How to write your Geography coursework analysis

Learning Objective: Know what an analysis is

To understand what makes an good analysis

Practice analysing data

Peer assessment

What is an analysis?

Describe

Explain

Mock analysisTask question: to delimit the area of your chosen urban area’s CBD.

• Land use - there will be more shops, services and offices in the CBD compared with the outer areas where there will be mostly residential areas.

• Traffic count – there will be more traffic in the CBD as people will want to get there.

• Pedestrian count – there will be more pedestrians in the CBD than the outer areas this is because people want to come here to use the shops and public facilities.

• Building height – there will be taller buildings in the CBD as the land is very expensive here.

Describe

Explain

Combining data….

• On its own its harder to explain why things are the way they are so we need to look at other pieces of information to help our explanation.

What could we say about these 3 bits of information together?

Language for analysis

Therefore….. This shows that….. This may be explained by…..

This indicates that….. This was expected… Because….. However……

This suggests that…. In comparison to…..

Peer assessment of an analysisTask question: to delimit the area of your chosen urban area’s CBD.

• Land use - there will be more shops, services and offices in the CBD compared with the outer areas where there will be mostly residential areas.

• Traffic count – there will be more traffic in the CBD as people will want to get there.

• Pedestrian count – there will be more pedestrians in the CBD than the outer areas this is because people want to come here to use the shops and public facilities.

• Building height – there will be taller buildings in the CBD as the land is very expensive here.

Your checklist for analysisAnalysis and conclusions Done?

I have described what the data shows

I have explained why the data shows this

I have linked my explanations to geographical theory

I have linked my results to the sub questions

I have made links between the various results

I have referred to the figure numbers when describing the data I have described anomalies in the data

I have given an overall conclusion to the study and answered the initial questions

What did you give them and why?

• What grade I have given the work and why…..

• What I think they have done to improve this analysis ….

• What I have learnt from this for my own analysis…

What Edexcel said….

The data is described in some detail and there are a number of analytical as well as descriptive comments. There are several attempts to draw together the main findings and to delimit the CBD of the chosen settlement. The conclusions drawn return to the task question and the student makes a number of valid suggestions to help substantiate the conclusions.

However, the lack of analytical comments in some sections of the analysis prevents this work from reaching the top of Level 3.

8 marks

Practice analysing this data

What have I learn today to get my analysis as…..

Our analysis…

• What background information may we consider?

Why does land use change along a transect?

What should we include?