• Am I clear whether I am doing an Individual Investigation or a Geographical Assignment?
Have I read the statement about the preparation and assessment for the Personal Enquiry in the Specification (pages 38-43) to ensure that my topic will meet the requirements listed there?
Have I taken note of the assessment criteria in my planning for my work so that I can gain marks for all the various elements listed in those criteria?
• Does my topic include a clear geographical component?
In a ‘Geographical Assignment' does my topic fit within the limits specified for the year I am submitting my work?
• Is the scale of my topic appropriate, being neither too narrow (e.g. one farm, or one company), nor too wide (e.g. a whole county or a large city, unless my chosen aspect of that larger area is very specific)?
Can I define my study area clearly on a map?
• Can I define the core of my topic in a few words either in the form of a question, or as a relationship to be examined?
Does that form the basis of the title I shall give my topic?
• Have I made sure that my topic links up with some part of the A Level Specification I am studying?
Can I briefly make that link in the introduction to my Enquiry along with some reference to relevant reading to provide some broader context to my more limited topic?
• Will the topic allow me to collect sufficient primary data – normally by fieldwork observation, measurement, or questionnaire – as the basis for the analysis which is an essential part of the Enquiry?
Will I have the expertise and time to collect the type and amount of data needed to produce worthwhile and reliable results?
• Have I considered the benefits of collecting data from two or three different sources, some field-based, and others based on primary official sources (like the population census, or river authority data), but which complement each other?
Could I focus more on one of those data sources at the expense of the others should it seem to be offering a more rewarding approach?
• If I have some doubts about the practicality, or scope, of some of the fieldwork I am planning to do, have I built some flexibility into my topic to allow me to modify its focus, or aim, or methods, as the fieldwork proceeds?
• Have I fully considered all safety implications of my fieldwork for myself and any others working with me?
Where any of the fieldwork places myself (or others) at risk, have I considered alternative ways of reducing that risk?
• Have I tried out the equipment and methods I plan to use in the field to collect my field data so that I am confident that I know how to use the equipment, and that there will be no major obstacles to applying those methods?
• Will the equipment and transport required for the data collection be available for the whole period I need it?
Can I gain easy access to the field site and to any other data sources I plan to use?
Where prior permission is needed at the field site (such as questioning shoppers at a supermarket entrance) have I obtained this?
If I need to interview officials have I checked that they will meet with me and provide the sort of information I need?
• Have I discussed and agreed my topic and methods with my tutor?
Have I completed Sections 1-6 of the Tracking Sheet?
• Have I drawn up a timetable to ensure that I can complete each part of the fieldwork programme in the available time, leaving time both for analysis of the collected data, and for the collection of any extra field data that becomes necessary, before the final analysis and writing-up begins?
• Am I clear on how to use any field equipment I need so as to ensure I get reliable results from it?
• Have I obtained maps of my study area at an appropriate scale?
Have I constructed (e.g. by tracing or by photocopy enlargment, or other appropriate means) any base maps I shall need in the field for entering data directly onto them?
• Have I drawn appropriate recording sheets for use in the field, and have I given them a trial run to ensure that they will allow me to record the whole range of data that I shall need to collect?
• If I am using a questionnaire, have I piloted it – and where necessary modified it following that trial run – to ensure that respondents understand, and can give clear answers to the questions I am putting to them?
Did the trial run lead me to identify additional questions that I should be asking respondents, and have I incorporated them into the revised questionnaire sheet?
On the basis of the experience of that trial run have I obtained a better idea of the size of sample that will be necessary for reliable results and the time needed to complete that sample?
• Have I a clear idea of the techniques I am likely to use in the analysis of my field data?
Have I allowed in my fieldwork programme for the sampling requirements in the application of those techniques, such as minimum sample size, or fully random samples, which could influence how I collect my field data?
• Have I completed discussions on the shape and progress of my Enquiry with my tutor? Have I filled in Section 8 of the Tracking Sheet to reflect this and handed the sheet to my tutor?
• Have my first steps in the analysis suggested to me that I have sufficient data for both reliable and worthwhile conclusions?
• If I now decide that I need more data, will I be able to collect it in such a way that it will be comparable with what I already have?
• Have I ensured that each analytical technique I use will advance my understanding of the data?
Do I accept that there is little point in using a series of techniques the last of which tells me no more about the data than the earlier ones I used?
• Have I analysed my data as fully as is necessary to achieve my aim and am I confident that the analytical techniques I am using are appropriate to the type and amount of data I have?
• Where I am using statistical techniques, have I observed the restrictions on their use and the way that results from them can be interpreted (e.g. in terms of levels of significance)?
• By the end of this stage in preparing my Enquiry, have I constructed (at least in rough) all the diagrams and other illustrative materials I plan to use?
Have I selected those I shall use in my final writing up of the work? Am I confident that none of them simply replicate each other?
• Is my aim clearly stated at the start of the Enquiry?
• Have I made some link between my Enquiry and a broader part of Geography, with which it can be shown to be associated, in the Introduction?
Should I also refer to that link in some later part of the Enquiry?
• Have I clearly described the methods I used in the fieldwork, and justified the choice of those methods?
Have I briefly outlined (with the aid of a map at an appropriate scale) the area in which my study is located?
• Have I made reference at appropriate points in the text to my diagrams and maps so that they form an integral part of the Enquiry?
Have I checked that what I have written in the text does not anywhere contradict the information displayed by the diagrams and other illustrative material?
• Are the interpretations I have drawn from the data valid?
Where my data does not give me the results I was expecting have I attempted to explain why this occurred?
Have I examined, and tried to account for, anomalies in any of my results?
• Have I summarised my results in a concluding section and have I linked the conclusions back to my original aim?
Have I, in the concluding section, indicated how far I have been able to achieve my original aim?
Have I also written an Evaluation, stating shortcomings, which I recognise in my work, and how, looking back, they might have been lessened?
• Have I checked with my tutor that the Tracking Sheet and the Assessment and Authentication Sheets have been attached to the study?
• Have I carefully read through the whole Enquiry before handing it to my tutor to ensure that no pages have got displaced or mislaid, that typing and spelling errors have been corrected, and that all pages are numbered?
• Have I ensured that the running text sections total to no more than the 3500 words allowed?
If I have exceeded that word limit have I considered some editing to ensure that I am not penalised for exceeding the permitted length?
• Have I drawn up a front page giving the Enquiry's title, my name, centre and candidate number, a simple list of the Enquiry's sections (with page numbers) and a signed declaration of the total number of words used?
• Have I included (as the second page of the Enquiry) a Synopsis or Abstract, of about 100 words briefly summarising the aim, methods and main findings?
• Have I created a page of references at the end of the Enquiry, listing books and other publications referred to, and acknowledging help from other sources (e.g. officials contacted, field assistants)?
• If I used questionnaires, or other sheets drawn up for recording my field data, have I included a sample copy of each in an Appendix?
• Is the whole study presented on A4 paper and firmly held together in a soft cover or clipped into an envelope-type folder so that it will not break open in the post, or with other handling? Individual sheets must not be placed in plastic covers.