Young Epilepsy Evaluation

Our brief was to find a cause / community / charity that Comic

Relief / Sports relief or Red Nose Day help fund, you are required to
research that
community / charity and put a booklet together on all your findings. We
were told to put all our research into a magazine at the end so the work
would be presented nicely and that it was ordered and easy to follow.
I immediately knew I wanted to do a charity based around epilepsy. My
sister suffers from West Syndrome which is a form of epilepsy so the more
aware I am of her condition the better I feel about helping her and other
who suffer. My father is also a trustee for the Epilepsy Society so I
originally looked for that charity on the list provided. When I couldnt find
the Epilepsy Society, the only other epilepsy charity was Young Epilepsy
so I decided to do my research into that.
As my father is a trustee of a charity that supports epilepsy, he already
knew a lot about epilepsy and the kind of events the help raise the most
money, and where the money goes. I knew I would ask him a lot of
information for primary research and I would even try and contact the
charity itself. Unfortunately, the charity did not respond in time so the only
primary research I had was from the information my father had given me.
For secondary research I searched Young Epilepsy and the first website
shown was the charities official website. I didnt think to expect the
charity to have its own website so for me this was a shock and turned out
to be extremely helpful. Nearly every piece of information in my magazine
is from the official website and it was extremely useful as the website
answered every question we were asked to answer. The only one I
struggled with answering was which celebrities had been affected. I still
havent found a detailed answer for that question
Although the main website is very useful, it did mean that I only used one
source. This isnt very helpful when it comes to secondary research as you
dont know what is right and wrong. Luckily, the website I got my
information off was a legitimate, official website for the charity and
therefore I knew all the information would be more accurate than
anywhere else it could be found. I know that secondary research is
important as it means you can find out things that you have not been able
to find out through primary research and it helps you thoroughly check the
research you already have. There are so many possible sources that if one
website stands out with completely different information than the rest,
then you know what information is helpful and what is incorrect. Its also
much quicker and easier to do secondary research. It means you can
quickly search or read something and the chances of it being helpful are
very high. Nearly all of my research was secondary research, although I
did manage to make sure the research I did was correct by asking my
father shortly before I started laying it all out in a magazine format.

Although secondary research is quicker, I believe that primary research is

more important. Primary research is when you gather the information
yourself, whether thats by asking face to face, or by using surveys and
questionnaires, it means the information is coming from the first source. It
is helpful to get primary research ass then you know it is correct. I used
my father for primary research because I emailed the charity to ask them
a few questions that I could not answer using their website, but
unfortunately they did not reply in enough time for me to use the
information in my magazine. I am grateful I had my father to help as
without him I would have no primary research in my work making it more
likely to seem false.
The issue of me not receiving that email in time is completely down to my
own fault. If I had emailed them earlier I probably would not have been
faced with this issue. For a while I didnt know what to do without the
primary research as although my father is a trustee for the epilepsy
society it is a completely different charity and will be run in different ways
to support different things. It was just the basic information of who the
money goes towards that I definitely needed answering. It was more
useful to get this information as primary research too because websites
are known for giving rough answers and exaggerating things.
Primary research is when you get the information yourself and then
present it in this first source. You dont alter the information after its
received and this means the source is very reliable. Secondary research is
when you gather the information from a second source, whether that be a
website or a book, it still means that the information has been passed on
and could have been altered in that time. Although secondary research is
much quicker to obtain it is often less reliable. However, it is still
important to use both types of research because then you can get a better
understanding of a piece of information and often you can find out things
from secondary research that you cant from primary research. Surveys
are the most common sources of primary research and this is to get first
hand feedback for something. Secondary research is mainly used for the
actual research side of things.
In my infographics, I tried to use many colours and large writing so that it
was more exciting and easier to read. In both I used purple which is the
national colour for epilepsy so that it would make people more aware
subtly and it is also a bright, happy colour to view. Although the purpled
doesnt stand out on the second infographic. I also tried to add as little
information as possible but very helpful and important information on
each infographic so the information stood out more. I knew that although I
had to convey a lot of information I wanted people to actually read it and
take it in. So with me putting less information people are more likely to
stop and read it so I made the information important. I placed the Young
Epilepsy logo right at the centre of attention for both of the infographics
so the logo stood out and people would remember the charity.

I have had past experiences of making brochures, leaflets and magazines

so I knew what would make it look more attractive and what would be
interesting to read. Therefore, I am happy with how it looks and I think it
does look quite professional. I have added lots of information without the
pages looking cluttered and important facts in pictures which grabs the
readers attention. I kept a colour scheme throughout the magazine so
that people would associate the colour with epilepsy and so that it would
be easier on the eyes and not look as cluttered. The only page that does
look professional is the last page because I could not find a relevant image
that covered the page and was of a high quality.
We used Joomag for this project and although I found it very challenging
to use at the beginning it became easier to use quite quickly. I now know
how to use the website for the future if needed and how to layout things
better as the website gives you good templates. I also learnt what
information to convey when trying to say something important. I learnt
this from the question guidelines given and it really helped me make sure
my research was in depth and actually had useful information. Although I
said I learnt how to use Joomag, I still cant figure out how to upload the
actual magazine format onto my website. This meant that although I
handed my work in on time it wasnt in the correct layout so it doesnt
look as professional.
To improve I think I could have emailed the charity a lot earlier so that it
gave me more time to communicate back and forth with them and get the
information I needed/wanted. This would have made my work even more
professional. I could even have called the charity and recorded the call.
Then I would have been able to quote from an interview in the magazine.
It also would have been quicker and I could have asked more questions in
the time given.