History: Help on organization of EE on Ataturk?

[Callista_Rhian]

Soo... My topic is "In what ways and to what extent did Ataturk accomplish his goals for Turkey from 1920 to 1938?" Problem is....the man did A LOT. And so many things he did could be put under multiple titles: for example, his forbidding religious garb like the fez, veil, etc could be listed under secularization, modernization, introducing influences from the West, and giving equality to women and ethnic/religious groups. And all of THOSE sub-titles could got under other titles; for example, giving equality to women and ethnic/religious groups and secularization could both be listed under either modernization or introducing influences from the West, which in turn could be listed under each other. Or should I just organize everything under his policy, the Six Arrows? Or should that be listed under modernization? *sobs*

This (obviously) very confused IBer would be happy for any and all help!

Edited July 6, 2009 by Callista_Rhian

[Bishup]

He basically changed Turkey. I used to live in Istanbul from 1999-2000 so I learnt a bit about him but can't remember much of it. Another thing which I think is crucial that you mention is that he changed written Turkish from the Arabic scrypt to the Latin. It was done in a very short space of time and he ordered some French scholars at that time to change the whole scrypt to Latin and consequently in turkish there are a lot of French loan words such as 'coiffeur' (Hairdresser) which is spelt Kuaförü in Turkish.

He very much improved the infrastructure of Turkey and there was a lot more communication within the country and a rapid economic growth with increased import and export. The EE is a matter of researching, correct me if I'm wrong. So you should look at how his policies and his reign changed Turkey's status. Why was he so important? You see him every where, big statue, on the bills of Turkish Liras, big postors which they roll down during a period of time off the main building in Istanbul and Ankara. I know Istanbul for sure, not sure about Ankara but I think since it is the Capital.

" Educated Turks had taken twelve years to become literate in their medieval Arabic orthography. They observed the prosperity and universal literacy of their Armenian minority with their Graeco-Roman alphabet. The literate 9% of Turks who were bilingual or even polyglot were also aware of other options. Finally a commission in the 1920s replaced the 612 Arabic symbols with 29 Roman-style letters plus diacritics, that gave almost complete one-letter-to-one-sound phoneme-grapheme correspondence. "

Ataturk wanted every one to be literate.

Letting easy access to latest scientific developments by all citizens of The Republic of Turkey.

He wanted to better the quality of life of the average turk and did so by promoting rights for woman and equality between the genders.

At my french school in Istanbul we had to learn Turkish, in fact it was my first foreign language, but the only thing I learnt was hi : 'Merhaba'. Like most animals, thank you and how are you.

In my opinion you should read more about Turkey and the Ataturk reign and then you could build different themes.

Edited July 7, 2009 by Bishup

[Vvi]

A simple way to narrow down the scope of your EE is to throw in one word in there:

In what ways and to what extent did Ataturk accomplish his economic/social/political (choose one) goals for Turkey between 1920 to 1938?"

If you find that you already have too much to talk about now, when you've just started writing your EE, you'll definitely have too much material to include hwne you've actually started analysing events.

You could also change you question to:

To what extent did Ataturk accomplish his goal of modernization for Turkey between 1920 to 1938?"

Under that title, you would fit everything else in. You do need subheadings, like you suggested before (secularization, equality for women, etc). Putting everything under a big title of "Six Arrows" is too broad. If you have things that can fit under two headings, don't write about them in both. Decide on which angle you will approach it form (e.g. women's equality will be under influences from the West and not in another category) and then analyze it only from that angle. Then your next subheading should be something related to the previous one (e.g. women's equality followed by equality for ethnic groups), so you don't jump around and analyze all kinds of things in no order.

And if you find that you still have too much to write about, pick one of your subheadings (secularization or women's equality) and write only about hwo successful Ataturk was in achieving that. You'll analyze everything a lot deeper.

[Callista_Rhian]

I would change it to just social, economical, etc, but my mentor is saying, no, go ahead and write about all of them, you'll be fine. And seeing as she actually marks these for IB.... ;A; I love your suggestion on how to organise tha paper; it's exactly the kind of help I was looking for. Thank you so much!

Edited July 7, 2009 by Callista_Rhian