The First Session
It's been about three weeks since my first official EPQ session where Chris, our supervisor, explained the necessities of the project based subject, including how choosing to do an EPQ will benefit us, what it will entail, and the amount of preparation, research, and time the qualification requires. This allowed us to gain a preliminary insight into the requirements of the project, therefore we are aware of what is needed before we properly make a start. I knew by this point that I truly wanted to continue with my choice of an EPQ as my elective as I found the freedom of choice and the personal aspect of the project very appealing.
However, for the majority of the period, we focused on titles and what makes a good title as this is an important part of the project. We looked at different news articles, such as the reintroduction of grammar schools, and worked in teams to decide on a suitable team. After sharing these with the class, we were given feedback from other groups, as well as Chris. I found that working on constructing a good title helped me a lot when it came to deciding my own title.
Decisions, decisions
I already knew that I wanted to base on project around the study of English Literature as this is the area I would like to pursue in the future and it is something that I am truly interested in. However, when having a discussion with Chris, I came to the obstruction that the study of literature may cause a series of dead ends early on in the project, which I do not intend of having. Therefore, I also decided to include an historical factor within my project that I can connect to the literary side and explore them together. I am studying history at A-level too so this would be really useful.
Although there are many books I love, I wanted to focus on a novel that offers historical value and profundity, and one that I consider to be a favourite. I eventually decided on 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen to centre my project on as I am fascinated by the story line, the characters, as well as the "are they ever going to be together?" tension felt throughout... and who doesn't love Mr Darcy?
I wanted to chose a specific area that will present me with enough to be researched and to talk about. I brainstormed different topic ideas relating to the novel, such as social division, gender inequality, and family relations. I initially went with the focus of women and exploring how Elizabeth may differ to the ideals placed upon women in the 19th century, when it was written. I was content with this as my project focus as I thought it was something I could explore in various ways, and feminism is one of our key focuses in English and Sociology at the moment so it would help me massively.
The Next Few Sessions
The next sessions we had with Chris mainly consisted of consolidating our questions and writing up our initial ideas, and also the introduction to 'Microsoft One Note' which seemed very confusing at first but I think I've got some sort of understanding by now. Furthermore, Chris reminded us of what the mark scheme is looking for and to KEEP WRITING EVERYTHING DOWN. Hey Chris, I'm writing now!
Writing down our initial ideas gave me a chance to really think about my question and how I plan on carrying out the research and the construction of a final product. When thinking about the different paths I could take my project down, I realised that there is a high chance of arriving at a dead end quite early on in my project, and I knew that there was other aspects to my project that I wanted to include in my project, but didn't really tie in with my question. I started to brainstorm again and decided to explore the novel in a more open way, but still being specific in what I wanted to achieve by the end of this process. After reading 'Jane Austen's Views on Marriage in Pride and Prejudice' I realised that some people only perceive the novel to be a romantic tale between two stubborn people who will not defy the odds against them in order to be together and they do not see the social and economical problems attached to story line and the characters. Therefore, I decided to concentrate on the issues presented in the novel that people may not be aware of and explore how they are represented. I believe the question 'How representative is Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice, in terms of the social and economic issues faced in the 19th century?' will allow me to divert my project is a variety of ways which I look forward to exploring and finding out new discoveries about my favourite novel.
From this point on, we have been concentrating on completing our initial ideas, our proposal and our ethical approval form, which is actually due in tomorrow so I better get a move on. As for the class, who are really nice people by the way, there's been a few incidents involving an exiled cup of tea, some shiny shoes, and a coaster but let's not get into that.
Chris also taught us a key skill that is essential for completing a EPQ - referencing. He taught us about how to reference, why we need to reference, and the rules behind plagiarism. We looked through a PDF file called 'Harvard referencing' which had some really useful pointers when it comes to referencing other peoples' work in our own work. However, I still remain uncertain on how to reference different types of sources, such as websites compared to pieces of literature from books, therefore I will need future assistance when I face referencing in my work.
What's Next?
After I have finally given what is needed, I shall be starting to map how I want to carry out my research and plan out what I will be exploring in the different sections of my project as there are various areas involved.
Until next time!
