay
• What has the historiagraphical development been
  like in a certain narrow topic.

5
Two Actual Questions

• How was the Holy Roman a continuation of the
  Roman Empire?
• Problems with definitions (whats a Roman
  Empire) and sources (nobody has claimed this
  directly since the 19th century).
• How did the Western Icelanders manage to create a
  distinctly Icelandic colony in Canada?
• Problems of defintions what does it mean to be
  distinctly Icelandic.

6
Two more

• How important was Diocletian in the history of
  Rome?
• This one isnt half bad ... if rephrased and
  answered well.
• E.g. Did Diocletians rule save the Roman
  Empire?
• How important was the role of the Orthodox Church
  in the creation of Moscow Russia?
• This one is actually quite good.

7
Quotations and citations

• When refering the reader to your sources it is
  customary in history to use footnotes
• Ixnay on the racketbay!
• Direct quotations
• Placed in quotation marks.
• Used to spice up the text
• Citations
• Used much more than quotations.
• Save up valuable space

8
Working habits and tips

• Keep your sources at a distance
• Talk to your sources dont let them dictate to
  you
• Remember that they are not absolute truths you
  should evaluate them not let them control you
• Photocopy the title page of every book you borrow
  from the library
• This will save you valuable time later on you
  will need the full title, place and date of
  publication later on.
• Start building the bibliography right away
• Time saving!
• Once you quote someone put in a reference right
  away
• This way you wont have to look for the source
  later on
• And remember ... use footnotes!