Topic to Broad? What is your opinion on my PIP topic? (1 Viewer)

[beauw]

I have written the introduction to my Personal Interest Project but am now considering whether I should continue with this topic. I would like to know your opinions on my topic and any suggestions as to where I could take it.

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']"Adolescents attitude to social and global issues"[/FONT]

To elaborate, a cross cultural comparison of the adolescents of the 1960's and 1970's opinion and interest to global and social issues, i.e. the Vietnam war, contrasted with the opinions and interests of adolescents of today in regard to global and social issues, i.e. the Iraq War, Global Warming, Industrial Relations Laws, etc.

I have methodologies I could implement, but am unsure if this topic is to broad or if I could even come to a conclusion in the sense that the circumstances of today in comparison to the 1960/1970's.

 

[alby]

the topic should be a bit more consise, with the title reflecting that...concentrate on say just wars/terrorism or economy/jobs or climate. or if you want, you can leave the title as is, and add a subtitle - you could make it more of a case study if you want.

and you need to make sure you'll be able to get an accurate representation of the views of adolescents back then - asking people who were adolescents in that era may not get you a true picture of the opinions/interests (as they can be, and may well have been, shaped by other factors later on). and you'll have to get a diverse range of people (ie. not just in your local area, and find people who were/are adolescents at the beginning and end of each era as well as the middle) for each of the groups you talk to.

good luck

 

[eyestodiefor]

I agree that it might be too broad and that you could either - (a) decide on one paradigme under which to make the comparison or (b) make chapters and have the analysis of attitudes relatively shallow.

Either way what kept nudging at me while I was reading your brief was that I think it would be interesting also to impliment a cross cultural component. I mean you're suggesting things like how adolescents viewed and were viewed during issues of the Vietnam Way and parallelling that to terrorism wars present in todays society - well you're lucky in that Australia is one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world. Seriously; in getting your cross-cultural components of both time and culture I would suggest gettig your friends -then their parents and their grandparents. That way you make sure you have 3 generations covered and hopefully youre not terribly racist and you have a few mixed cultures in there too!

I would however look at narrowing the paradigme instead of making the different paradigmes chapters. Either way should work though. What does your teacher think of your topic?

Keep in correspondance if this has helped. I love helping other people with their PIP's instead of working on my own

Peace!
Kaitlin
GRC Oatley Snr.
English Adv, English Ext 1, English Ext 2, Modern History, History Ext, Society and Culture, Economics

 

[beauw]

Thank you for your tips and advice - very helpful.
Okay, I narrowed it down to a comparison of the Vietnam War and the Iraq War.
I have several people that can be interviewed, those in their adolescents in the 1960s, those in their adolescents in the 1970s and those in their adolescents today.
I didn't want to bring in any racial differences here, but just simply interview Australian citizens (or people living in Australia during these times) in these time frames (for the record, I have a Turkish family, an Aboriginal family and a Italian family that I will interview, plus I plan on handing out open-ended questionnaires to selected people).
My aim is to interview people of the 1960/70s to understand why the demonstrated like they did and compare to interviews of adolescents today to understand why we aren't publicly displaying our opinions on the Iraq War even though the majority (based on close-ended surveys conducted in November 2006) are dead against it and believe we shouldn't have ever gone in the first place.
Although, I do want to bring in political opinion to help understand the opinions and beliefs of different people of each time period.