Diagram Masterclass

#WBS14 — Diagram/Graph Masterclass: Scope Finding (Unit 4: Global Business)

Provenance (checked 2026-09-29). Read in full: research/veridian/WBS14-verified-facts.md (the paper-mechanics/quantitative-skills section and every 4.3.1.4 protectionism entry), content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/protectionism-and-trading-blocs.ts (both k: "diagram" blocks and their surrounding worked chains), and every file already in content/veridian/technique-hub/wbs14/ (directory listing checked directly; grepped for diagram/construct/QS3/QS5/QS6 across all of it). No new primary-source PDF was fetched for this document — every claim below traces to a fact already independently verified in one of the files named, re-checked here for internal consistency rather than re-derived. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Pearson Edexcel.

#The one real diagram skill on this paper

Appendix 6 of the spec names Construct as its own command word (4 marks): "draw an accurately labelled diagram" — distinct from Calculate, Explain or Analyse. On WBS14, this is not a dead letter the way it is on some sibling papers: it is confirmed, against a directly re-fetched and re-verified primary mark scheme, attached to an actual hand-drawn supply-and-demand diagram with its own discrete marking points, independent of the surrounding prose. This is a genuine, separately-creditable diagram skill on this paper — the honest answer to this document's brief is yes, it applies.

The fully verified case is October 2024, Q1(a) (Publications Code WBS14_01_2410_MS, Question Paper Log Number P78408A): "construct a supply and demand diagram to show the effect on the market for wheat in Turkey" following a 130% tariff. The mark scheme's own four marking points: 1 mark for correctly labelled axes ("price"/"quantity"); up to 2 marks for the original equilibrium plus the supply curve shifting left; 1 mark for the new equilibrium (price up, quantity supplied down). It explicitly accepts either an ad valorem (%) or a specific/unit tariff shape as the same credited shift.

This is already covered in full, from every angle a masterclass would cover, across at least nine existing files, and this document does not repeat any of it:

• forge-tariff-4-mark-calculate-construct.md, §3 — the complete K1/App2/An1 mechanics for this exact question, re-verified directly against the primary PDF, plus a self-mark checklist.
• content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/protectionism-and-trading-blocs.ts — teaches the diagram itself as an interactive k: "diagram" component, with the mark scheme's marking points quoted directly against it.
• forge-exam-technique-guide.md, the Section-A-opener discussion — the axis-label mark stated as separate from the shift marks, plus the Calculate/Construct alternation-by-series finding.
• forge-battle-card.md — the one-line quick-reference version of the same mark split.
• forge-exam-day-protocol-extended.md and forge-question-selector-guide.md — exam-day strategy for an unfamiliar opener (move to Q1(b) first if the method doesn't come immediately; a partial, fully-labelled attempt still banks the discrete axis/equilibrium marks).
• forge-mock-paper-protocol.md and forge-spaced-repetition-schedule.md — mock-exam and drill scheduling built around this exact diagram-labelling skill.
• forge-forty-eight-hour-checklist.md and forge-night-before-guide.md — both explicitly warn against last-minute drilling of a second, unconfirmed diagram type (see below) at the expense of the one that is actually confirmed.

A tenth file restating axis-labelling conventions, the shift-direction rule, or the self-mark checklist would not be genuinely new — it would be the same verified facts in a tenth wrapper, which this course's standing discipline against duplication rules out.

#The evidence inventory — and a real discrepancy this pass surfaced

The facts bank's paper-mechanics section names three possible Construct/diagram instances. Checked against every other file that cites them, they are not equally solid, and stating that honestly is the one genuinely new contribution this document can make:

Net effect: this paper has one diagram-construction instance with full, independently-verified mark-scheme detail (October 2024), and at most one further corroborated-but-undetailed instance (January 2024). It does not have three clean, independently-confirmed anchors, and no document in this hub should imply otherwise until the October 2021 question is directly re-fetched.

#Two diagram shapes exist in this course's own WBS14 material — don't conflate them

protectionism-and-trading-blocs.ts deliberately teaches two visually different diagrams for two different jobs, and both existing deep dives already state the distinction — not repeated in full here, only flagged so it isn't missed:

• A two-flat-lines world-supply-vs-world-supply-plus-tariff diagram, used to teach the price-wedge-vs-quantity-cap contrast between a tariff and a quota. This is VERIDIAN teaching content, not something any real mark scheme has asked a candidate to draw.
• The ordinary one-curve domestic supply-and-demand diagram above, which is what the real October 2024 mark scheme actually credits.

A candidate who draws the first shape when the real exam asks for the second answers a different, unset question — already the exact warning given in forge-exam-technique-guide.md and the worked chain in protectionism-and-trading-blocs.ts itself.

#What is not a separately-markable diagram skill on this paper

The spec's Appendix 7 quantitative-skills list for this paper also names QS5 (cost/revenue/ profit/break-even) and QS6 (investment appraisal). Neither has turned up, anywhere in this course's evidence base, as a drawn diagram:

• QS5/break-even: no series checked sets a "draw a break-even chart" Construct question — the quant skill is confirmed only as a numeric input to Discuss/Assess prose, never as its own drawing mark.
• QS6/investment appraisal: the October 2023 Examiner's Report shows candidates actively confusing "return on investment" as a location factor (a qualitative discussion point) with investment-appraisal calculation technique — confirming QS6 on this paper is calculation-and- discussion content, not a diagram, and that the two are commonly and wrongly merged by candidates (WBS14-verified-facts.md, spec 4.3.2.3 section).
• Decision trees, network/critical-path diagrams, Gantt charts, Boston-matrix/PLC sketches: none appear as a Construct-tagged, separately-markable drawing task in any series this course has read for this paper. Ansoff's and Porter's matrices are referenced in 4.3.3.1 as frameworks to apply, not diagrams candidates are asked to draw for marks.

#Why this document stops here

The brief for this document is to write a real masterclass if diagrams genuinely earn marks as their own skill, or say plainly if they don't. WBS14's honest answer sits where WBS11's did: one diagram type is genuinely, separately markable, but the material a masterclass would contain for it already exists, verified and cross-referenced, across nine files — and the one thing those nine files hadn't yet stated plainly is that a second cited "confirmed" instance (October 2021) is actually an unresolved internal contradiction, not a second data point. Fixing that scoping gap, and setting out the QS5/QS6/decision-tree non-findings in one place, is this document's real contribution. Restating the axis-labelling mechanics a tenth time would not be.

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#Sources

research/veridian/WBS14-verified-facts.md (paper-mechanics/quantitative-skills section; spec 4.3.1.4 protectionism section, October 2024 sub-entry). content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/ protectionism-and-trading-blocs.ts (both diagram blocks and their closing flag block). content/veridian/technique-hub/wbs14/forge-tariff-4-mark-calculate-construct.md, forge-exam-technique-guide.md, forge-battle-card.md, codex-deep-dive-protectionism-and- trading-blocs.md, codex-deep-dive-globalisation-and-growing-economies.md (the October 2021 discrepancy), signal-topic-brief-protectionism-and-trading-blocs.md, forge-forty-eight-hour- checklist.md, forge-night-before-guide.md, forge-mock-paper-protocol.md, forge-spaced-repetition-schedule.md. Structural precedent: content/veridian/technique-hub/ wbs11/forge-diagram-masterclass.md (the same "genuine skill, already fully covered" finding shape, on a different paper).