how to structure detailed study?

[strawberries]

hi guys,

this might come across as a very stupid question.
I've read and studied quite a bit about my chosen detailed study topic (I'm doing German btw), but now I'm confused if I am even doing the right thing. I've written a couple of dot points and sample responses to some questions I've made up, but still I am very confused.

firstly, how do you write your introduction?
what I have so far is:
- the big theme my school is doing
- my chosen subtopic
- sources I've used (e.g. internet articles)
- what my sources have talked about (e.g. history behind it, why it happened etc) and categorized my info into different subcategories

In the exam, do examiners ask you questions relating to the content of your sources or anything relating to your chosen subtopic in general?

I've done a LOTE last year (Chinese) but Chinese is structured differently to other LOTEs so yeah, but I assume most LOTEs (e.g. French, Japanese etc) would be similar so if anyone could help that would be much appreciated
A past student at my school gave me their detailed study (same topic as what I'm doing) and it was very short (3 pages - last year for Chinese mine's was like 10 pages long) - so I'm wondering maybe I am thinking too much?

sorry for this messy/disorganized post. I am so confused

TL;DR: How do you structure a detailed study?

cheers

[kani]

Doing Japanese this year. Not sure if mine is entirely standard but I hope I can be of some help

My introduction is basically the same as yours, with the exception that I didn't mention what the sources talked about as that could form one (or several) of the questions in discussion, eg. "What did you learn from the book/Internet/interview?" In my Chinese exam last year they asked about one of the books I read, so yes they do ask about the contents of sources... at least in CSL they did. I'm not sure about other LOTEs, but better safe than sorry, right?
Other general questions might include "Why did you choose this topic?", "What was the most interesting thing about this topic?" etc. I also prepared some extra information about the broader theme - I'm doing "Valentine's Day and White Day in Japan", but I also wrote a paragraph on other traditional and contemporary celebrations in case they bring it up ("Are there any other Western events celebrated in Japan?")

For my DS I structured it into four sections (Valentine's Day, White Day, good points, bad points) and then wrote questions underneath each section, starting rather generally then becoming more specific. For example under the "Valentine's Day" section I have questions such as: what is it, how did it begin both overseas and in Japan, how it is celebrated in Japan, how are the customs different to Australian ones, what kinds of gifts are given, how much do the gifts cost, are they hand-made... etc. Many of the questions/answers partially overlap, but basically my goal was to include most (if possible, all) of the questions they might ask.
If you have a native speaker friend/family member/teacher, it would be a good idea to practise with them and ask them to brainstorm all the questions they can think of about your topic. I practised with our student teacher and we went from Valentine's Day chocolates to the complexity of Japanese social relationships heh
My DS is about ten pages too, but I think the number of pages is really just an arbitrary factor; it depends entirely on whether you, yourself, feel prepared, whether it's with five pages or twenty.

Anyway just my two cents but I hope it helps... Good luck!!

[strawberries]

thanks kani!
I hope it all goes well in your oral

just wondering, the three sources have to be different types of sources right - so like an internet article, video and an interview or a book or something? I remember last year for Chinese I was like 'I read a couple of internet articles' -.-
and yeah, I did mine into 4 sections last year for Chinese, but then someone said I didn't need to do that and only answer questions based on my sources?  (like, do i have to explicitly state the 4 sections in my 1min intro?)

[Alter]

Hey strawbs!!

There's no real restrictions on the type of sources you use. If you wanted, you could use 7 different movies as your resources and take them all into the exam. Conversely, you could do 2 resources with one being a poem and the other being a novel. There are no real arbitrary restrictions in this sense, so don't feel pressured into doing a resource you don't want to. This is especially important: if you don't like a resource, it will not benefit you to take it into the exam.

All of that being said, 3 is a very solid number and I'd advise you to use it if you feel comfortable doing so. Are you doing das Leben in der ehemaligen DDR, by any chance? If so, I'd love to have a look at your work as we're doing the same thing (I have a focus on the oppression and censorship of musicians). It may also help if I showed you some of my work so you can get a feel of what other German students have done.

[kani]

thanks kani!
I hope it all goes well in your oral

just wondering, the three sources have to be different types of sources right - so like an internet article, video and an interview or a book or something? I remember last year for Chinese I was like 'I read a couple of internet articles' -.-
and yeah, I did mine into 4 sections last year for Chinese, but then someone said I didn't need to do that and only answer questions based on my sources?  (like, do i have to explicitly state the 4 sections in my 1min intro?)

My teachers for both Chinese and Japanese recommended (prescribed, actually :X) three different sources so I think so. Last year I used a book, a documentary film and the Internet; this year I used two books, an interview and the Internet. But it could be different in German (more flexible like Alter said)... I've never seen a classmate use a poem/novel/movie as a source so I dunno maybe some LOTEs prefer strictly textbook-type resources while others don't??? I think it would be best to check with your teacher and/or other German students.
I think mentioning the four sections of your DS in your introduction is essential because it gives the examiners a basic idea of what you researched; they are then able to base their questions off that and you won't get attacked by questions in areas related to your topic but on which you have no clue about Personally I feel this way is slightly better organised than categorising information by source...? i.e. "I used Book A, in which I learnt about A and D. I also used Film B, in which I learnt about B. Lastly I used Article C, in which I learnt about C." VS "I used Book A, Film B, and Article C. From my research, I will be talking about A, B, C and D." I believe that the examiners would find it easier to note down your topics if you gave them continuously instead of mentioning which sources they came from in between, not to mention that sources may also have overlaps in information. But of course this is purely subjective, so if you feel the other way works better then that should be fine too!! but using both would be redundant >x<
Thanks and best of luck to you too!

[Alter]

Just regarding the type of resources point...

I don't want to contradict kani too much (50 in Chinese haha), but just throwing my opinion into the ring for experiences with VCE German. I believe the most common detailed study general topic in VCE German would be life in the former German east. Under that, the movie 'Das Leben der Anderen' (the Lives of Others) is a popular resource. Most members of my class are doing this, and some people that I met at the AGTV German Forum are also doing it as well.

Personally, my resources are as follows: a book (Stasiland), a song (Ketten werden knapper), and a blog post. My German teacher has told me it's fine to choose these as my resources. I think if you can sustain a detailed level of analysis for your resources then it's fine to choose a non-textbook approach. Further, this point is a little bit more subjective, but I think examiners like it when students can provide a discussion which is novel; I would be one of the few students doing a song as one of my resources, and because it fits my detailed study quite well, I see no harm in doing so as it attracts the examiner to ask questions about it.

[strawberries]

Just regarding the type of resources point...

I don't want to contradict kani too much (50 in Chinese haha), but just throwing my opinion into the ring for experiences with VCE German. I believe the most common detailed study general topic in VCE German would be life in the former German east. Under that, the movie 'Das Leben der Anderen' (the Lives of Others) is a popular resource. Most members of my class are doing this, and some people that I met at the AGTV German Forum are also doing it as well.

Personally, my resources are as follows: a book (Stasiland), a song (Ketten werden knapper), and a blog post. My German teacher has told me it's fine to choose these as my resources. I think if you can sustain a detailed level of analysis for your resources then it's fine to choose a non-textbook approach. Further, this point is a little bit more subjective, but I think examiners like it when students can provide a discussion which is novel; I would be one of the few students doing a song as one of my resources, and because it fits my detailed study quite well, I see no harm in doing so as it attracts the examiner to ask questions about it.

Yeah I've heard tonnes of schools are doing DDR! makes me so scared!
How was the AGTV German Forum btw? I didn't get to go this year! Btw, do you have any idea what the most popular Schwerpunkten could be?
I haven't seen 'Das Leben der Anderen' but our teacher recommended it!

[Alter]

Yeah I've heard tonnes of schools are doing DDR! makes me so scared!

It shouldn't affect how you go about your work. I'm unsure if you're doing it as well, but just because you're doing/not doing a popular selection doesn't mean you can't shine out amongst the rest.

How was the AGTV German Forum btw? I didn't get to go this year!

It was alright. Honestly, not long enough and I wish we had've spent more time doing the mock oral (it was shortened and we only did one). We also wasted some time going through a practice listening/reading thing, which you can really just do at home. There wasn't much you missed that you wouldn't already know from class.

Btw, do you have any idea what the most popular Schwerpunkten could be? I haven't seen 'Das Leben der Anderen' but our teacher recommended it!

Assuming we have the same idea of what a Schwerpunkt is, probably something to do with the Stasi. Or maybe just 'advantages/disadvantages of the GDR'? It's hard to say, honestly. Das Leben der Anderen is a pretty nice movie to gain some context if your detailed study is about das Leben in der ehemaligen DDR, but as I said before, I'm not even using it as a resource, so it's nowhere near mandatory.

Just to give you an example of some of the stuff I've done, here's a snap of some information for the song resource which I mentioned. I have more information on it, but this should give you a feel of what I've done for my other ones as well. I just set it out in terms: a. basic information (explain the source); b. opinion (what do you think about it?); c. analysis (tie it in with your detailed study topic)



The above has a couple of (German) errors because it's an old version but the principle is still the same in the newer version.

[strawberries]

It shouldn't affect how you go about your work. I'm unsure if you're doing it as well, but just because you're doing/not doing a popular selection doesn't mean you can't shine out amongst the rest.

Yeah we're doing DDR too lol. I always thought that if you did a popular topic, it would be harder to score well in since examiners always hear the same kinds of things. (the Year 11s at my school are already trying to ask the teacher if they can do a different topic for next yer so yeah  )

Assuming we have the same idea of what a Schwerpunkt is, probably something to do with the Stasi. Or maybe just 'advantages/disadvantages of the GDR'? It's hard to say, honestly. Das Leben der Anderen is a pretty nice movie to gain some context if your detailed study is about das Leben in der ehemaligen DDR, but as I said before, I'm not even using it as a resource, so it's nowhere near mandatory.

Yeah with Schwerpunkt ours is basically something under life in the DDR (big topic), so we could talk anything about Stasi, lives of youth/women in the DDR...etc

Just to give you an example of some of the stuff I've done, here's a snap of some information for the song resource which I mentioned. I have more information on it, but this should give you a feel of what I've done for my other ones as well. I just set it out in terms: a. basic information (explain the source); b. opinion (what do you think about it?); c. analysis (tie it in with your detailed study topic)

(Image removed from quote.)

The above has a couple of (German) errors because it's an old version but the principle is still the same in the newer version.

Looks good! All I've got is some questions and answers that's all -.- and plus I haven't picked out my resources, just been reading a lot (mainly in English) and translating answers into German which probably isn't a smart way to go about it!