The Extended Essay Guide 2018
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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.
3Extended Essay Calendar
When What How
From Choose a subject area, Discuss ideas with friends, parents,
January topic, research question older brothers or sisters and most
2018 and plan. importantly a teacher who you think
Agree with relevant might help you.
teacher/Faculty Head Decide on your area of study and plan
how you will carry out your research.
By 26 Feb Submit ‘Agreed EE After discussion & approval by
2018 plan’ form to Mr Jupp proposed supervisor.
Submit initial reflections
comments
By 14 Submit Interim Carry out your initial research. Write
June 2018 reflections and 2000 an introduction, method and collate
words your data.
4 Sept Submit your draft to Having worked on your essay over
2018 Mr Jupp. 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 Finalise and refine your Having received feedback from your
Term 2018 essay with the help of supervisor, work to complete your
your supervisor and essay requesting advice as you feel
other relevant people. necessary from your supervisor.
October Read your essay, Make final corrections, these should
HT holiday make final amendments, be just final small things, not a full re-
print two final copies. write.
5 Nov Hand in final essay Two copies are required: 1 paper, 1
2018 during assembly. electronic. The ‘handing in’ ceremony
will take place during the assembly on
Monday 5 November 2018.
Before the Then complete viva
end of voce with supervisor to
January complete your final
2019 reflection statement.
Feb 2019 Essay submission to
IBO.
4EE 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.
5Things 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!
6Help I 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...
7Style & 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.
8Illustrations & 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
9Assessment 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 Criterion B: knowledge Criterion C: critical Criterion D: Criterion E:
method and understanding thinking presentation engagement
• Topic • Context • Research • Structure • Process
• Research • Subject-specific • Analysis • Layout • Research focus
question terminology and • Discussion and Based on the reflection
• Methodology concepts evaluation form
6 marks 6 marks 12 marks 4 marks 6 marks
Total marks available: 34
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.
10You can also read
