EPQ

[dbgtz]

Has anyone done one of these? I'm being forced by my college to do something within a given list and this seems like the best option, but I'm not sure what I can do on it and what I would need to do.

[Mathew]

I've done mine! I started my research back in June-July 2011 and started the essay at the beginning of August before I went on holiday. I did my presentation just after Christmas and the Production Log I finished about a month ago, so I'm all done and dusted now!

You should do it on something you're interested in - and it can be anything at all. I'd try to make it an investigation, so pose a question which you can answer rather than just spouting off knowledge; it should be an interesting, analytical and evaluative debate. I choose to answer the question: "Are regional accents dying out?" - it's best to keep the question brief because you'll be surprised about how much research you can come across. If you are stuck for words though, you can branch off into lots of different sections.

I started by looking online at and I found some news articles which had discussed the topic. I then ordered a couple of books from the British Library and took notes from them. I spent a morning at the University of Leeds Library where I looked in two more books and took notes. I also emailed a linguist called Paul Foulkes who wrote one of the books I found useful - it turns out that he was currently at the University of York, so he invited me down on 1st August 2011 for an informal chat to discuss the issue. Dominic Watt, another linguist, was there too so it was quite nice to have two people who know the field like the back of their hand help me out. It looks really good when you put the production log together too!

After that meeting, I came straight home and just wrote the large bulk of my essay - 5000 isn't a lot when you get going. I was going on holiday a couple of days later, so I guess I wanted to get it done too, haha.

If you have any specific questions then just post and I'll try to answer. We were all given an AQA EPQ Handbook which answers most questions, so I'll take a look if I don't know the answer! :D
Good luck!

[dbgtz]

I've done mine! I started my research back in June-July 2011 and started the essay at the beginning of August before I went on holiday. I did my presentation just after Christmas and the Production Log I finished about a month ago, so I'm all done and dusted now!

You should do it on something you're interested in - and it can be anything at all. I'd try to make it an investigation, so pose a question which you can answer rather than just spouting off knowledge; it should be an interesting, analytical and evaluative debate. I choose to answer the question: "Are regional accents dying out?" - it's best to keep the question brief because you'll be surprised about how much research you can come across. If you are stuck for words though, you can branch off into lots of different sections.

I started by looking online at and I found some news articles which had discussed the topic. I then ordered a couple of books from the British Library and took notes from them. I spent a morning at the University of Leeds Library where I looked in two more books and took notes. I also emailed a linguist called Paul Foulkes who wrote one of the books I found useful - it turns out that he was currently at the University of York, so he invited me down on 1st August 2011 for an informal chat to discuss the issue. Dominic Watt, another linguist, was there too so it was quite nice to have two people who know the field like the back of their hand help me out. It looks really good when you put the production log together too!

After that meeting, I came straight home and just wrote the large bulk of my essay - 5000 isn't a lot when you get going. I was going on holiday a couple of days later, so I guess I wanted to get it done too, haha.

If you have any specific questions then just post and I'll try to answer. We were all given an AQA EPQ Handbook which answers most questions, so I'll take a look if I don't know the answer! :D
Good luck!

Well, one thing I want to know is that does it have to be an actual essay like you done? Or can I do something more pratical. I mean, I read the AQA thing but it didn't really seem to explain what you can and cannot do, just more marking and why you should do it.

Also, when you were doing it, did you have to sit in a classroom at a specific time as if it was a lesson, completely independent or a bit of both? I assume my college would follow the same route so I might aswell ask :L

[Mr-Trainor]

Everyone in my college has to do one in the first year, and I've been working on mine for about a month now.


Well, one thing I want to know is that does it have to be an actual essay like you done? Or can I do something more pratical. I mean, I read the AQA thing but it didn't really seem to explain what you can and cannot do, just more marking and why you should do it.

Also, when you were doing it, did you have to sit in a classroom at a specific time as if it was a lesson, completely independent or a bit of both? I assume my college would follow the same route so I might aswell ask :L
You can do something more practical, but then you still have to do an essay along with it - just not the full 5000 words. I have lessons for it once a week, and there's about 10 people in each class.

[Mathew]

Well, one thing I want to know is that does it have to be an actual essay like you done? Or can I do something more pratical. I mean, I read the AQA thing but it didn't really seem to explain what you can and cannot do, just more marking and why you should do it.

Also, when you were doing it, did you have to sit in a classroom at a specific time as if it was a lesson, completely independent or a bit of both? I assume my college would follow the same route so I might aswell ask :L
Nope it can be something practical. Someone last year did a fashion show - she organised the venue, tickets, costumes, etc and ended up doing really well with it. It all depends on how much time you really want to put into it, although I do think an essay is probably the best option. I'm not sure whether she did an essay along with it, but she did the presentation! :)

Our lesson periods are only 30 minutes long, so we just had a 30 minute slot each week. All the research and essay writing was done in our own time though, the lessons were just to discuss progress and talk about skills which may be important during the process. One week we were talking about time management for example, then another week it was about how to do effective research... and then another week was about referencing, etc. We always discussed how the skills learnt in the project may help us at university and beyond. Whilst it does seem quite generic and cheesy on the surface, they were useful lessons because they pretty much told you the kind of things you should be talking about in the production log. :)

[cocaine]

mine was about the impact of filesharing on the music industry. enjoyed it.

[dbgtz]

So, if I were to do something computing related, such as program some sort of system? How related would it need to be? I mean I despise the language I am being taught in my actual lesson, it's so old and their reason is basically that were too ******ed enough to understand the use of symbols rather then words.

Also thanks for all the help, I'll +rep sometime when I'm bothered (not that rep actually means much nowadays, but still).

[Mathew]

Ooooh that's interesting. I don't know of anyone who's decided to design a program for the EPQ so just go see your EPQ Co-ordinator. Every centre should have an overall co-ordinator who oversees the whole operation, then we were split into groups of four or five with individual supervisors. I'm sure if you push it and you're certain that you can do a good job then they'd be happy enough to let you do it, but you will need to explain the whole process in your production log. You'd still need to gather some information from somewhere, so perhaps carry out some market research then have the program fit it. Then of course in your presentation you'd have to explain what skills you learnt from doing it, etc.