Weekly Project Log

WEEKLY
PROJECT LOG
A RECORD OF THE TASKS , DECISIONS AND ACTIONS TAKEN TO COMPLETE MY PROJECT
OVER THE COURSE OF THE YEAR .

Week
beginning
13 January
2014

Main tasks completed

Comments

Think of and refine title,

start planning project

20 January
2014

Start research on
researching. Finish mind
map planning. Arrange first
1:1 meeting with supervisor.

27 January
2014

Start production log, Gantt

chart, project proposal.

03 February
2014

Re-asses title. Complete

initial planning and project
proposal part A. Start
gathering and recording
sources for research.

10 February
2014

Continue to gather research.

Record sources carefully,

Attended initial presentation about the Extended Project

Qualification, met supervisor. Decided to produce a
written report instead of an artefact. Put onto paper all my
different ideas for general topics and titles for each of
these. Quickly firmly decided to base project on
cyberwarfare. Started drawing up initial ideas in this topic
in a mind map. Decided that my title will be "Cyber
and electronic warfare between China and the
United States, and their respective allies.
Attended lecture on research. Learnt about using key word
search terms, searching academic sources using college
accounts and Harvard Referencing. Learnt to evaluate
and rate sources e.g. bias, accuracy, and date of
publication. Contacted supervisor to arrange initial 1:1
meeting time.
Attended lecture on planning and keeping track. How to
create, maintain and use production log and Gantt charts.
Had first 1:1 meeting with supervisor on Thursday. He
expressed concerns that there may not be enough
information out there on my chosen title. He also
suggested that I visit my college's library to find books on
the topic or to arrange inter-library loans. Other things
which I took from the meeting were that I need to
complete my record of initial planning and attach
the mind map which I have created as an accompanying
document, and there are also resources on our college's
internal intranet which I can use.
Attended lecture on evaluating the reliability and accuracy
of sources. For example, the bias of specific newspapers
like the Daily Mail and the Guardian. Also, I was told that
it is the range and use of my sources which is marked, not
the quantity of them. I was also shown how to evaluate
sources in my Resource Log. I have re-assessed my title
and I have changed it to: Will cyberwarfare
become the primary method of war in the future?
Attended lecture on interviewing people and creating and
analysing surveys for primary research. This included
Extended Project 2014 | Maurice Yap 6946

Weekly Project Log

start bibliography.
17 February
2014

Half term. Continue

researching.

24 February
2014

Gather more and refine

sources. Become more
familiar with topic.

03 March 2014

Gather more sources.

10 March 2014

Gather more sources. Begin

to create bibliography.

17 March 2014

Categorise sources. Gather

more sources. Complete
Planning Review section of
Production Log.

24 March 2014

Gather more sources,

categorise as I go.

31 March 2014

Administration.

07 April 2014
14 April 2014

None.

21 April 2014
28 April 2014
05 May 2014
12 May 2014
19 May 2014

learning about the ethics, rules and conventions with

interviewing people, as well as how to create successful
questionnaires and surveys.
Gathered more research sources. Because many of my
sources are websites, I have decided to electronically
capture them by printing them into a PDF document or
downloading videos from YouTube. For previous
experience, I know that websites and other online content
can frequently change, disappear or become permanently
deleted by the creator or web host.
Had meeting with supervisor. We discussed my title and
its phrasing. He said it could be very hard to answer as I
would need to look broadly at other forms of warfare (e.g.
conventional land warfare, nuclear), and any conclusion
would be too speculative. Again, I have changed my title.
It is now: What is cyberwarfare and to what extent
does it pose a significant threat to world security
and the future of humanity? As well as this, we also
decided that it would not be appropriate or needed to use
primary research (e.g. questionnaires) as this probably
wouldn't be much help to me.
I had a lecture about using the Harvard Referencing
technique and how this should be done correctly for
different forms of media and types of sources. I spent this
week gathering more sources and continues to read about
the topic, so I can become more familiar with it.
I gathered more sources this week and used the
referencing feature on Microsoft Word to create metadata
tags for each of my sources. They include standardised
data fields, like date, author and title, which will be
automatically be inserted into my bibliography and as
references in my main text in the correct format.
I decided upon the structure and contents of my essay.
This enabled me to devise a coded list of areas and topics
which I need to research. I have used this to categorise all
my sources by the part(s) of my essay they are relevant to.
This has allowed me to organise my sources. I created an
Overall Structure Plan document. The planning
review was completed in the AQA project log.
I gathered more and a larger variety of sources. I have put
a tally next to each of my sections to identify which topics
I need to gain more sources for.
I met with my supervisor to discuss my production log and
my progress so far, and what I intend to do next. He
condoned putting the project on hold in order to focus on
my more important AS exams. I also need to complete my
mid-project review.
Easter holidays. I decided not to do any work on my
project in order to help me concentrate on revision and
exam practice for my upcoming AS exams.
Exam preparation period. I have not worked on the
project so that I am totally focused on revision and
preparation for my upcoming AS exams. I did, however,
spend a bit of time completing my mid-project
review, as I had forgotten to do so.
AS exam period.
Extended Project 2014 | Maurice Yap 6946

Weekly Project Log

26 May 2014
02 June 2014
09 June 2014
16 June 2014
Gather more sources,
categorise and add to
bibliography.
23 June 2014
Gather more sources,
categorise and add to
bibliography.
30 June 2014
Finish collecting sources,
collate information.

07 July 2014

Complete draft project.

14 July 2014

Collate information

21 July 2014

None.

28 July 2014

Collate information.

04 August 2014

Continue to collate
information.
Continue to collate
information.

11 August 2014
18 August 2014

None.

25 August 2014

Finish extracting
information from sources.
Evaluation of sources.

01 September
2014

08 September
2014

Admin.

15 September
2014

Write report.

22 September
2014

Proof-read report, create

presentation. End-of-project
review.

I have made a record of the number of sources I have for

each topic so my search for sources is more focused. I
have continued to gather sources.
I have continued to gather sources.
I finished collecting the final couple of sources and have
started to collate all the information together, placing
them in a Microsoft OneNote notepad with sections and
subsections for each topic within my essay, following my
Overall Structure Plan document.
I wrote the 500 word draft required by my supervisor,
referenced it, proof read it and emailed it to him.
Continued to record the information in my researched
sources.
I worked long hours every day this week and so did not
have sufficient time, energy or motivation to do any
worthwhile work on my project.
I was out of the country on tour with my band this week so
did not get much done. I extracted information from a
couple of sources.
I extracted information from my many sources.
I extracted information from my many sources. I got rid of
a source which was almost a duplicate of another. I am
about half way through my sources.
I attended a Sutton Trust Summer School in Cambridge
this week and so did not work on my project.
I finally finished extracting information from my sources,
which totalled around 90.
I created the document in which to evaluate my sources
for reliability, quality and accuracy. As a result of the
information extracted from my sources, I have made some
slight changes to the structure of my report, compare to
the Overall Structure Plan document.
I decided to tidy up all my documents and make sure that
my AQA production Log is up-to-date to as much as I can
do. There is missing information which I will need to sort
out at my meeting with my supervisor next week.
I wrote the entire report using the information in my
OneNote document. I continued to be flexible in following
the initial overall structure plan, using my judgement to
expand, discard and reorder sections as I saw appropriate.
I also started to proof-read the document to check for
grammatical and punctuation errors. I met with my
supervisor on Friday so that he could check on my
progress with the project.
I finished proof-reading my report and created the
PowerPoint slide show which will assist me with my
presentation. I also prepared what I was going to say
during it and made notes to prompt me if needed. The
end-of-project review was written at the end of this
week.
Extended Project 2014 | Maurice Yap 6946

Weekly Project Log

29 September
Deliver presentation.
2014
Presentation evidence.
Compile reference list and
bibliography.

06 October
2014

Complete, check and edit

AQA Production Log.
Complete sources
evaluation. Compile final
print version of report.
Check bibliography.
Physically organise paper
documents for handing in.
Hand in project.

On Tuesday, I delivered my presentation in a lecture style

to my classmates, my teacher and my supervisor, followed
by questions. I then created a document to show evidence
of this, as well as notes for each slide to document what
was said for each one where necessary. I also compiled the
reference list and further bibliography which will be an
appendix to my report. I added a few lines onto the
conclusions of my project because I had thought of some
new points during the process of creating and
documenting the presentation. I wrote the abstract for
the report and pasted this into the summary
section of my production log.
On my final week, I made the final finishing touches to my
project. This included completing the reflection and
presentation sections of the AQA production log,
writing the rest of the source evaluation, making the
necessary edits of my report and creating the final printed
document. I also checked the formatting of my
bibliography and then organised and files all of the paper
printouts of my project documents as required by my
college in preparation for handing in. Finally, I collected
physical signatures from my supervisor and centre
coordinator before handing in the project for marking.

Extended Project 2014 | Maurice Yap 6946