RP+Journal+Chuong+Van

= = =Chuong's Research Project Journal= =TERM 2-=

To Mr Tengdahl,
 * 7/7/2011**

In this letter I shall be discussing with you my plans for furthering my research project during my term 2 holidays. Presently I have chosen to do my research on life under communism, my outcome will therefore be a powerpoint discussing my key findings. I still need to finalise my proposal, this needs to be done by the end of this week for the research part of my project to commence. My aim was not to glorify communism I planned on doing the complete opposite, exposing the corruption, greed and cruelty of communist leaders and their parties. However I realised that research has to be fair and unbiased, showing both sides of an argument. I had three initial questions about my topic:
 * How did the communist movement commence and by whom?
 * Which countries in present day are living under communist rule and what is the standard of living like for the people living in these countries?
 * How does life in communist countries differ from life in democratic capitalist countries?

I then refined my question further to "How does life under communism and life under capitalism effect the lives of people in a country" basing my question on the countries such as North and South Korea and the former countries North and South Vietnam. How did the lives of the people in these countries differ? What issues did each country face on either side of the border? who was really better off? Through these questions I decided on my final research question of: " How different were the lives of people living in North and South Vietnam during the Vietnam war?" I plan on spending a week of my holidays on answering my 3 initial questions to gain a better understanding of my topic so I can start answering my research question. my research will consist of analysing pieces of text and photographs in books, magazines,newspapers and on the internet. Then through the help of my parents and relatives who are primary resources having experienced both the Vietnam war and life under communism I will start to answer my research question through interviews. I aim to have most of my preliminary research done by the end of the holidays so I can start working on my folio and outcome by the beginning of next term.

I hope this letter has clarified my research topic better and given you an idea of what I shall be doing during my hoildays. Hopefully I will be able to pass Research Project this year and gain a better knowledge of the research project through my experiences. You can read all about my troubles and successes through this journal which i will be updating regularly during the holidays.

From, Chuong Van

**JOURNAL**
I've been asking my mother a lot of questions about life under communism. I have also been reading various books and watching films on the topic. Once film I watched was "Journey from the Fall" made in 2007 and directed by Vietnamese director Ham Tran. This fictitional film was based on real life events and details a man's experiences in a communist re-education camp. the film has helped me gain a better understanding of the reasons as to why Vietnamese people left their country in droves to live in foreign countries and has also let me glimpse into some of the experiences my own family went through whilst trying to escape communist Vietnam. The events shown in the film was considered by my mother to be mostly correct spare a few historical errors although knowing that she herself experienced things like that I have no resaon to doubt the film's genuity. Below is the trailer for this film. media type="youtube" key="e84lOfQH0FM" height="349" width="425"
 * Week Two of Holidays**

How did the communist party commence and by whom?

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===**Which countries in present day are living under communist rule and what is the standard of living like for the people living in these countries?** ===
 * http://geography.about.com/od/lists/tp/communistcountries.htm

**How does life in communist countries differ from life in capitalist countries?**

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Term 3
After some extensive research into my topic I have decided to refine my research question further due top lack of resources about life in North Vietnam before 1975 being available online and in the from of books and newspapers. I have therefore decided to modify my research question from " How different were the lives of people living in North and South Vietnam during the Vietnam war?" to "How did the lives of South Vietnamese people change after the 1975 communist takeover?". I believe that his question qould be easier to find research material on due to the fact that most books and research materials are written to the perspective of Southern Vietnamese people living in overseas countries after immigrating in the years follwing 1975. I will have to modify my research proposal slightly to comply with my new research question.
 * WEEK TWO**
 * 2/8/2011**

I downloaded the consent form so I can start formally interviewing people and make progress with the research for my story. I plan to start my draft in week 5 of this term. I am currently finding answers to my guiding questions and I have found the answers to two out of three questions. I now need to develop some interview questions and run them through with the teacher before I conduct my interviews. I have written out some measures I will take so that the research I conduct will be ethicval and beneficial and not harmful towards other people.
 * WEEK THREE**
 * 8/8/2011**

My research project requires me to interview people and document their answers as primary resources for my research. I will therefore have to consider how I can make my research processes ethical and avoid causing harm to the people I interview. I have taken into consideration the measures I will have to take to conduct ethical research these include running over any interview questions with my teacher to insure that they are not offensive or harmful toward the person being interviewed. My research requires me to analyse and use excerpts from published books and stories, I will have to reference very carefully so I don’t plagiarise.
 * My Measures for Ethical Research **

I have downloaded a variety of articles from the internet on the subject of life after the fall of Saigon. One document I found was particularly useful but does not feature the name of the author. I asked my teacher what to do and found out that I can still use this article in my project and reference it but it is better that I try to find the name of the author so that the source is more credible.
 * WEEK FOUR**
 * 16/8/2011**

I still have to annotate some articles and analyse excerpts from short stories before I start the draft for my own story. I have yet to interview family member so I need to do that within the next two weeks.
 * 19/08/2011**

After going through the articles I downloaded from the internet I turned to the local public library to find books on my topic. I logged onto the Charles Sturt library catalogue and put some books and DVDs on hold. The two books that I am looking at at present moment combine information about life under communism and the experiences of boat people. I still have to write up my interview questions and run them by my teacher before I interview anyone. I am currently writing up my bibliography of sources and working on my folio. I plan to finish all my folio work by the middle of next week so I can start my story draft and also work on my outcome.
 * WEEK FIVE**
 * 26/08/2011**

I have started work on my research outcome essay and I am on track to finishing my 10 pages of folio work. I plan to finish my outcome essay by the end of week nine and start on my evaluation.
 * WEEK EIGHT**
 * 14/09/2011**