The Extended Essay Guide 2018 Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, the father of the essai 1533 1592 "Let the tutor make his charge pass everything through a sieve and lodge nothing in his head on mere authority and trust... set a variety of ideas before him: let him choose if he can." 1
The IBO s Extended Essay Guide: https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/ext endedessay/apps/dpapp/index.h tml?doc=d_0_eeyyy_gui_1602 _1_e&part=1&chapter=1 What is The Extended Essay? The best Universities want students to demonstrate real enthusiasm and depth of knowledge. Here is your opportunity to do just that! The Extended Essay is intended to promote detailed research, writing skills, intellectual discovery and creativity. It provides you with an opportunity to engage in personal research in a topic of your choice. This leads to a major piece of formally presented, structured writing, in which your ideas and findings are communicated in a reasoned and coherent manner, appropriate to the subject chosen. The Extended Essay is one of the core requirements for the Diploma along with ToK & CAS. You cannot pass the Diploma without completing the EE to a reasonable standard. The EE should be the result of approximately 40 hours of work, it is no more than 4,000 words. Group 1 and 2 language essays MUST be written in that language. Extended essays cannot be submitted in Theory of Knowledge. You may choose to write your EE in any IB subject, but are much more likely to do better in a subject you are studying. You will probably choose to do your EE in one of your Higher subjects. It s the process that counts. As you conduct your research you will record your ideas, etc in a Reflection Space, keep records of all sources you use. Your planning & progress are assessed. Malpractice is an attempt to gain an unfair advantage and could result in you failing the IB Diploma. 2
First things first Think about the topic you want to write about. Approach teachers with ideas. Ask one to be your supervisor. Begin to research suitable topic areas that interest you. Work out a manageable and focussed research question with your supervisor. The agreed research question must be completed before half term. What does your supervisor do? Gives you advice, guidance and support in selecting a topic and undertaking research but it is your responsibility to seek him/her out and make appointments, not the other way round! Spends about 3-5 hours supervising you Ensures the EE is your own work by monitoring your progress. Following your viva voce, s/he completes a supervisor s report. But your supervisor does NOT decide the topic for you. Nor does s/he edit your draft essay. Your supervisor may read and comment on it, but not edit it. 3
Extended Essay Calendar When What From January 2018 By 26 Feb 2018 By 14 June 2018 4 Sept 2018 Choose a subject area, topic, research question and plan. Agree with relevant teacher/faculty Head Submit Agreed EE plan form to Mr Jupp Submit initial reflections comments Submit Interim reflections and 2000 words Submit your draft to Mr Jupp. How Discuss ideas with friends, parents, older brothers or sisters and most importantly a teacher who you think might help you. Decide on your area of study and plan how you will carry out your research. After discussion & approval by proposed supervisor. Carry out your initial research. Write an introduction, method and collate your data. Having worked on your essay over the summer hand in your draft. This should include every section. Submission of draft to Turnitin. Sept 2018 Feedback on the draft. Discuss the draft of essay with your supervisor. Autumn Term 2018 October HT holiday 5 Nov 2018 Before the end of January 2019 Finalise and refine your essay with the help of your supervisor and other relevant people. Read your essay, make final amendments, print two final copies. Hand in final essay during assembly. Then complete viva voce with supervisor to complete your final reflection statement. Feb 2019 Essay submission to IBO. Having received feedback from your supervisor, work to complete your essay requesting advice as you feel necessary from your supervisor. Make final corrections, these should be just final small things, not a full rewrite. Two copies are required: 1 paper, 1 electronic. The handing in ceremony will take place during the assembly on Monday 5 November 2018. 4
EE Top Tips Keep your EE under CONTROL it should take no more than 40 hours altogether from the time your first think about it until you hand in your final copy. Keep your topic and research question manageable within the time you have and your skills. A simpler research question is always better. For example; The Mayan civilisation F.Fascinating but vague Some explanations of the collapse of the Mayan civilisation FMuch better Combustion and nitrogen analysis FCould be sharper Is it better to use dried animal dung as a fertiliser or a fuel? FMuch more focused Keep it in perspective with your other subjects. You must complete it to a reasonable standard, but it is often not counted by universities, although if you fail the Diploma they will count it then! 4000 words is all you are allowed! That is about 10 A4 sides. You are unlikely to change the world with the content of your EE. You are not expected to write something totally original, just new to you. It should be on a topic that interests you and that you want to find out about. Let your interest and enthusiasm show. Above all KEEP TO THE DEADLINES. They are there to help you manage your time. Use the library and consult the Librarian for advice. Record sources as you go along you cannot reconstruct the list at the end. Follow the Librarian s advice. Creative writing and essays based on language, culture and/or society topics are not currently permissible as Group 1 extended essays. 5
Things to avoid Examiners reports mention things to be avoided at all costs. Students should not work with a research question that is too broad or too vague, too narrow, too difficult or inappropriate. A good research question is one that asks something worth asking and that is answerable within 40 hours/4,000 words. It should be clear what would count as evidence in relation to the question, and it must be possible to acquire such evidence in the course of the investigation. If a student does not know what evidence is needed, or cannot collect such evidence, it will not be possible to answer the research question. In addition, students should not: forget to analyse the research question ignore the assessment criteria collect material that is irrelevant to the research question use the Internet uncritically plagarise merely describe or report your evidence must be used to support the argument repeat the introduction in the conclusion cite sources that are not used One further piece of advice from the IBO is as follows: The more background a student has in the subject, the better the chance he or she has of writing a good extended essay. Choosing to write the extended essay in a subject that is part of the Diploma Programme, but is not being studied by you, often leads to lower marks. Academic Honesty Every year EE examiners discover that students have cheated by copying and pasting large parts of their essay. This is plagiarism. The repercussions are serious. If the EE examiner discovers that you have cheated you will fail your Diploma! If universities discover that you have cheated they may withdraw their offers! It s not worth it! Don t do it! 6
HelpI can t decide my topic or subject! Ask yourself What topics have I enjoyed learning about? What interests do I have? What intrigues me? What am I good at? Do you want to do an experimental or library-based EE? Experimental is usually in group 4. The advantages are: That the experimental EEs tend to score better in Group 4 than the library-based ones. It is fairly easy to get data and then analyse it. But disadvantages are: If you decide to measure something over time, you should try to ensure that all data collection is carried out as early as possible. A questionnaire, survey or a library-based topic may be easier to research but you need to manage a large amount of material and be selective for relevant information. Once you have a topic in mind, you need to work out a research question. Usually, this will be in the form of a question eg What is the portrayal of women in works of Zola? Always refer back to this question to focus your essay. If you still have no idea what subject area or topic you want to work on, talk to me as soon as possible. During your thinking process and once you have a vague idea, go and talk to teachers from the relevant department. Most of the work of the supervisor is in helping you find a research question that you can tackle in the time you have and in finding resources. It is up to you to make appointments with your supervisor to discuss progress... They will not chase you... 7
Style & presentation Formal Presentation The extended essay should be written in a clear, correct and formal style appropriate to the subject from which the topic is drawn. The Length of the Extended Essay The upper limit is 4000 words for all extended essays. This upper limit includes the introduction, the body, the conclusion and any quotations, but does not include: acknowledgements the contents page maps, charts, diagrams, annotated illustrations and tables the references/bibliography appendices Essays in excess of 4000 words are subject to penalties and examiners are not required to read material in excess of the word limit. They will stop reading at 4000 words. Title Page This page includes the title, the research question, the subject area & word count. Presentation - General Points Font: Arial or similar Size 12 Justify (fill the lines). Line Spacing Double spaced. Pagination Although you should count each page in the pagination, some pages may not have the page numbers typed on them e.g. the Title Page. Number the preliminaries (e.g. Contents Page) using lower case Roman numerals (i, ii etc.). Number each page after the Contents Page. Try to leave any numbering until you are almost finished to minimise the chance of errors occurring in the pagination. Contents Page A contents page must be provided at the beginning of the extended essay and all pages should be numbered. An index is not required. Use upper case for the heading CONTENTS. The contents page lists all parts of the essay except the title page. All sections of the essay are listed and double line spacing is used. The titles of each section are written out exactly as they are found in the body of the essay. Page numbers are aligned to the right following a line of full stops. Use only the beginning page number of each section. 8
Illustrations & graphs etc Presentation and overall neatness are important and it is essential that illustrative material, if included, is well set out and used effectively. This includes graphs, charts, diagrams and maps and tables. Although illustrations should be placed as close as possible to their reference in the text, refer to them by number e.g. Figure 5, using consecutive numbering running throughout, regardless of the type of illustration. This means their exact location in the text is flexible. Leave a margin of at least 2 centimetres around the edge of any illustration. Apart from graphic material, materials in other media may be submitted only as supporting appendices and should not detract from the written content of the extended essay. Specimen materials Specimen materials used in, or produced by, investigations do not form part of the extended essay and must not be submitted. Photographic evidence may be submitted in place of such material. Example Cover Page Extended Essay Subject: Group 3, Geography Title: The impacts of migration on people s possessions. Research Question: How do the contents of peoples sock drawers change as they migrate around the world? Word count: 3,883 9
Assessment Criteria Use the criteria to check your progress Details of these criteria are available on the IBO s Extended Essay site (link on page 2). Criterion A: focus and method Topic Research question Methodology Criterion B: knowledge and understanding Context Subject-specific terminology and concepts Criterion C: critical thinking Research Analysis Discussion and evaluation Criterion D: presentation Structure Layout Criterion E: engagement 6 marks 6 marks 12 marks 4 marks 6 marks Total marks available: 34 Process Research focus Based on the reflection form Referencing Referencing is a standardised method of acknowledging sources of information and ideas that you have used in your assignment in a way that uniquely identifies their source. Direct quotations, facts and figures, as well as ideas and theories, from both published and unpublished works must be referenced. There are many acceptable forms of referencing. You can use whatever referencing system you like but you must be consistent. Why reference? To indicate that your information is taken from reliable sources. Referencing is necessary to avoid plagiarism. Refer to the school s library website for details of how to reference and the different styles. This information has also been covered in Lifeskills. 10