I – Preparing the dossier
(COEFF 1)
STEP 1 – CHOOSE A THEME
Your theme must be linked with the English-speaking world, it must be interesting and developed and the answer to your question must not be obvious.
Your theme should also be linked to one of the notions of the program either from première or terminale.
Click on the previous pictures to read more about the programs and find ideas in the sections “exemples d’objets d’étude”
STEP 2 – FIND A QUESTION
Create a problem question that will frame what kind of documents you are looking for. The important part is to understand the complexity of your subject:
- Find the main concepts that you need to define and study before making your dossier.
- Try to break down your subject into different aspects, dimensions, points of view, etc.
- Find controversies or debates about your subjects, parts that are difficult to answer.
- Find second reading to your subject (for instance analyzing the deeper meaning of something)
STEP 3 – CHOOSE DOCUMENTS
In terminale a dossier should have 4 to 6 documents. In premiere 3 documents will be enough. You need:
- At least one article from a newspaper
- At least one text that is not from a newspaper (literature, essay, speech, official document, etc.)
- At least one illustration (picture, graph, photograph, painting, poster, etc.)
You can remove parts of your text by adding “…” or brackets [] to change or add words to your text.
Remember to write down your sources somewhere ⚠️
STEP 4 – MAKE A STRUCTURE
Follow the usual plan with an introduction, development and conclusion. Your development should have two or three parts, none of them should be focused on one document only. Each part should be about every documents.
Try to focus on the similarities and differences in every document. Which answer do they give to your problem question.
⚠️ PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT TO GIVE BACK YOUR STRUCTURE ⚠️
STEP 5 – MAKING THE DOSSIER
You will have to hand your dossier to the jury in person. Before printing your dossier make sure it contains all of the following elements:
- On the first page: title, name, year, notion of the program and problem question
- A correct source at the end of every document
- Lines for texts and time for movies
- Pagination on each page
II – Presenting the dossier
(COEFF 2)
1 – PRESENTATION
On the day of the oral there is no preparation time. You have to give one copy of your dossier to the jury, and you will keep one copy for yourself. Then you have 10mns to present the dossier (5mns in première). During the presentation you have to:
- Justify why you chose the documents and explain the link with the problem question.
- When explaining the link between the documents and the problem questions present arguments with examples from the documents.
- Keep a logical structure with linking words between your ideas and main parts.
2 – QUESTIONS
Then you will have to answer questions from the jury for 10mns (5mns in première). See this time as an interaction and not an interrogation. The goal is to clarify some parts and go deeper on the topic. Here are a few tips:
- Listen to the question, feel free to ask to repeat or rephrase the question and take a few second to think about the question before answering.
- Give a short and clear answer, no monologue!
- Do not exactly repeat what you have said during the presentation: nuance your presentation, present other perspectives, other examples, etc.
