Word limit in Geography project

AxlRose1992

The word limit in the Geography project is 1,000 words, but are they really strict on that. I'm quite a bit over 1,000, and was wondering if they will seriously penalize me. I've written it into the official booklet, but I could re-do it and order another one. If they can only deduct a small number of marks, I figure it'll be worth my while keeping it over the limit.

My history project is 1,700 words (1,500 is limit) and my teacher said just put down 1,600 words on front of the booklet and it'll be grand, so will same do for Geography?

Zephyr91

1000 words is the limit??? My teacher is telling us to fill up space! I reckon I have 1000 words so far, and I haven't even started the conclusions yet! *facepalm* A limit like that is ridiculous.

AxlRose1992

Well, the booklet is split up into Introduction (50 words maximum), Planning (100 words max.), Gathering of Info (450 words max.), Results (400 words max.). Total is 1,000 words.

Zephyr91

AxlRose1992 wrote: »

Well, the booklet is split up into Introduction (50 words maximum), Planning (100 words max.), Gathering of Info (450 words max.), Results (400 words max.). Total is 1,000 words.

Well if that's the case they provide way too much space. It kinda makes you feel that you have to fill it all up, because it looks weak otherwise. Big writing would do the job, but if it's too big it would look stupid.

Offside

I went well over last year and wasn't penalised. 1,000 words is far to little to do a good project imo.

AxlRose1992

Offside wrote: »

I went well over last year and wasn't penalised. 1,000 words is far to little to do a good project imo.

How many words did you do??

gant0

10% over the limit is no problem for each section but any more and they might deduct marks.You'll only be penalised tho if your project is one of the ones randomly selected for a word count and only if it's over will you be deducted.The reason they give you a word count is that they don't want an essay,they wanna see if you can get across all the relevant information in a limited amount of words(like a real field study),so i'd advise you don't excede it by a MAX 100 words or your putting it down to chance to be checked or not.

DancingQueen:)

I havn't written in my booklet yet but practised writing the gathering of information in sample one. I wrote over 700 words (as did the rest of my class) and I had lines to spare. My teacher corrected it saying that it was fine but wanted me to fill the rest and said it doesn't matter if you go over.

AxlRose1992

I think I'll leave it. After finishing it, my word count comes to 1,400 words with my Gathering of Info at around 700 words.

Shanotheslayer

According to my geography teacher, is is awesome might I add. They are strict on the word limit, I plan to do either just on 1000 words or less. Words in diagrams don't count so we were told to write as much as possible in diagrams.

Cian92

Our teacher was saying once it fits in the booklet you won't be deducted. I reckon I am close to 1800 but I'll just right down 1100 or that way on the front.

manic mailman

I'm only going by my mad geography teachers example but the way she put it, they can be very harsh on the word count. Are you all including diagrams also because I was told too...dpends on who you get your booklet corrected by though also...you have to be carefull.....To the person who has 1800 words I'd definitely recommend cutting way down there, sound like you've too much filler in your writing. Hope this helps I remeber how badly those write-up's drag on

Lawliet

manic mailman wrote: »

I'm only going by my mad geography teachers example but the way she put it, they can be very harsh on the word count. Are you all including diagrams also because I was told too

I was told not to; both geography teachers at my school told me not to count diagrams, numbers, labels, titles or references (like fig.1 etc).

It's best to stick as much to the word count as possible, I suspect they might crack down on projects a lot this year after the recent cheating scandal, and you don't want to lose easy marks. If you're going over 1100 words then you're probably waffling, something which any experienced examiner will be able to spot a mile off and it won't get you any marks. Keep it straight forward and factual.

furbey

Don't waffle in the booklet but the word count means nothing ignore it and put down 998 or 999 in the wordcount space.

Don't crush anything into the bottom of the page - be economical in your phrasing at the same time:)

I was well over the count last year but still had nice layout
Lost no marks for it

furbey

I suspect they might crack down on projects a lot this year after the recent cheating scandal, and you don't want to lose easy marks. If you're going over 1100 words then you're probably waffling, something which any experienced examiner will be able to spot a mile off and it won't get you any marks. Keep it straight forward and factual.

What cheating scandal?????
I never heard anything about that.

Lawliet

furbey wrote: »

What cheating scandal?????
I never heard anything about that.

It was with the construction studies projects, a group of twenty-two students were caught copying parts of their projects straight from the internet, and they ended up getting no marks for their projects.
There was a report published that basically advised students to stick to the regulations for projects, which could mean a crack down -on things like going over the maximum word count- on all projects.

Offside

AxlRose1992 wrote: »

How many words did you do??

Think it was about 1500. I had about a page left at the end empty, teacher said it was a good idea to write small and leave a page at the end, anyway my project got 94 or something when i checked it so nothin deducted for words anyway

Bob the Builder

An examiner will penalise you according to the marking scheme. At the end of the day, this is their bible: http://examinations.ie/archive/markingschemes/2009/LC005ALP000EV.pdf
(see page 33-35 on the booklet pagemarks for geographical investigation).

Sticking to the word limit is comes partially under the term "coherence". There are 20 marks going for coherence. There is 100 marks up for grabs for the whole investigation overall. I imagine about 10marks is what the examiner will put towards the adherence to word count, which is 10% of the 'geographical investigation'.

In truth, it would appear that we should be worrying about addressing the required number of SRP's (Significant Relevant Points) per section rather than word count.

Kinky Slinky

My geography teacher said not to go over 1050 words in the whole thing,Hes friends with one of the chief examiners and he said you will lose marks if you go over it.Previous years people were writing way to much and half of it was waffle.I heard they are supposed to be marking the leaving cert harder this year because of the Intel thing and the extra students, so i'd say they will be watching the word count this year.Anyone could easily write 2500 words for the project, but you have to remember these have to be corrected in a set amount of time and if your booklet is taking longer than the others,the corrector might get pissed off and deduct marks from you booklet.The corrector is only looking for key words/phrases and doesn't care about if you have written a brilliant paragraph about how you class decided to pick the investigation

irish_man

so can you get 100% in the project??

i cant see where you could lose marks bar the word limit and SRPs

Bob the Builder

irish_man wrote: »

so can you get 100% in the project??

i cant see where you could lose marks bar the word limit and SRPs

Technically yes. You just have to exploit the marking scheme. At best, if you try hard enough, you won't lose anymore than 20%.

fuzzel

This is veering off topic slightly but can anyone tell me how they've been told to write up the gathering of information section?

My teacher told me that it wasa good idea to write in the first names of the people who were in my group and that how I've done it in my draft. Unfortunatly it now looks like a 3 year old wrote it

Kinky Slinky

fuzzel wrote: »

This is veering off topic slightly but can anyone tell me how they've been told to write up the gathering of information section?

My teacher told me that it wasa good idea to write in the first names of the people who were in my group and that how I've done it in my draft. Unfortunatly it now looks like a 3 year old wrote it

I , We ,We divided into groups - One group did ...

DancingQueen:)

fuzzel wrote: »

This is veering off topic slightly but can anyone tell me how they've been told to write up the gathering of information section?

My teacher told me that it wasa good idea to write in the first names of the people who were in my group and that how I've done it in my draft. Unfortunatly it now looks like a 3 year old wrote it

I was told to do that to. I gave it up to my teacher to correct it and she told me to change everywhere I wrote 'we' to 'I'. Like instead of saying we measured the gradient I have to say I asked Amy and Alex to help me measure the gradient etc. I thought it was a little weird..

hup123

bit off the point but it's still project! does the cross section profile of the river have to be drawn in a certain way? like should the x axis be at the top of the page and the depth measurements hang down off it or does it matter if its the other way around!!

Lawliet

DancingQueen:) wrote: »

I was told to do that to. I gave it up to my teacher to correct it and she told me to change everywhere I wrote 'we' to 'I'. Like instead of saying we measured the gradient I have to say I asked Amy and Alex to help me measure the gradient etc. I thought it was a little weird..

Yeah I felt weird about naming people, so I just stuck to 'my classmate' or 'another student'

DancingQueen:)

Lawliet wrote: »

Yeah I felt weird about naming people, so I just stuck to 'my classmate' or 'another student'

I was told not to or else :P
Speaking of word limit I just handed my booklet in yesterday and it is roughly 2500 words but my teacher said it was fine.

gant0

DancingQueen:) wrote: »

I was told not to or else :P
Speaking of word limit I just handed my booklet in yesterday and it is roughly 2500 words but my teacher said it was fine.

If they check that,well lets just say your gonna be docked marks straight away.....I finished mine got 1077 words counting every 2-3 small words as one...Probably actually have nearly 1200 but I'l write down 986 or something:D

Lawliet

1010 words: f*ck yeah!

DancingQueen:)

gant0 wrote: »

If they check that,well lets just say your gonna be docked marks straight away.....I finished mine got 1077 words counting every 2-3 small words as one...Probably actually have nearly 1200 but I'l write down 986 or something:D

Most likely true but I filled in tons on practise booklets and my teacher kept telling me to add in other things and write smaller to fit everything in. She told me to write as much as I could so that's why there's so many words. No-one in my class has under 1000 I don't mind if I lose a few marks though, it's grand other than that.

RoRoCullen

I have like 100 over! I don't care they DONT deduct marks! ( YET.)