Skip to Main Content

Concordian International School

Personal Project: The Report

The Written Report

Order & Elements of the Report - 7 Parts

  1. Cover sheet
    1. Title of Project
    2. Length - Word count (1,500 - 3,500 words) not including Appendices and or Bibliography
    3. Date
  2. Academic Honesty Form - completed and signed by you and your supervisor. Available through ManageBac
  3. Table of Contents - all pages of Report are to be numbered with Page Number on top right corner of pages See MLA Paper Set-up tab
  4. Body of the report - must be broken into 4 sections and sub-sections Use the information you recorded in your Process Journal to write your Report. You must use in-text citations referring to bibliography entries to reflect on your resources, interviews, etc.  Under each section divide your report further into the sub-sections as seen in the four criteria boxes to the right ----> 
    1. Investigating
      1. Goal and Global Context
      2. Prior Learning
      3. Research Skills
    2. Planning
      1. Develop Criteria for the product/outcome
      2. Plan and record how the process develops
      3. Demonstrate Self-Management Skills
    3. Taking Action 
      1. Create a product/outcome reflecting Goal, Content, & Criteria
      2. Demonstrate thinking skills
      3. Demonstrate communication and social skills
    4. Reflecting
      1. Evaluate the quality of the product/outcome against Criteria
      2. Reflect on how completing the Project has extended your knowledge and understanding of the topic and Global Context
      3. Reflect on your development as an IB Learner through the Project
  5. Appendices
    1. ​​Your Process Journal Extracts (maximum of 10). Identified by a letter or number (e.g. Appendix A or Appendix 1).  Arrange the appendices according to the order in which you refer to the appendices in the report. You may refer to the same appendix more than once. For example, (See Appendix C) might be used more than once in your paper depending on what is on the page.
    2. Appendices must be from your Process Journal. Anything you include as an appendix must be referred to in the body of your report. These are not your in-text references. Use (See Appendix 3) for example.
    3. Include evidence of your final product or outcome so that others can understand what form it took. The evidence could be images, screenshots or other appropriate ways to showcase your work. 
    4. Maximum of 10 Appendices, 10 A4 pages. You may have more than one photo on a page, for example, if they are on the same focus (i.e., organization)
  6. Works Cited/Bibliography - this is your bibliography using  MLA 8 Style 

Make sure you provide a copy of your draft report to your supervisor to read and give feedback to you at least two weeks before it is due!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION 

  • You can only have 10 pages of Appendices
    • An Appendix cannot run over to a second page.  One Appendix per page. 10 Appendices = 10 Pages
  • In your Table of Contents each Appendix should have a page number. Ex:  Appendix 3............35 
    • And then each page needs to be numbered.
  • Appendices come before your Works Cited
  • All entries come from your Process Journal
  • Try to select entries to reflect the process -- over time
  • Label either Appendix 1, Appendix 2, etc., to Appendix 10 OR label Appendix A, Appendix B, etc., to Appendix J
  • Any of your 10 pages can have more than one entry on each page. All come from your Process Journal.  
    • Keep a "theme" to the specific Appendix. 
    • For example: Appendix 3: Research (at the top of the page with last name page number in top right corner)
      • And then you might have a screenshot of your notes about a source, a picture of an OPVL, a few questions and answers from an interview.
      • Do NOT include an entire interview or pages of data collected or survey results. A snapshot is all you need.
      • Above each picture or screenshot make sure you label the photo at the top of each photo. Ex: Evaluating a source using OPVL
  • Every appendix must be referred to in your Report, as "I used an OPVL form to asses my sources. For the xxxx website I realized there was no information about the qualifications of the author of the blog (see Appendix 1, p. 35)."
  • You MUST use in-text citations to refer to your sources in your bibliography (Works Cited).
Do not JUST refer to  Appendices instead of explaining and reflecting on the process step and using an in-text citation for your resource. For example, you cannot write, "I did a lot of research, using many types of sources such as newspapers, interviews, and websites (see Appendix 3)."  You have to talk about what you found and use in-text citations. When you are Planning, about the problems or successes you had or the revisions you had to make--do not just say "I had problems keeping to a schedule (see Appendix 2)." Explain why and what you did to overcome the issue.
 
In other words, your Report is not "connecting appendices." You are writing about it and just referring the reader to an example in an appendix of what you are saying and using in-text citations to refer to resources!

While speaking to adults and those who are not our peers we know it is appropriate to use terms such as Khun, Doctor, Dr., Mr., Mrs., or in correspondence a person might have these in their name: Ph.D, M.D. ...

However....

these terms are not used in academic writing!  So you might be talking about how your librarian (Mr. Roxy) or teacher (Kru Lek) or family friend (Khun Amy) helped you. Or you interviewed Dr. Miguel, a science teacher.  To refer to this in your writing, you do not use the titles. Instead, something like this:

"A physics teacher at our school, Miguel Catasus Portuondo, helped me better understand the basic concept of ....and recommended the book Title of the Book" (Portuondo; Title of the Book). Portuondo told me that it was a book he often relied on himself."

note: Both an interview with Portuondo and the book he recommended are in your bibliography (Works Cited).

MLA 8 Set-up

 

  • 12 pt font Calibri or Times New Roman

  • Double-spaced throughout

  • 2.54 cm all 4 edges

 

if using Microsoft Word

  • Document Elements

    • Header and Footer

      • Page #

        • Position “Top of Page”

        • Alignment “Right”

    • View menu

      • Print Layout

      • In the Document, double-click the Header

      • Click the page number 1 and add name and space before first page number

        • LastName 1

    • Click Close to return to your document, click 

if using Apple Pages

  • Move pointer over the top until you see a header area

  • Click into the 3rd box (on the far right)

    • Insert Page Number

    • 1 should appear;  Change it to LastName 1

Many of you will use these two types of resources and you will need to include them in your bibliography (Works Cited). Below are examples and also how the in-text citation should look. Used with permission of students.

 

Web Survey

Jafari, Angelia. Survey of 29 Female Teenagers to Determine Their Aesthetic Appeal. Survey Monkey, 22 

    Aug. 2017. Web Survey.

 

In-text citation:  (Jafari).

 

Interview

Anuwongworavet, Supitcha, and Leslie Watts. “Personal Project Interview with Leslie Watts.” 9 July 2017.

 

In-text citation: (Anuwongworavet and Watts).

MYP Projects Command Terms

Also--when you are citing more than one source in an in-text citation, use this format as an example:

...here is text in my report (Baylor; WoodMan; “All About the Different Types of Wood Finishes”).

The writer is referring to an article by an author with the last name Baylor, a YouTube posted by Woodman, and an article that does not have an author:

 

 

Examples of MYP personal projects

Example Title Global context
1 Cultural influence on Hanoi Identities and relationships
2 Tower defense video game Scientific and technical innovation

 

Note: They are not the perfect personal projects. Please read the teacher's comments and score for more information.

Assessment Criteria

Criterion A: Investigating

  • define a clear goal and a global context for the project based on personal interests
  • identify prior learning and subject specific knowledge about the project
  • demonstrate research skills

Tips & Hints

  • include research notes in your process journal
  • use EasyBib to record details about your sources of information for your bibliography 
  • explore the ATL page and make sure you are showing excellent research skills
  • discuss your research within the Investigating section of your report, including the evaluation of sources (OPVL) 
  • include a variety of research from primary and secondary sources (images, interviews, surveys, experiments, fieldwork, books, websites, journals, film, etc.)

Report Checklist: Investigating

 

Criterion B: Planning

  • develop criteria for the product/outcome
  • plan and record the development process of the project
  • demonstrate self-management skills

Tips & Hints

  • begin the Process Journal immediately, the more you add to your Journal the easier it will be to write your Report
  • start recording your initial thoughts, reflections, updates, questions, frustrations, etc.
  • explore the ATL page and make sure you are showing excellent planning skills
  • outline and discuss both qualitative and quantitative success criteria
  • outline and discuss updates to your action plan, there should be evidence of a development process

Report checklist: Planning

Criterion C: Taking Action

  • create a product/outcome in response to the goal, context and criteria
  • demonstrate thinking skills
  • demonstrate communication and social skills

Tips & Hints

  • spending a large amount of time on creating the product does not guarantee a high mark
  • your product must be created in response to the goal and global context
  • explore the ATL page and make sure you are showing excellent taking action skills
  • make your "taking action" visible by rigorously updating your process journal as you create multiple prototypes or try different problem-solving approaches
  • refer to your success criteria during this process, do not worry about changes or failures with your final product/outcome, instead record these in your process journal

Report checklist: Taking Action

Criterion D: Reflection

  • evaluate the quality of the product/outcome against the criteria
  • reflect on how completing the project has extended your knowledge and understanding of the global context
  • reflect on your development as an IB learner through the project

Tips & Hints

  • the reflection cannot only be written at the end of the process, record reflections along the way in the process journal and then summarize these in the report
  • this is a cumulative project based on your growth as an IB student from MYP 1-5 so reflecting on the Global Context and Learner Profile is AS important as the reflection on your product, ATL Skill development, and content knowledge
  • start planning your report early
  • explore the ATL page and make sure you are showing excellent reflective skills
  • ask your Supervisor to read and provide feedback at least two weeks before the submission
  • aim to print your report at least two or three days before it is due​

Report checklist: Reflection

Grade Boundary Guidelines Descriptor
1 1-5 Produces work of very limited quality. Conveys many significant misunderstandings or lacks understanding of most concepts  and contexts. Very rarely demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Very inflexible, rarely using knowledge or skills.
2 6-9 Produces work of limited quality. Expresses misunderstandings or significant gaps in understanding for many concepts  and contexts. Infrequently demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Generally inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, infrequently applying knowledge and skills.
3 10-14 Produces work of an acceptable quality. Communicates basic understanding of many concepts  and contexts, with occasionally significant misunderstandings or gaps. Begins to demonstrate some basic critical and creative thinking. Is often inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, requiring support even in familiar classroom situations.
4 15-18 Produces good-quality work. Communicates basic understanding of most concepts  and contexts with few misunderstandings and minor gaps. Often demonstrates basic critical and creative thinking. Uses knowledge and skills with some flexibility in familiar classroom situations, but requires support in unfamiliar situations.
5 19-23 Produces generally high-quality work. Communicates secure understanding of concepts  and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, sometimes with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar classroom and real-world situations and, with support, some unfamiliar real-world situations.
6 24-27 Produces high-quality, occasionally innovative work. Communicates extensive understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, frequently with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar and unfamiliar classroom and real- world situations, often with independence.
7 28-32 Produces high-quality, frequently innovative work. Communicates comprehensive, nuanced understanding of concepts and contexts. Consistently demonstrates sophisticated critical and creative thinking. Frequently transfers knowledge and skills with independence and expertise in a variety of complex classroom and real-world situations.