Record each piece of help at the time, in plain words, in the format your school asks for. A good record says who helped, when, what they did and what you did next. It shows your own contribution clearly.
This is the second lesson in integrity and responsible assistance. Your school may have its own form or rules, and those come first.
How do I keep a useful record?
Start with the rules. Ask your Global Perspectives teacher or exam officer: “Do I need to record outside help, and in what format?” Write down the answer, because you may need it later.
Then use a simple log with five columns. Fill it in the same day.
| Column | What to write |
|---|---|
| Date | When the help happened |
| Who | Name and role (teacher, classmate, family member, tutor) |
| What was discussed | The topic or skill, in one line |
| What they did | Asked questions, gave feedback, explained a method |
| What I did next | The change you made yourself |
The last column is the most important. It shows that decisions stayed with you.
Worked example (invented)
Fictional student Hafiz is researching phone use in a made-up school, Greenfield Secondary. His log has three entries.
| Date | Who | What was discussed | What they did | What I did next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 March | Ms Lee (teacher) | Whether my survey question was leading | Pointed out the word “addicted” | Reworded it as “how many hours do you use your phone” |
| 10 March | Classmate Arun | Which source seemed more reliable | Asked why I trusted a blog | Added a note that the blog is one person’s viewpoint |
| 17 March | Tutor | Separating fact from interpretation | Showed it on a different invented article | Checked my own source and labelled two claims as interpretation |
Each entry is short, dated and specific. Hafiz can see that the help led to his own changes.
A mistake to avoid
A common slip is writing the log at the end from memory, with vague lines.
Mistaken entry: “Got some help with my report from my tutor.”
This hides what the help was. A reader cannot tell whether the tutor asked a question or wrote a paragraph.
The corrected entry names the skill, the action and the student’s response: “Tutor showed me on a different example how to spot a leading question. I then changed two of my own survey questions.” If the honest description would make the help sound like completing the work, that is a signal to stop and check with your school.
Check yourself
All people and places are invented.
1. Why is the “What I did next” column useful?
Show answer
It shows that you made the decisions and changes yourself, so the record separates your contribution from the support.
2. Fictional student Lina writes “Teacher helped.” What would make the entry better?
Show answer
Add the date, the topic and what the teacher did, for example “12 May, Mr Tan asked whether my second source was biased. I added a note about its viewpoint.”
3. Your school has a form that differs from the table above. Which do you use?
Show answer
Your school’s form. The table is a thinking aid; the applicable school rules come first.
Where this leads next
Next, look at keeping participant information out of public examples, which protects the people in your research. If the log still feels unclear, revisit permissible discussion versus completing assessed work.
If you want practice describing help clearly, our teachers can work with you on separate examples in online one-to-one Global Perspectives tuition.