This page will help you to complete your extended project ready for marking by your teacher and submission to the exam board. The other FF pages still contain more detailed resources.
If you were given feedback to improve certain aspects of your project, you'll find help on those areas below:
PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM
Section 3 (activities and timescales) needs to be detailed and broken down sensibly in the last column.
Section 4 (resources) needs to include a list of the type of resources you will use. Not a bibliography, but a brief overview of what you intend to use/did use.
You don't need to complete the last page with signatures etc.
ACTIVITY LOG
This should be a fairly long document, ideally using the format given to you at the start of the process and shown below.
Try to add some "problems" as you gain marks for this, as long as you explain how the problem was resolved. You get higher marks for a problem and its solution than you do for having no problems at all!
Example of a logbook identifying problems and solutions:
| Date | What I did | How this helped me/Actions |
|---|---|---|
| 24/10/23 | Read a website on farming in the UK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_the_United_Kingdom | It gave me a useful overview and referred to a book by A Smith which I will read to gain more detailed information |
| 30/10/23 | I intended to read Smith's book but had to revise for A level tests this week | I will read it next week instead, after tests are complete |
| 5/11/24 | emailed A Smith to ask if she could give me some insight into her work | I will gain a greater insight into the issues |
| 30/11/24 | Unfortunately I have not received a reply from her | Instead, I'll read the other source referenced in her book |
ASSESSING SOURCES FOR RELIABILITY
You need to identify how reliable your key sources are. You can use sources that are not totally reliable, but you must say why this is the case. For each source, say if they are
- objective (ie no inbuilt bias, and probably based entirely on verified factual information
- subjective (ie the author has a particular point of view that is either different from other authors or controversial). Subjective views can be quite credible, eg one author may write an article explaining why they believe Shakespeare to be a feminist; another author believes he was a mysoginist)
- biased - particularly if the author has a "vested interest", ie they are perhaps being paid by an organisation that has an interest in promoting a theory so they can benefit monetarily. For example, a scientist may be asked by a pharmaceutical company to write a scientific paper on the benefits of drugs to combat depression - the scientist will almost certainly be obliged to write in support of drugs, so the facts may be biased to that viewpoint.
Overall, it's advisable to give this information about each of your major sources, either in the literature review, the first footnote you reference, the bibliography or your activity log. It doesn't matter where you do it, as long as you do it!
- name of author where possible (sometimes difficult with websites (if so, consider the authenticity of the website)
- qualifications and experience
- Job title/previous roles
- other publications by them
- any peer reviews or referenced by other authors?
FOOTNOTES
If you have been told to include footnotes, or improve them, use this powerpoint to find out how to write them correctly. Remember to include the date that you accessed a website if you used it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A bibliography is a document at the end of your essay and includes ALL sources you have used - including anything you have accessed but not referred to in your work, eg a video you watched on the topic, a book that you read but it ended up not being useful etc. Remember to include the dastes you accessed any webpage or online resources. Here are three examples:
ABSTRACT
The abstract is a succinct summary of a piece of research used at the beginning of the essay giving a quick summary. It should provide the reader with a clear understanding of the aim, background research, conclusions and implications of the findings. Here are three examples:
EVALUATION
The mark scheme Assessment Objective 4 is "Review" and consists of some marks for your presentation and some reflection of the process you have undertaken. It is not an evaluation of the outcome - that is in your conclusion. Here is a list of what to include in your evaluation. You may have included some of this in your presentation, but it's a good idea to write it again in an evaluation.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Your final submission should contain the following, and items with a * next to them will eventually be put in one document and saved as a pdf. Your teacher will tell you when to convert it into a pdf so don't do it yet!
Do have have the following?
- Project proposal form, with sections 3 and 4 quite detailed
- Activity log, with plenty of entries, problems and solutions *
- The abstract 200 words *
- Introduction ("setting the scene") 800 - 1000 words *
- Literature review (key sources are summarised with links made between them and sources assessed for reliability) 2000 - 3000 words *
- Main discussion (probably divided into various sections 3000 words *
- Conclusion (including suggestions for further work) 500 words *
- Bibliography *
- Evaluation *
- Slides from your powerpoint presentation *