Tuesday 4th September 2012

The outcome from my intial draft was good. The comments I received back were positive, but I need to add more of the 'why', explaining or hypothesising as to why the two poli had such differing values and why each implented the values that they did for a maximum mark.

Over the last week I have been in the process of incorporating my own thoughts with supporting evidence into my essay to try and achieve what is desired. Focusing on why each polis was like that rather than the facts has assisted me in developing a bigger picture, and has allowed me to ponder why the two societies had such differing values.

I hope that I will be able to communicate this effectively into my final essay. I have planned another consulation  with my teacher for Thursday of this week, to get some final feedback and perhaps suggest some cuts, as my word count is slightly over the limit, which will need to be addressed.

Wednesday 15th August 2012

Yesterday, during allocated lesson time and homework time, I finalised the first draft of my special study. I am happy with the draft I have produced, and I am glad that it remains under the 2000wd maximum wordcount. I have double-checked the wording and sources of all quotes used throughout the essay, to ensure maximum accuracy. I look forward to receiving feedback once my essay has been drafted, and taking it on board to ensure the maximum grade possible will be achieved.

Monday 13th August 2012

The lesson today was again assigned to finalising and perfecting the first draft of our special study. I continued to work on my draft over the weekend, and have now written all of the main body paragraphs, although more depth is required. I now need to check the referencing of all of my quotes, and add my final bibliography to the draft, as there is no excuse for having imperfect referencing. I hope to write my introduction and conclusion in tomorrow's double, which has also been assigned as time for working on my special study. I am confident that I will meet the draft deadline (this Friday) and hope to have a near perfect essay ready for drafting, in order to gain maximum feedback for a high mark.

Thursday 9th August 2012

We have been given a lesson today to work on our special study. The first draft is due Friday next week. I feel confident that I will make the deadline with ease, and am enjoying pulling together the paragraphs of my essay.

Today I plan to go through and extract possible quotes from two of my sources which I appear to have overlooked in my noting. I do not have access to some of my noting today, and so I think my time would be best spent searching for more possible quotes, which I can later include in my essay.

I am looking forward to completing the draft of my essay and working on suggestions provided in the drafting stage.

Friday 27th July 2012

I continued my noting from texts I have collected for my special study throughout the holidays. I also began to arrange and collect quotes which will be relevant to my essay. After much consideration, I think I will use the following subtopics as paragraphs:

- Politics
- Economy
- Family Life: marrige, children
- Other Activites, eg. sports etc.

Since returning to school, I have begun writing the draft for my final essay. Using quotes I collected and organised throughout the holidays, I have been able to easily write paragraphs which flow well. I am glad that I did some preparation throughout the holidays, as it has enabled me to write my essay with ease.

Thursday 21st June 2012

I have continued my noting of some of the Barr Smith books, which I have found considerably more helpful than some of the school libarary books. The school's books were helpful as a starting base, and for developing my question, but the texts I have collected from the Barr Smith have more information which is related specifically to my topic.
I will scan and upload the pages of noting that I have collected sometime during the holidays, when I will have unlimited access to a scanner.
I have completed my mindmap of possible subtopics to include in my essay, and intend on breaking them down over the next week.

Tuesday 12th June 2012

I had some difficulties accessing my blog page last week, and hence I will cover what I researched last week in this post.

I continued to take notes from the texts that I acquired from the Barr Smith library earlier in the term, and discovered some interesting contrasts between the two societies. I also came across some conflicting information, for example one source said that Spartan girls were considered eligible for marriage by the age of twelve, whereas some other sources stated that Spartan women were only married after turning eighteen. I am using the advantage of having a large number of books and other sources to conquer the challenge of conflicting information.
I also met with Mrs Whiting and we discussed other possible sources that I could include in my study. I discussed my struggle to find primary sources, and she suggested some articles about Lysistratus which are available from the Barr Smith which I hope will improve the range of my bibliography. I also went through Mr Stewart's articles a couple of weeks ago and found one or two which might have helpful pieces.

Over the last week I have also created a mindmap of possible subtopics to included within my essay, and connected them to examples which I could use in my study. Throughout this week I hope to be able to begin to create an essay plan, as well as continue my noting from the books I have collected. I have also thought about watching documentaries or dvd presentations, but so far have not researched whether there are any which would be helpful for my study.