Help Please, IA formulating question

[YeunJi Lee]

Hi, I wanted to do my IA on Reichstag Fire so I've done lots of research already

But I dont know how to formulate the question

Do u think IB will penalize my IA question if I formulate it like

Who was responsible for the Reichstag Fire?

Is it too short? Thats what I thought...

Please anyone, comment, advice, anything. Please, I must finish it in this weekend

Thank u

[Julie]

You should really have "to what extent", "how" or "in what way" in your IA question. The reason for this is because you cannot prove 100% who was responsible, but by analyzing sources you can draw a conclusion of your own as to who was the most involved/responsible. that is why people tend to you "to what extent".

Maybe you could focus on one specific person, or a group of people, and say: "To what extent was/were name(s) responsible for the Reichstag Fire in 1933"

Is there any specific person, group of people (maybe a small political group) you could analyze or maybe a certain even that maybe sparked the idea of the fire? Sorry, I don't know too much about the debate about the Reichstag Fire. Also, just out of curiosity: what have you found out from your research?

Edited February 13, 2011 by Julie

[Scade]

To be honest, I'd do something slightly different with the topic. It hasn't really been possible to establish who started the fire, and it seems that many historians do not even care that much. It is much more important how the fire was used as an excuse by the Nazis, etc.

Therefore if you want to do something about the Reichstag fire, I would rather look at the results/ways in which it was used by the Nazis, etc.

[flopsymopsy]

Although it sounds like a very interesting topic to be investigating, there is very little historical debate and varying schools of thought surrounding it. Whatever you choose make sure that there is ALOT of historical debate. My advice, instead of trying to find a new and intersting topic, go for one which you can really get your teeth into. If you have plenty of evidence and debate then it will be alot easier to write. Alternatively, you could incooporate the Reichstag fire incident into a new question about what methods Hitler used to eliminate his opposition. Anyway, thats just my opinion. Good luck!