IA Hello, if possible can I get some help narrowing down my question?

[KathrinsCool]

Hey fellow IB students, alumni, teachers, creatures, whatever else applies

So my school requires a first draft of our Historical Investigation for next year by this Wednesday May 15th, and my teacher just informed us of this due date last week, gee thanks a lot sir.

Anyway, I kind of have a question but I think it might be too vague, any suggestions on how to improve the following question:

To what extent has the United States’ friendship/alliance with Israel affected US relations with the Arab nations that have traditionally been enemies of the Israeli state?

Thanks everyone!

[Guest]

I actually think your question is great! It sounds very interesting! The only thing is that I would maybe choose a single word instead of "friendship/alliance" to make it a little bit less wordy. Good luck!

[Garmr]

Agreed with Cameron, I think your question is great.

I suppose to be a bit less wordy I could suggest:

To what extent has the United States’ alliance with Israel affected US relations with Arab nations that are traditional enemies of Israel?

or

To what extent has the United States’ alliance with Israel affected US relations with Arab nations that are hostile towards Israel?

But these are just suggestions - if you feel like I've taken away a particular nuance from the original question then don't follow them

Btw I did Arab-Israeli Conflict for prescribed and it was great fun, so I hope you have fun and good luck with the IA!

Edited May 13, 2013 by Garmr

[alefal]

Hey there!

The others seem to have said what's important - your question is fine - so I'll only mention these three things:

I suggest you put a time frame for your question. The issue is still very relevant today, but keep in mind that IB does not consider anything newer than 10 years as history.

Other than that, I'd say 'United States' support to Israel,' because, as far as I know, they don't have a formal alliance.

I would perhaps drop the 'Arab nations that are...', because the Arab nations are both historically and presently hostile to Israel. That has been the status quo since the establishment of Israel in 1948. Thus, at least to me, it feels quite redundant.

Good luck!

[KathrinsCool]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I've actually decided to change it up a little because my question seemed to be a little hard to prove and was slightly too broad.

My final question is now:

To what extent has the United States’ support for Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 affect US relations with the Arab nations involved?

I'm finding a whole bunch of information on this topic and I'm feeling good.

Wish me luck! I've got until tomorrow morning to finish this up, Procrastination Nation at it's finest

[alefal]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I've actually decided to change it up a little because my question seemed to be a little hard to prove and was slightly too broad.

My final question is now:

To what extent has the United States’ support for Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 affect US relations with the Arab nations involved?

I'm finding a whole bunch of information on this topic and I'm feeling good.

Wish me luck! I've got until tomorrow morning to finish this up, Procrastination Nation at it's finest

A thing that came to my mind just now is that it would perhaps be preferable if you discussed how it affected the relations to one or two Arab countries. That way you will narrow down your topic even more, and your IA will be more focused, and you don't have that many words to analyse the topic itself anyways.

Otherwise, I think your new research question is an improvement of the original one.

And, is your deadline tomorrow? Huh, you've got a long evening and night ahead of you!

[KathrinsCool]

Late update, but I managed to get a mock score of 18/20 on my first draft!

That sleepless night payed off in the end

Thanks for all your help!