IB History SL Internal Assessment Example

You state a focused and appropriate historical question that clearly sets up an evaluative investigation.

Your source choices are purposeful and relevant, pairing a scholarly secondary source with a contemporary primary source.

You explain why each source matters for the inquiry rather than simply listing it.

Your evaluation shows good awareness of origin, purpose, content, value, and limitation.

Some evaluative claims are a little speculative and would be stronger with firmer evidence from the sources themselves.

A few limitations need to be tied more precisely to the exact content and context of the source.

The analysis of the edited/compiled nature of one source could be clearer.

At points, author expertise is used as proof of reliability without enough discussion of method or evidence base.

Your investigation is generally clear and logically organized, with a visible line of argument from McCarthy’s tactics to longer-term political effects.

You use specific evidence from a range of sources to support key claims, including dates, examples, and named historians.

You do not simply narrate events; you make efforts to explain significance and to connect evidence to your overall argument.

You include different historical perspectives and use them to qualify and test your claims.

Your conclusion is reasoned and shows some distinction between direct political power and broader ideological influence.

Some causal claims are broader than the evidence fully supports, especially where you link McCarthyism to major political outcomes.

At times the argument moves from evidence to conclusion too quickly without fully showing the mechanism of influence.

A few examples are used as proof of wider trends without enough explanation of how representative they are.

Some counterarguments are introduced but not fully weighed against your main interpretation.

There is occasional repetition, and some transitions could be smoother to keep the analysis tightly focused.