Presentation of data - the SBA
By Marjorie Henry, Contributor

Students from St. Andrew Technical High School. - Carlington Wilmot

THE PRESENTATION of data provides the body of your field study. It is your written account along with your maps and illustrations. There are certain steps that you are required to follow in this presentation.

The information you obtained through your observations, interviews, questionnaires and secondary sources should be properly organised in a logical order. For example, if your study were based on pastoral farming and you focused on areas such as breeds of animals, marketing, labour, feed and associated problems in this activity, a logical order to arrange your information would be ­ breeds of animals, feed, labour, marketing, associated problems.

Rather than an essay of continuous writing, the written account should have sub-sections with sub-headings. In an earlier lesson, I had suggested that once you have decided on your title and aim, you should list the areas you would concentrate on in the research. These areas that you listed could provide the sub-topics for the written account. Whatever you write must be very clear, accurate and relevant to your chosen topic. Make every effort to develop your ideas very well. There should be no doubt in the examiner's mind as to what you are writing about.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustrations are vital to the study. As I mentioned before, you are required to have a variety of them. At least three is the recommended number. In order to receive the maximum marks for them, the mark scheme indicates that they should be 'accurate, relevant, neat, clearly labeled and titled and very well integrated into the text.' Remember also that they should be placed as close as possible to where reference is made to them. Please make sure you do just that. Do NOT photocopy your illustrations. These are unacceptable in the study.

A word here on the statement of conclusion. In reference to the available literature, the following are suggestions for this:

* It should be related to the aim or aims of the study.
* It can be a summary of the main points that have been made in the study.
* You can restate the general issues of the study.
* It may include suggestions or state implications if relevant.

Most importantly, no new ideas should be introduced in your conclusion.

Do you know how to write a bibliography for you study? Just in case you don't, here is how it is done. You need the following information for the textbook you referred to ­ the author, title, publisher, place of publication and date of publication.

For example: Niles, J., Modern Caribbean Geography, Macmillan Education Ltd., London, 1995. Where you have used more than one textbook, you list them in alphabetical order by the author's surname.

If your other sources included articles from the newspaper, you would write this in the bibliography in the order of the name of the author, the title of the article, the name of the newspaper and its date. Underline the name of the newspaper. For information from the Internet, record the name of the Website and the date. Underline the Website. Remember that you must have at least three sources in your bibliography.

I need to retrace my steps a bit to share with you on the location maps. At least two maps are required. One map should have on it a fairly large outline of the parish in which your study area is found along with a small insert of the map of Jamaica highlighting the parish of study. On the parish map, indicate the main road, main river, main town, the study area, and the road leading to it. This should be drawn to scale. Your second map should be a large-scale sketch map of your actual study area. On it you would indicate the road to the area along with more details of the area. For example, if you are studying a farm, you would indicate the road leading to the farm, the homestead and other farm buildings if present, the layout of the fields indicating the different crops grown in each. This map is not usually drawn to scale.

Do you know how to complete your maps? I will share that information with you in the next lesson.

* Marjorie Henry is Geography teacher at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon.