Skip to Main Content

HS DP History: IA

IA Example Topics & Questions

Too Broad Focused 
How have women's roles changed under Castro?                                                                  To what extent were Castro's efforts to achieve gender-equality between 1959 and 1990 driven by ideological interests versus political and economic ones? 
New warfare technologies used in WWI                                                                                                                                    Did the military commands involved in WWI comprehend how new war technologies (planes, tanks, etc.) were going to effect how battles were fought, and did they adjust their strategies accordingly? 
The US Civil War What conditions and factors explain the victory of the Union forces over those of the Confederacy in the American Civil War? 

Your IA Research Question

Examples of Limiting Factors:

  • Cause
  • Effect
  • Effectiveness
  • Significance
  • Factors
  • Location
  • School of thought
  • Time period

Question Starters


Source: Oxford EE manual, 2017

Part 2: Investigation

  • Consists of the actual investigation
  • Should be clearly organized, no prescribed format
  • Should contain critical analysis that is focused clearly on the question being investigated 
  • Include the conclusion that you draw from your analysis
  • Use a range of evidence to support your argument (primary, secondary, or a mixture)

Part 3: Reflection Questions

Examples of discussion questions that may help to encourage reflection include: 

  • What methods used by historians did you use in your investigation? 
  • What did your investigation highlight to you about the limitations of those methods? 
  • What are the challenges facing the historian? How do they differ from the challenges facing a scientist or a mathematician? 
  • What challenges in particular does archive-based history present? 
  • How can the reliability of sources be evaluated? 
  • What is the difference between bias and selection? 
  • What constitutes a historical event? 
  • What decides which events are historically significant? 
  • Is it possible to describe historical events in an unbiased way? 
  • Who decides which events are historically significant? 
  • What is the role of the historian? 
  • Should terms such as "atrocity" be used when writing about history or should value judgements be avoided? 
  • If it is difficult to establish proof in history, does that mean that all versions are equally acceptable? 

SORA Online Magazines

Now available in SORA:
Enjoy over 600 magazines in a variety of languages! 

Online Archives

JSTOR

Ebsco

Magazine & Newspaper Subscriptions