THE COMMUNICATION STUDIES INTERNAL ASSESSMENT (IA)

The SBA/IA consists of four sections:

· The general introduction (12 marks)

· The expository section (16 marks)

· The reflective section (14 marks)

· The analytical section (18 marks)

( Total - 60 marks)

The General Introduction:

In this section the student must:

State/identify theme that she has chosen as an area that she is interested in studying however this
is subject to the approval of the teacher.

The student is then expected to write the General introduction which includes -
an introductory paragraph that sets this theme within a specific context. This paragraph can give
information about the background of theme or it can define the concept embodied in said theme
or any other suitable/approved way of writing an introduction

The second idea is to provide a rationale/reason/purpose for your choice of theme / area of study.
This rationale/reason should/can be related to your career goals, personal interest/experience.
This includes – motivations / inspiration, relation to personal or academic interests)

The third idea focuses on how the theme will be reflected in the three different sections of the
portfolio. This should show what will be done in the three sections based on the theme

The word limit for this section is ……… 200 WORDS

THE SPEECH will be 7-10 MINUTES LONG. This is NOT included in the portfolio but is
presented orally.

o Three sources of information are to be assessed, one of which must be a primary

source (sources must be diversified –limited to one of each type).Sources must
indicate different views.

o Candidate should show a substantial knowledge of and discuss issues raised and the
challenges experienced in exploring the selected topic

o Candidate should evaluate the effect of source, context and medium/channel on the
reliability and validity of the information gathered.

THE SPEECH

1. The speech should start off with a greeting eg. Good morning Mrs.. This should be followed
by information from your expository rationale, especially the first paragraph.

2. Next – be sure to say specifically what your topic is …. Say it out loud and then go on to say
WHY you have chosen to explore this topic. ( for doing this you are sure of two (2) marks
out of the 20!!!

3. Say that to properly explore this topic you have chosen to use three (3) sources. Then go on
to list them one by one eg. To examine this topic I have chosen to work with three sources
,one primary source ,a university student who has been a victim of sexual abuse and who has
kindly consented to provide answers through an interview, a newspaper article from “The
Daily Gleaner” and a book on………. By ……..

4 Describe each source one by one eg.

5 for the article - This may include title, date and place of publication / date conducted,
the name of channel through which document was published/aired e.g. Radio Jamaica
or The Daily Gleaner, name of author, context in which document was
published/done ( what has prompted the writing the article)
6 For the questionnaire, describe it by referring to the type such as face to
face/telephone, the number of questions, also say how many are open ended and how
many are closed ended. You can also describe how the questions are grouped eg.
questions 1-4 are requesting biographical details or they are used to gather
information about the sources background etc. do this for all/most of the questions.
 7 The description of the interview follows the same concept as that for the
questionnaire. Also for the interview and questionnaire please discuss the
circumstances/context that existed when they were being conducted.
8 Discuss the issues and challenges that you experienced/faced while trying to find the
sources and to write the interview questions ( for doing this you get at least another
five (5) marks)

9 Summarize the information that is in the article or whatever source that you have used.

10 Summarize the information that you got from the interview

11 Summarize the information you get from the questionnaire/ book

12 Discuss how valid/invalid ( truth) or reliable the source is. First analyze the author’s
suitability. What makes this person capable of giving true information on this topic. Then
focus on the media house that published the material. Then look at what is said … does the
person make claims that cannot be substantiated? The information that the source gives can
be the truth/valid or not. Be sure to say why/why not.

13 How reliable is your source and why? Justify your claims.

14 For questionnaires and interviews look at the instrument itself and say what if anything is
wrong with it and how that may influence the information that you collected. Focus on your
lack of skills in writing these instruments etc.

15 Also do not forget to say how the challenges that you faced affected the information you
collected and how the process of collecting may have impacted on the validity or the
reliability of the information. (for #12,13,14 + 15 you can get a maximum of 4 marks)

16 Conclusion: Overall summary of assignment. Remember that the focus was to make a
judgment on the validity and reliability of sources. Make recommendations /
generalizations about the issue if this is appropriate.

Some autonomy is allowed in the organization of your document but should not digress
too much from the suggested outline.