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A timeline

Year 11. Terms 1, 2 and 3: Read critical essays on artists, groups, theoreticians, etc. taking notes on their structure, approach, language, interpretations and presentation.
Choose a topic area and draft a specific question or statement about this area that you want to research and analyse. If you have a difficulty ascertaining a specific area of study ask your teacher for help. Do a research report on this area, fulfilling the criteria but perhaps with a reduced word count and ask your teacher to read and comment on its effectiveness. Remember, you cannot use this for your HSC project but it is a sure fire way to find out whether you want to explore this area in your HSC! Perhaps, given that you cannot use this research report in your HSC as it is a preliminary trial run, you can choose a topic that you have studied in Preliminary Drama or in one of your other preliminary subjects. However, it is essential to note that in your actual HSC project you cannot study or research an area or topic you are currently studying in Drama or any of your other subjects.

Year 11. Term 4. With your teacher or advisor, brainstorm topics of interest that you may want to explore in your Applied Research Report. Make specific statements about what you wish to explore or examine in these topic areas, perhaps writing a smaller draft of your rationale. This will guide you in the area of research and study you need to take for each topic. Look up resources on these areas and find out if there are enough resources for you to be able to examine these topics in depth and detail. Delete any topics that do not have adequate or accessible resources as they will prove difficult to research and analyse sufficiently. Decide from your remaining list which topic you will research and the specific area of study you will examine. Gather your resources. Start reading, thoroughly researching and synthesising information.

Christmas holidays and Year 12, Term 1: Finish researching, summarising and synthesising. Put your information into a usable sequence. Analyse your collected information, drawing conclusions relating to your specific area of study. Draft your project.

Year 12, Term 2: Edit and redraft. Write your finished rationale. Polish project. Present it according to the criteria and set structure.

Checkpoints:

Do I have an interest in researching a particular area of drama or theatre?
What specifically can I explore in these areas of interest?
What resources are available for me to use?
How much wide reading do I need to be able to make informed conclusions about my project’s topic?
Is my rationale clear and appropriate?
Have I expressed myself clearly in the project itself?
Do I rely too much on the research and not enough on my own analysis?
What outcomes have I reached after my research?
Are my sources varied?
Is my topic too general?
Are my language skills of a high enough standard?
Do I have access to a computer so I can type, edit and draft my project?
Have I given myself enough time to read all of my resources?
Have I fulfilled the criteria and put all my information and conclusions into the appropriately titled sections?
Have I written enough or too much? How much editing do I still have to do?

Tips:

Decide on your specific area of study early. This does not mean throughout the course of your research it may not change slightly or that you may not take a new direction with your piece, but it will be paramount in assuring that you are on target with the overall direction your research needs to take.
Collect your resources early and start synthesising your material. This will hopefully stop you choosing a project that is impossible to collect resources on.
Have a back-up area of study in case for any reason you need to change or refocus your area of research.
Constantly return to your rationale and hypothesis. If you cannot write a rationale it is a good sign that your project lacks focus and this is going to cause big problems later on. A clear rationale will ensure a clear focus for your work.
Keep a list of all the resources you use or need. It is often an unfortunate reality that students will spend valuable time trying to track down a book that they saw earlier that will be beneficial to their project but they can’t remember the name of it!
Use plenty of resources (but not too many that you have too much to synthesise). You should set a target early on of how many resources you need to make adequate conclusions, depending on your area of research. Be prepared to stop researching when you have amassed more information than you know what to do with!
Be prepared to edit ruthlessly. Although you want to impress the marker with all the research you have done, the examiner does not need to wade through repetitive or irrelevant information that does not directly support your focus. All of your research that is culled in the editing process should go in your logbook and the examiner will see all your hard work there.
Vary your resources. Don’t just stick to texts if you have access to other relevant resources such as interviews, practical trials, statistics and diagrams.
It is the quality of your research, analysis and conclusions that are integral to your success in this project. Do not waste needless time with pretty hand drawn borders and the like. Although presentation is important, pretty borders do not compensate for a poor quality project.
Keep your logbook up to date. Put all research and drafts within your log and constantly consult with your teacher to make sure your language and hypotheses are on track.

A list of pitfalls:
Students fall into these traps:

Thinking they have plenty of time and not deciding on a topic until it is too late to research adequately.
Not having a clear direction of what specifically they are going to research and therefore writing a general research report with no analysis and conclusions.
Copying, or more harshly recognised as plagiarising, from a text and therefore not presenting their own ideas. This is a real danger as passing someone else’s work off as your own may have serious consequences.
Not presenting a clear rationale. It is imperative that your examiner knows your intent in this project.
Trying to cover too much in the project and therefore not being able to give a clear analysis and the topic itself is too broad.
Not using enough resources and relying too much on one or two sources.
Using inappropriate language. Your ability to use a wide vocabulary and formal structure is one of the areas of assessment.
Not tying your research and conclusions together. Your conclusions and analysis need to be borne out of your research. If you make conclusions that do not seem to correlate with the information you have presented in your project it will be difficult to ascertain how you made your conclusions. The two (research and analysis) need to work in conjunction. They must be related or one or the other will seem irrelevant.

Critical Analysis: Applied Research Project