Major Work Topic (1 Viewer)

[veridis]

ok while all your year 12s are off stressing about your upcoming exams spare a thought for us just starting the torture.
anyway i need some help in choosing a topic. right now i kinda have 4 topics i'd like to investigate

• Hollywood portrayal of history. i'd prob look into 1 major film per decade. compare how the accuracy of each has differed and why
• Winter and Continuation Wars. was it a mistake by the finns? more historiography i this one than others
• Role of Sport(specificaly fooball[soccer]) in creating nationalist sentiment, both for divisive and unifying purposes. no idea what approach i'd take but jst seems an interesting topic
• Agincourt. the role of the longbow. why was it over emphasised. accuracy of recounts

also what do you people think makes a good topic in general not just related to my ideas

 

[welshi]

big tip: NARROW, NARROW, NARROW.

i picked my topic in january, and didn't find a focus question until the week before the bastard was due in. narrow your topic as soon as you can - your focus question will undoubtedly mutate as you research. it's called the FOCUS question for a reason - once you know the exact question your essay will answer, it focuses your research and therefore narrows down the amount of reading you'll do.

and pick something you're really interested in or you already know quite a bit about. it makes the research a lot more palatable.

as for your topic ideas:

• movies through history: BROAD, BROAD, BROAD. pick an event, "ism" or personality. eg. the accuracy of the representation of post-wall germany in the film Goodbye Lenin (top flick btw).
• don't know much about this. sounds fair enough. room for lots of historians'-POV analysis? remember in the 2001 exemplar package, one girl researched the surf culture of the 1960s. v. interesting.
• interesting. narrow it to a particular country perhaps?
• i know nothing about this. keep your focus on perspective and representation.

good luck!

PS gemita got full marks for her MW on the 11/9/73 coup in chile. maybe PM her with questions? (i only got 33.7)

 

[ameh]

omg mine is so broad,
between the cultural revolution in china, im not sure what to focus on exactly

 

[RyddeckerSMP]

Going to do something either on Whitlam (i.e. the dismissal, etc) or nationalism -v- terrorism (Chechnya or Northern Ireland).....

 

[Caratacus]

Role of Sport(specificaly fooball[soccer]) in creating nationalist sentiment, both for divisive and unifying purposes. no idea what approach i'd take but jst seems an interesting topic

There was an excellent documentary on this very topic last week on SBS.

 

[Jennibeans]

Going to do something either on Whitlam (i.e. the dismissal, etc) or nationalism -v- terrorism (Chechnya or Northern Ireland).....

i did whitlam but i didn't do the dismissal
mayb u shouldnt listen to me though cuz i didnt do so crash hot specially not full marks thats incredible congrats to the person who got that

 

[veridis]

There was an excellent documentary on this very topic last week on SBS.

serious. and i missed it?
damn
do you remember what day?
i might be able to get some info on it still

 

[ujuphleg]

Tips for forming a Major Work Topic....

A couple of tips for you guys:

i just want to direct you people to page 26 of this document (your teachers should have given you a copy of this anyway by this point) :

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/historyext_syl.pdf

I thoroughly recommend you have a look at it yourself, but here it is for those of you who are too lazy:

1. Designing an Investigation
The topic must be developed from one or more of the following areas:
• a historical debate or controversy
• a historian’s or archaeologist’s work
• changing analysis of an archaeological site over time
• ethical issues surrounding an archaeological site
• contrasting approaches to a historical personality, issue or event
• museums as history
• history in the media — film, documentary, fiction, docudrama, drama, poetry, opera
• an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the history of a personality, issue or event
• the impact of global or national events at a regional or local level
• oral history
• historical biography
• local history
• the history of an institution
• critical analysis of a major historical work
• the use and misuse of history in either a specific context or over time.


your major work should be developed out of these guidelines - in fact they may help you narrow it down.

Take an example: I wanted to investigate the inconsistencies in the story of Anna Leonowens (Anna and the King/The King and I - films) I did all the background reading, found all the historiographical inconsistencies but it was still too wide. I went back to this syllabus and ended up focusing on the dot point about historical biography. I ended up focusing on the uses and misuses in biography and autobiography in history using Anna Leonowens as a case study. I was even able to a thesis on it on the internet.

In summary: start to plan and look for sources for your topic now. Even if you have a few ideas, take the time out to do the reading now. I saw too many Extension History students this year try and write this at the last minute - and I'll tell you, it wasn't a pretty sight.

This is not the kind of assessment task that you leave until a month beforehand. I had to order books in from the United States, interlibrary loan books and take several trips to State Library in order to gather all my sources. Take the time out to do it now , because the last thing you need is to be in a tizzy at the end of Term 2 with no sources to write an essay on.

There are many people in this forum who got full marks for their projects. I'm sure they will all be able to give you much more sound advice.

Good luck to all and please don't hesitate to PM me with any questions.