it's good that you want to get it done.
it's so easy to think "well i 've got so much time to do this, i'll just do this assignment first... i'll do this now, my PIP later" etc etc and you procrastinate on it and push it aside for other "more important" things. trust me, i know. lol
my main tip for your PIP is to BE ORIGINAL. markers have to sit through and mark thousands of PIPs so you can see how they're going to get bored easily if people keep talking about the same things.
like this year, i think a lot of people have done war stuff and stuff to do with muslims etc (well i know a lot of people who have done it), body image and the depression etc etc. so it's really good that your PIP is away from them.
BUT - be careful. don't let yours turn into a whole popular culture thing. it's one of the depth studies in year 12. there is belief systems, popular culture, equality and difference, and work and leisure.
because you've got a lot of time, i'd spend the rest of this year PLANNING what you want to look at. because i had NO idea what i was really doing this time last year, i spend a lot of time just secondary researching on my main topic - gender. so i looked at stereotypes, the colours of gender etc. i didn't know if it was all going to be relevant but it ended up helping me. because my topic didn't stay the same, and i think a lot of other people would back me up in saying that your direction changes a lot.
so spend the time doing CONTENT ANALYSIS from a VARIETY OF DIFFERENT SOURCES - internet, books, magazines, anything you can get your hands on!
by the time you've got all that on politics and music, you may have a better idea of where you're headed. Also, you may like to look at previous PIPs to give you an idea of how they’re constructed. I didn’t until later on when I was doing my PIP but that’s your decision.
also, don't forget you need a cross-cultural component, you need to include society and culture concepts into it and that whole project needs to add to your social and cultural literacy. ie critically discern the media, researches effectively and ethically, communicating effectively etc etc... you know the rest.
after doing that secondary research i would start to look at what the cross-cultural component is (this could be time, gender, culture.. whatever), what concepts you’re using (remember it doesn’t just have to be the 5 fundamental ones) and also start to look at what things you’re doing that are making you more socially and culturally literate. This is helpful because later on you need to rattle of your concepts and how you’re using them in your introduction and in your conclusion you need to say how you’re more socially and culturally literate because of doing your PIP.
phew. ok, after all of that i think you’ll have quite a more concise direction. it’ll at least get you thinking about what you’re doing. by this stage you may like to start forming your primary research methods. so like, focus groups, interviews, surveys whatever best suits what you’re doing. you need to talk about your focus groups in your introduction as well. So when you state the concepts and cross-cultural component you also rattle of your research methodologies. it just shows the markers what you’ve done.
OH!! DON’T FORGET TO KEEP A PIP JOURNAL. It will be EXTREMELY helpful in writing your log later on. Feelings, thoughts, what you have or haven’t done. It all helps. Logs don’t have to be “I did this and this and this today and it all went extremely well and I’m feeling so happy and relaxed about this blah blah blah”. Markers KNOW it isn’t like that, and research isn’t always going to go to plan. They actually WANT to see that you’ve changed your mind on your topic, they want to see that you had difficulty getting some information or one of your focus groups didn’t go to plan. Because that’s what happens.
This is all rather planned out, but from someone who’s done it before, take my advice – don’t think that you can do everything at once, or that you don’t need a plan. A plan is EXTREMELY useful. I’d have killed to think of this before when I started my pip! Sure I did basically did mine this way but it took me awhile to actually do it. Don’t try and do it all at once. I’d even schedule in a time, even once or twice a week to work on it. It may be Sunday night for a couple of hours. It may be in a certain free period you have at school. Whatever. Just whatever suits you best.
One final tip is don’t get too stressed over it. Sure, it’s worth a bit in your hsc. But you have a WHOLE year to do it. By PLANNING it properly there is no way you’re going to run out of time. Sure, you may have a few weeks when you have assessments coming out of your ears. You may like to stop your PIP and study on them. But after them, get right back into your PIP.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PM me or whatever if you need any more advice, if you have any questions or if you want any more tips. I’d love to help and so would everyone else.
Good luck!!!
