Difficulties Writing The Report (update)

Another difficulty I have had in writing this project has been sticking within the word limit. I feel that I could have easily written 10,000 words if I had been able to fully explore all of the topics I intended to include. This is probably a good sign and shows that I have carried out thorough and exhaustive research on the subject.

I feel that this will bode well for next semester when I have to create content for my final artefact. I have already been able to include a fairy extensive plan in my Gant chart, which will be extremely helpful in hitting the ground running next semester.

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Revising Objectives

Whilst researching for this project I have unearthed an incredible amount of interesting, relevant information. Unfortunately there is only so much that can go into this report, so I am having to pick and choose the best information and subjects to go in. In order to produce the best and most effective report possible I have decided to edit my objectives down from five to four altering most of them a fair bit.

The objective I have decided to get rid of completely is objective three from the project proposal, which read “Explore the key known causes of honey bee decline by reviewing relative research and collating opinions directly from three specialists with a particular interest in the field by November 15th”. The reason I have elected to remove this topic from the report is due to a number of factors. Firstly, this area will be covered in minor detail in several of the other objectives. It is also a vast area due to there being around 10 very good reasons for honey bee decline, each of which would warrant its own investigation. Finally, many researchers suggest that even they cannot decide which of these reasons are most to blame for bee decline; LeConte and vanEngelsdorp both arrive at the conclusion that the decline is multifactorial.

In its stead I have opted to investigate two of the objectives in greater detail. They will be objectives two and three, which in their revised forms now read “Identify the importance of honey bees to the human ecosystem by identifying past, and potential, impacts on agriculture in a world without honey bees through a wide variety of informative sources.” and “Understand some of the actions being taken to improve the situation for bees, and how they will make a difference, by investigating urban beekeeping and bee-friendly planting.” respectively. These two objectives in their revised forms allow for greater investigation and a better final artefact. This is due to the fact that want the project to be reactive to the problem of the bees. As I have previously stated in the project proposal, I want the project to ‘enable’ the average person to make a difference, and I feel that by addressing the importance of bees and the positive actions people can take to make a difference, the project will be able to fulfil this aim.

Difficulties Writing The Report

I am currently half way through writing my report, but am finding it difficult to differentiate how I should be writing my literature review and my analysis/discussion. This is the first time I have written a report in this style and I find myself lapsing into an analytical writing style within my literature review.

After speaking with my peers, we all seem to be having some difficulty with this, but all have different concerns. I have decided to consult the skills 4 learning website and various other helpful websites in the hope that I will be able to come up with a few good rules to keep me on track.

Here are the rules I intend to set myself to ensure I keep in the correct frame of mind in each section:

Literary review: An organised collection of important relevant resources. Basically, summarise what people have previously said on, or around, the topic. Draw conclusions on these summaries, but do not discuss or analyse them.

Analysis/Discussion: Form arguments with conclusions drawn in lit review. Analyse these. How does the information support or challenge the objective? How well has the objective been met?

Conclusion/Recommendations: Highlight the findings made. What can be concluded from the arguments made and information found? Summarise what has been established. Will the project be good / viable / educational? How does the research inform the project? Recommend further research or paths for the project to take.

Hopefully these notes will help me stay on track and create a better report.