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March 29, 2024, 01:18:09 am

Author Topic: Central Material Structure  (Read 8726 times)  Share 

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beatroot

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Central Material Structure
« on: February 24, 2018, 08:11:45 pm »
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The central material of your PIP is the most important part and should be the area that you are working the most on. It’s best to prioritise this than perfecting your introduction or worrying about your logbook because this section has the most word count requirement. It is required to do a minimum of 2,500 words and a maximum of 4,000 words. The best way to view the CM section is to pretend that you’re writing three or four mini essays but with the freedom of being able to use headings and footnotes.

(* Please note that I did ‘casual racism towards Asians in Australia’ for my topic, so I will be using my PIP as an example throughout this guide)

1. Decide how many chapters you want to do

Typically people do three just because it provides a nice flow. But this depends on your topic, your hypothesis and your points. If you think that squeezing your third and fourth points in one chapter will be too much, create a fourth chapter. Essentially each chapter should be a representation of each of your points. For example, my hypothesis was that casual racism is still prevalent today as it is rarely challenged. For each of my chapters, I did the following as my points, ‘the history of casual racism in Australia’, ‘the factors that contributed to casual racism’ and ‘the impact of Australian culture’. See how each of my chapter topics flow smoothly into one another?

2. Decide what points you will be including in each chapter

You’ve decided what argument each chapter will have. Now decide the points you want to use to prove your argument. Will one chapter state the history behind your social issue? Will one chapter provide the factors that contribute to your issue? Will one chapter discuss social continuity and change? Doesn’t matter what it is. All your points just need to be relevant and adhere to your hypothesis. These points need to represent each paragraph/s in your chapters. It’s like writing an essay but with the freedom of  having headings to make things easier for you, but as well as for the marker.

3. How to structure each paragraph

Just like any other essay, each paragraph should have a structure. There isn’t technically one structure you should stick to. Personally, I think it should just depend on what your paragraph/heading is about. If you’re stating an argument; the following structure should be taken into account:

A - argument
F - further elaborate
E - evidence (include footnote)
E - explain evidence

For example:
Quote
Casual racism continues to be prevalent during Robert Menzies and Arthur Calwell’s time as Prime Ministers during the mid-twentieth century, exemplifying casual racism to be the social norm and continued throughout time, abusing their power and authority (argument + use of concepts) ‘Menzies and Calwell believed the White Australia Policy was our protection against the millions of Asians who had recently acquired independence, as well as from the communist influence that seemed so powerful in China, Vietnam and Indonesia.’ (further elaborate) From the perspective of the Australians, it was a protecting mechanism and a way to maintain the predominantly Caucasian culture of the country. Former Prime Minister John Curtin fully supported this policy and maintained this White philosophy by stating, ‘This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants those people who came here in peace’. (evidence + footnote) Curtin’s statement alludes to the British race, who migrated here since the First Fleet and their mission to maintain full possession of the country from the supposedly ‘invading’ Chinese. Although, in the eyes of the Asian community, his statement appears to be an act of segregation and oppression of opportunities. (explain evidence)

You don’t necessarily have a linking sentence because you’ll just be eating your word count. Plus it’s a report technically speaking. The way you approach your CM is like an essay almost, but the final product must look like a report.

The amount of paragraphs you do in one chapter just, all again, depends on your chapter topic.

4. Concepts

HSC Markers love and live on SAC concepts. If you can easily link back your central material to a SAC concept, the markers will love you forever. But how do you exactly integrate concepts into your central material? Don’t feel the need to put concepts in random places for the sake of having concepts. It will not work out and to put it simply: it just feels that you’re trying too hard. I referred to the concepts exactly 100 TIMES in my PIP. Even though that may seem a lot, it really wasn’t. Instead of talking about random concepts, I used my word count wisely to link my argument to the concepts.

For example:
Quote
The rise of technology has developed into globalisation, allowing for easy communication between individuals across the world. From technology, the media is made accessible to every person in society, exposing themselves to the latest news, television episodes and films. The media holds strong power to manipulate information in order to appeal to society. The media has two sides; the news and the entertainment industry.

5. Word count

All your chapters don’t need to have an equal amount of words in them. Again, this all depends on your chapter topic. My chapter one had 1.5k+ words, chapter two had 2k+ words and my chapter three just had 500 words. What’s important that in each chapter, that everything has to be concise. You don’t need to go into the nitty gritty like English. When I wrote my PIP, I just envisioned the words BAM BAM BAM in my head. Every sentence has to shock you and has to surprise you. Every sentence has to be quick and snappy. Every sentence just needs to make sense.

6. Use of primary and secondary evidence

You don’t need to refer to an equal amount of primary and secondary evidence. Sometimes people might get lucky and have fabulous answers from their primary research. But some have to solely rely on secondary research. Everyone has different topics. Some topics might be easier to find primary evidence for. Same thing goes for secondary evidence.

Feel free to ask questions in the PIP Thread. If you would like to see what my PIP was and want a general idea on how a PIP is structured like, feel free to PM me and I’ll share my PIP with you.

Good luck everyone!
Which will hold greater rule over you? Your fear or your curiosity?

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