Just got an A* in my EPQ - AMA

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Title page

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Contents page

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Abstract

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200 words; the last thing I wrote; written in past tense basically outlining how I concluded my project and the primary and secondary data I used to reach that conclusion, and whether it matched my hypothesis.

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Introduction

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600-800 words; I wrote a paragraph about the Caribbean's location, what an all-inclusive resort is, why are all-inclusive resorts are popular, outlining the social, economic and environmental benefits and costs of all-inclusive resorts, and why I chose to complete my dissertation on that particular topic.

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I used lots of referencing in this section, which I referred back to in my main discussion.

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Literature review

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1500-2000 words; I looked into 7/8 sources in detail, discussing the contents of the source, how it was useful/not useful in aiding my discussion, and whether it agreed or disagreed with my hypothesis.

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I also mentioned a lot about the reliability of the sources (who they were written by (had to do some internet sleuthing for that), how long ago they were written and whether that makes them less useful). For example, if you use a scientific research paper published by a university that's likely far more reliable than a blog article biasedly written by an all-inclusive enthusiast)

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Write a mini-conclusion at the end of your literature review to state whether the sources used conform to or go against your hypothesis. Mention any anomalous sources (for me, I had a few sources which argued that all-inclusive resorts were good economically so I mentioned this by saying "however, some of the literature does show economic opportunities in the Caribbean...." and explained that side of the argument too.)

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Main discussion

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Only needs to be 2400-3000 words long; I split mine into three subheadings which I discussed in detail

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The rise in transnational corporation presence in the all-inclusive market

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The multiplier effect

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A driver for social development?

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For all of my subheadings, I made sure to keep my discussion focused on whether all-inclusive resorts were good or bad within the Caribbean. I did use lots of counter-arguments but every point that I made was backed by references (either from my lit review or from extra research that I did). I would recommend highlighting every reference that you include and ensure that you have at least 3 or 4 per paragraph of each subheading.

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I also did mini-conclusions at the end of each subheading which briefly summarised whether each point showed all-inclusive resorts to be economically beneficial or detrimental. This was a good way of seeing whether I kept my discussion focused on the subheading title; if I didn't, I would either find more sources to mention or I would change the subheading title so that it better reflected the discussion in that area.

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Conclusion

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600-800 words long; needs to be reflective of your entire project (things you found in your lit review and main discussion), but not bringing in new ideas that haven't been mentioned elsewhere; my main conclusion was built around a long chain of reasoning which brought in numerous economic concepts to reflect that the resorts were detrimental, so I could prove that my conclusion was built off concrete research and understanding.

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I ended my conclusion with a "I would like to further investigate...." paragraph which essentially acted as a way of me introducing some of the problems that I found throughout my dissertation, and what I would do differently next time to make my project better. This is a constructive way of reflecting back on your project, and also shows your assessor that you're passionate about your EPQ because you're willing to do further research into a certain part of it.

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Reference list

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This was for all of the sources that I actually referenced in my dissertation. I had over 200 direct references and I think this was what allowed me to get a high grade because it shows that all of my dissertation could be backed by or traced to secondary sources.

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I used an application called Zotero which was an absolute lifesaver for my referencing; you just input some of the information in (title/author of book) or link a webpage and it automatically produces the reference in your chosen style. This saved me sooo much time and removed the fear that I referenced wrong/plagiarised other people's work unintentionally.

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Bibliography

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This was for all of the sources that I looked at and influenced parts of my dissertation, but that I didn't directly use. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole looking into some all-inclusive resort schemes to protect the Caribbean region from the impacts of climate change and increased hurricane severity; although I didn't mention any of this in my dissertation, it did allow me to consider that resorts aren't entirely profit driven so I was able to mention some other bits in my main discussion which stemmed from this research. Therefore, I referenced all of these sites into my bibliography.

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My supervisor told me that the more sources I show that I've considered (even if I don't directly use them in my EPQ) the better - I used this logic, so my bibliography was extensive. I also know people who got A/A* who had a very limited bibliography, so it definelty isn't the most important for getting marks. But if you've looked into 100 sources and only referenced 20 of them, you may as well get the credit for it by referencing them into your bibliography anyway!

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Appendix

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This is not necessary unless you're using graphs or raw data (generally from primary research) which would take up too many words in your main discussion. You will not be penalised for not having an appendix.

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I did have an appendix because I conducted a questionnaire asking all-inclusive resort guests about their expenditure outside of the resorts. I converted all of this data into graphs/charts and then explained in detail what they meant and the effect that my findings had on my conclusion and hypothesis. I used around 500 words in my appendix, but there's no word limit in this section so it's good if you need to discuss boring factors like sampling strategies (like I did).

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I wrote another conclusion for my appendix, which outlined the overall impact of my independent investigation on my dissertation. I mentioned the things that I'd do differently if I was able to rewrite my questionnaire, such as new questions that I'd focus on.