Electronic publications.

Internet sources

ANN, J., (2011). Who pays the Queen of England? Why do they still have a monarchy, and do they have jobs to pay for the big wedding of William and Kate? [online]. SodaHead. Available at: http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/who-pays-the-queen-of-england-why-do-they-still-have-a-monarchy-and-do-they-have-jobs-to-pay-for-t/question-1544679/ [Accessed: 22 January 2013].

DANKER, G., (2012). Do We Really Need the Monarchy? [online]. The BLOG. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/the-cambridge-union-society/monarchy-do-we-really-need-it_b_1641067.html [Accessed: 16 January 2013].

DONNA, (2007). Why does England even HAVE a monarchy still? [online]. Yahoo answers. Available at: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070831174425AA4sAKj [Accessed: 22 January 2013].

EASTON, M., (2012). Why does the UK love the monarchy? [online]. BBC News UK. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18237280 [Accessed: 22 January 2013].

GLOVER, J., (2011). Monarchy still broadly relevant, Britons say [online]. The Guardian. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/24/monarchy-still-relevant-say-britons [Accessed: 20 January 2013].

JACKER, S., (2008). Does Britain still need a monarchy? [online]. Yahoo! Inc. . Available at: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080712134229AAJgfXa [Accessed: 20 January 2013].

JENKINS, S., (2011). What’s the point of the monarchy? [online]. Prospect. Available at: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/what%e2%80%99s-the-point-of-the-monarchy/ [Accessed: 17 January 2013].

MAC LEOD, H., (2012). The British monarchy in 2012 – is it important or not? [online]. You Gov plc. . Available at: http://yougov.co.uk/news/2012/05/28/british-monarchy-2012-it-important-or-not/ [Accessed: 17 January 2013].

PENDLETON, D., VORASASUN, C., VON ZEPPELIN, C., SERAFIN, T., (2008). The Top 15 Wealthiest Royals [online]. Forbes.com. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/global/2008/0901/038.html [Accessed: 2 January 2013].

SMITH, M., (2012). Does Britain still need a monarchy? [online]. The.squabble.com. Available at: http://thesquabble.com/politics/does-britain-still-need-the-royal-family/ [Accessed: 10 January 2013].

Internet sources if no author is mentioned

BBC, (2008). Should we have a monarchy? [online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/studentlife/debate/2008/46_shouldwehaveamonarchy.shtml [Accessed: 22 January 2013].

DEBATEWISE.ORG, (N/A). Should Britain scrap the monarchy? [online]. Available at: http://debatewise.org/debates/1835-should-britain-scrap-the-monarchy/ [Accessed: 24 January 2013].

EDUCATION SERVICE, (N/A). The monarch and parliament [online]. Available at: http://www.parliament.uk/education/online-resources/parliament-explained/monarch-and-parliament/ [Accessed: 10 January 2013].

HISTORY-TIMELINES.ORG, (2013). Timeline of English Monarchs (1066 – Present Day) [online]. Available at: http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/people-timelines/31-timeline-of-english-monarchs.htm [Accessed: 10 January 2013].

POLITICS.CO.UK, (2013). Monarchy [online]. Available at: http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/monarchy [Accessed: 24 January 2013].

ROYAL HOUSEHOLD AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE, (2008). The role of the monarchy [online].Available at: http://www.royal.gov.uk/monarchuk/howthemonarchyworks/howthemonarchyworks.aspx [Accessed: 10 January 2012].

SOCIALIST WORKER, (2011). Does a monarchy make a difference? [online]. Available at: http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24617 [Accessed: 22 January 2013].

Evaluation

My project achieved the intended outcome in that I managed to find more weight in the arguments for a monarchy than those against. However there are some parts in my project that I could have done better.

When deciding the topic for my extended project I had to consider some important factors like the relevance of the topic to my current and future studies and personal interest. As I study Economics, Politics, Maths and Accounting A-levels I thought that my project title must be anything connected to those subjects. I also considered my future study: Government and Politics faculty at university. Looking at those factors initially I thought about writing a project about the economic situation of my country. Initially I thought that it would be an interesting topic to write about which it actually is, referring to that my personal interest was huge about this topic because I would like to make a proper research about the situation of my country today, however later I recognised that it is a much wider and spread issue than I thought it was. Hence, I had to think of something smaller and more specific. I then remembered that there is a constitutional monarchy in the UK and it would be interesting to investigate the issue of relevance of the monarchy today. This was an effective choice of title because it satisfied all of my requirements which were, firstly, being relevant to my current subjects at college – Economics and Politics, and the future study – Government and Economics, and secondly, my personal interest in the subject was huge, as I study in the country where this topic has been relevant all the way through many centuries and has become an issue for a number of debates between the monarchists and the republicans.

I have learnt from this research that the monarchy is important for British nation politically, economically and socially. I now know that the Royal family gives happiness to the nation, therefore I think it is important for the British to have the monarchy. But I also learnt that economically it is not as important as socially and that the British taxpayers spend a huge amount of money for the Royal family which is not that fair. In my conclusion I support the existence monarchy because it is the national symbol without which the British will not be same.

The most important part of my research was my primary research. Even though I have had only two personal talks to specialists in politics and history, I was lucky to have them both with different points of view so that I could investigate the question from both the monarchist and the republican sides. Hence I could evaluate the information given by the interviewees and decide what I thought. Another reason why I think the primary research was the most effective part is that I could rely on the given by the specialists’ because they have read extensively about British politics and have strong arguments to support their opinions. Moreover they are the inhabitants of the UK so they were giving me the answers relying on their personal views as well what is important as I wanted to know how the monarchy affects the lives of ordinary people as well.

The parts of my project which worked well are the introduction and the literature review, because I found them easiest to write. As I read a lot about the monarchy during my secondary research it was not hard for me to introduce the reader to the topic of monarchy using simple facts and some definitions from the sources I have found. The literature review was done well too, because I simply needed to put the information I have found from the secondary research in order so that it could explain the positives and the negatives of the monarchy.

Even though I am satisfied with the work I have done all the way through creating my project, there are some parts of the project that I wish I could have done differently. One of them was conducting my secondary research. As this is the first project I have ever done, while evaluating the information found I did not put all the words into my own, because I did not realize that it would be much easier for me to paraphrase the information during the secondary research and not when it comes to writing the literature review. Therefore I spent a considerable amount of time reading again and paraphrasing the information. A similar situation happened while creating the actual essay. I should have created a plan of organising the paragraphs by topic because when I started writing the essay I found the information difficult to organise logically and I then needed to put it in order which also took more time than it could have taken if I had planned sufficiently.

My time management was not as perfect as I wanted it to be. That was mainly because of the lessons that I have had apart from the Extended Project and the exam preparation for the other lessons. I was also not realistic while creating the project plan so I did not always meet the deadlines in time. I found myself unusually organised at the end of my project. That was because of a high pressure was put on me in the end. In the future I will need to try to find a way for pushing me forward, so that my time management will improve.

From this project I have learnt to manage time: I understood that it is important to be realistic whenever investigating something or even just preparing for exams. The reason for this is that while being realistic it is easier to start on time and not be late at the end. I also learnt to write essay without using informal language, so I think that my English level has risen. I learnt to find relevant information and to determine whether the information is biased and has any assumptions. I learnt how to work with internet sources: finding the publishers, authors and the dates published of the information in the source. I now know how to work on projects of different types because of the presentations given by my classmates, who have done design and performance as well.

I have found that I am good at finding relevant information, because I have used information from almost all of my twenty one evaluations of sources. Unfortunately I found that I need to improve my time management skills. Meeting deadlines was the most difficult aspect.

I think that the results of my research are quite reliable because I have looked at a wide range of sources involving a wide range of time – from 1066 to the present day. I have had personal talks with specialists who gave me reliable information as specialists could give me as much reasonable opinions as they could. I tried to put the information in my essay without changing the meaning and I think that I managed to do that well.

I think that my conclusion is reliable because I have tried to look as objectively as I could at the arguments for and against so that I could give a reasoned answer to the question.

This project has helped me in many aspects of understanding the issue of monarchy. I have looked at many poll data, personal views of the British and have interviewed specialists. I have investigated a long timeline so that I could clearly see the monarchy developing through time. Now I have a much wider concept of what monarchy is and why it still exists.

It is easier for some skills like time management and academic language to develop while writing essays or projects. Hence, this project has helped to improve my academic English language skills and taught me to manage my time carefully.

This project will be useful for my future studies as I want to do Government and Economics faculty at university so this is an important addition to my studies in preparing to enter the university.

Plan

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 457