History Special topic

Funkstard

I'm in 5th year now and have to decide on mine in the next few weeks, except I'm very lost altogether and don't have a clue what to do. I have a few ideas, but could some of you post what you're doing so I can get the general idea of them?

Cheers

RagShagBill

Well, like me, you are very lucky. We don't have to learn them or anything, just hand them in a few months before. Also, because we are the first year of the new course, they are likely to mark it easier.

Anyway. I'm doing mine on the student uprising in Paris 1968, I have 6 sources already, but I was interested in it long before I had this thing to do. I looked into doing it on Fascism within the Daily Mail in the 1930s, I even rang a few prominent British journos, but the history teacher says it's too broad a timespan.

My advice to you is: locate one of the history books for this year's course. They have much more in them. Flick through it and find something you find vaguely interesting, check if it's on this years course, if not, you're on to something. I think you can still buy those history books.

Also, have a flick though some of the UK papers. They often have things in them about history. Just today, the UK Indy had 2.

What about the Armenian Genocide? It's quite topical, and will probably be more so come next year, what with Turkey always coming closer to membership, yet still denying it.

Funkstard

Thanks for the info. I was thinking of either i)doing something on D-Day or ii)counter cultures in the 60's. I know I'll have to find some specific aspect of them to research.

Do you mean find the books of the outgoing history syllabus? Doesn't the topic I pick have to be on the course I study?

RagShagBill

Do you mean find the books of the outgoing history syllabus? Doesn't the topic I pick have to be on the course I study?

Oh God no, if anything it should be away from it. If it is on the course, it could come up on the exam, and as far as I know, that's not actually allowed. ie. You can't do the lock-out.

Obviously though, you can do it on things that are covered briefly, such as the counter culture can be done.

Funkstard

Oh, I know what you mean. I'll ask my teacher on Thursday, I'm still not sure what area to go for

I didn't realise it's only 2000 words too, I always thought it was a mini-thesis. I could do that much over the weekend!

RagShagBill

I didn't realise it's only 2000 words too, I always thought it was a mini-thesis. I could do that much over the weekend!

Haha - that's exactly how I thought when I found that out. 2,000 words? I write about 300/400 a go in my blog, which is the same type of writing, kinda. And I do that almost daily, I'll probably do the thing over the summer.

Dinner

Funkstard wrote:

Oh, I know what you mean. I'll ask my teacher on Thursday, I'm still not sure what area to go for

I didn't realise it's only 2000 words too, I always thought it was a mini-thesis. I could do that much over the weekend!

Its been reduced again, 1200 - 1500 is the recommended, 1500 being the max.

I'm doing Station X and The Turing Engine. You're probably better to pick something thats not done very often, D-Day and pretty much all its aspects are done every year. Personally, I'd suggest something a bit differant.

But if you know your stuff on D-Day then there is no reason not to do it.

TheDoc

Well im on old course, and we only made ours half way thru sixth year. I did mine on The Battle of THe Bulge, large you might think but its ok, but its very hard to remember.

captainplanet

i want to do mine on the japanese chinese war in the 80's i think is was. only i cant remember any important information so its hard to research. it was a big deal and there was a lot of genocide. does anyone know what i'm tlaking about?

randomfella

china in the 80's? in the current 2005 exam, special topics are limited to topics relevant to the period and course. U sure it has changed?

Funkstard

I know my stuff on D-Day, I can't think of anything specific enough or hasn't been covered to death on it however.

I was thinking maybe something on how the hedgerows in Normandy were the biggest cause of the slow advance of the AEF. We think of ditches that horses can jump over, but in Normandy they were 8ft+ high and sometimes two on either side of a lane met in the middle. The incredible thing is they weren't spotted in aerial photographs or any of the recon, so they had no idea about them

Twin Lance

Yeah, I did D-Day as practice in TY for my special topic,but since they opened up the course to anything you want,i was thinking of goin back to roman times and stuff,something really interesting.But I mean,pick something that youre really interested in,so ya dont lose interest and motivation half way through.

Funkstard

I saw a movie on the Warsaw Uprising last week.I have no idea how much of it was fictionalised or what actually happened, but if there's the bones of something there I might look into that.

I mean, I'm hugely into history, but my mind is drawing blanks with this fécking special topic

Dagnir Glaurung

Does anybody actually have a clue about the parameters for the new research topics? I've been told that it has to be European history. Which is bad as I had a few topics planned, none of them European history.

Funkstard

My teachers is saying it has to be in the dates of the new course (Which for me goes from 1860's to 1990 with the fall of communism), and that it has to be relevent to what you're studying on the course in terms of what countries are studied and the events.


I'm not very sure myself so don't take what I say to heart

Dagnir Glaurung

Funkstard wrote:

My teachers is saying it has to be in the dates of the new course (Which for me goes from 1860's to 1990 with the fall of communism), and that it has to be relevent to what you're studying on the course in terms of what countries are studied and the events.


I'm not very sure myself so don't take what I say to heart

I don't think anyone knows. My teacher always came back from all the conferences unsatisfied by how vague everything was. It's annoying as I wanted to get this out of the way before I went into 6th year.

Cannibal Ox

In the current one anyway it has to be linked to Europe. As in you could possibly do the esthablishment of the Israeli state, as long as you linked it to the Anti-Semitism in Europe as a cause.
If your stuck it's always worth looking around on the net for individual people during the wars to do it on. Someone like Frank Ryan, who led the Irish brigade over to Spain would be good to do, Patton or some other famous commander.

TheDoc

If you are 6th year and sitting your exam this June, the years are 1870-1970 in both european and irish history.

If your 5th year and going to do the new course, I havnt a clue =P