Conclusions

What Are Conclusions Questions? The final source-based skill in the course 8 marks 14 minutes in the exam 3 sources – a mix of text and data 3 bullet points - draw a conclusion from each one Can appear in any topic area – there will be one conclusions question in your exam

What is a conclusion? Drawing a conclusion: Summarises the main points Gives an overall view Identifies trends in the evidence

Structuring your answer Your answer should be set up like this: Write the bullet point as a mini heading Give your first piece of source information Evaluate your evidence Give your second piece of evidence and evaluate it Draw an overall conclusion, containing evaluative language/terminology

Evaluative terminology This is language which makes a judgement, the more specifically the better Good evaluative language: To a large extent / small extent Less / more important Increasing / Decreasing As X happens, Y happens Majority / minority Evaluative Terminology Smaller than / bigger than Most / Few / Around Half / two-thirds etc Steadily / slowly / rapidly Significant

2015 paper question 12 – Model Paragraph The level of public awareness concerning laws on social media Source one tells us that “only 1 in 10 know about social media laws, or have heard of the Communications Act 2003.” This is a tiny minority of people. Source 3 supports this when it shows the results of a survey, in which just 25% of people were aware of the consequences of sending an offensive Tweet – again, a very small percentage. In conclusion, the level of public awareness of social media laws is very low as most people are not aware of them.

Why is this a good answer? The bullet point heading makes it clear to the marker which conclusion you are dealing with The sources are both clearly relevant to the topic Each source’s data has been evaluated (evaluative language in red) The final conclusion makes a specific judgement and contains evaluative terminology Do this twice more for a perfect 8/8