Writing FAQs

Are there rules about how to format my Extended Essay?

The extended essay should be written in a clear, correct and formal academic style, appropriate to the subject from which the topic is drawn. Given that the extended essay is a formally written research paper, it should strive to maintain a professional, academic look.

To help achieve this, the following formatting is required:

• the use of 12-point, readable font (Times New Roman/Arial/Calibri)

• double spacing

• standard margins

• page numbering

• no candidate or school name anywhere on the essay.

Can I use illustrations?

Presentation and overall neatness are important, and it is essential that illustrative material, if included, is well set out and used effectively. Graphs, diagrams, tables and maps are effective only if they are clearly labelled and can be interpreted with ease.

Any labelling should contain the minimum information to ensure the examiner understands the significance of the map, chart, diagram or illustration. It must not include commentary, as this will be considered as part of the essay discussion and thus included in the word count.

All such material that is incorporated into the extended essay must be directly related to the text and acknowledged where appropriate. The use of photographs and other images is acceptable only if they are captioned and/or annotated and are used to illustrate a specific point made in the extended essay.

Give a title to each of your illustrations (Figure 1; Coastal erosion in Hellerup, Figure 2; Data extracted from guitar burning...), and when you refer to that illustration in your essay, write 'As noted in Figure 1....)

Use illustrations with caution as excessive use may detract from the discussion in the essay. They should only be used if they are relevant and appropriate to a point being made as part of the argument of the essay.

Can I use tables?

The use of tables should be considered carefully and is only really appropriate in certain subjects. Tables must not be used in an attempt to circumvent the word limit. Obviously, all tables should be correctly labeled, neatly presented, referred to in the body of the essay, and clearly relevant to the essay content.

It may be sensible, if you have lengthy tables with a great deal of data, to place these in Appendices at the end of your essay.

I keep being told to ‘cite my sources’, or ‘reference everything’. What does that mean?

Unless you know the material you have included in your essay ‘out of your own head,’ you MUST clearly state from where you acquired this information. You do this by using a standard system of citing your sources, which means showing in your essay exactly from where each piece of information (you learned from somewhere else) came. The source citing system could be MLA, APA, Chicago, or Harvard. Different subjects use different systems, so you should check with your supervisor which system they would prefer you to use.  AISV uses MLA style. You can use any citation style, but the IB expects it to be done correctly and consistently.

You will then list all of the sources you used in your essay in a Works Cited (for MLA style) at the end of your EE. This Works Cited will be in alphabetical order of the authors’ surnames, and will contain all the information an examiner could need to find that particular source. This is really important! As the IB says:

An Extended Essay must reflect intellectual honesty in research practices and provide the reader with the exact sources of quotations, ideas and points of view through accurate bibliographies and referencing. Producing accurate citations, referencing and a bibliography is a skill that students should be seeking to perfect. Documenting the research in this way is vital: it allows readers to evaluate the evidence for themselves and it shows the student’s understanding of the importance of the sources used.

What are 'in-text' citations?

In-text citation means that you are citing/showing the sources of your information in your essay, and not at the bottom of the page or at the end of the essay. In-text citations are used for exactly the same reason as footnotes--they just look different. An in-text citation might look like (McCarthy, 24), which tells you the name of the author and the page in the book where you found the information. This type of citation system is also known as MLA. You must do this every time you use a piece of information which you did not know 'in your own head'.

In-text citations should be subtracted from your word count--which might need to be done by counting up the number of citations, and then subtracting them from the overall word count.

Check the IB’s Guide to Effective Citing and Referencing for full details!

My supervisor keeps mentioning ‘Appendices’. What are these?

An ‘appendix' (plural is appendices) is a piece of information that is a useful addition to the essay, but which does not include any absolutely vital information. It’s important to remember that examiners will not read them or use any information contained within them in the assessment of the essay. You need to ensure that all information with direct relevance to the analysis, discussion, and evaluation of their essay is contained in the main body of it. Appendices should therefore be avoided except in the following instances:

• an exemplar of a questionnaire or interview questions

• an exemplar of permission letters

• Language A: copies of poems or short stories (of less than three pages)

• Language A: excerpts from newspapers, advertisements, and transcripts of speeches

• Language B: excerpts from newspapers, advertisements, transcripts of speeches, etc

• Language B: excerpts or copies of poems or short stories (less than 3 pages)

• an external mentor letter, where one has been used

• raw data or statistical tables for experimental sciences (this should not include any analysis or conclusions).

You should not continually refer to material presented in an appendix, as this may disrupt the continuity of the essay, and examiners are not required to refer to them.

Only use appendices when absolutely necessary.

Appendices come AFTER the Works Cited.

What is a Works Cited or Bibliography?

MLA = in-text citations + Works Cited

APA = in-text citations + References

Chicago = footnotes/endnotes + Bibliography

Harvard = in-text citations + Reference List

This is an alphabetical list of every source used to research and write the essay, and it is located at the very end of the essay. A MLA Works Cited should only list those sources cited in in-text citations in your essay. Sources that are not cited in the body of the essay, but were important in informing the approach taken, can be noted in an acknowledgment if absolutely necessary.  An annotated bibliography is helpful to you during the research and writing phases, but annotations should not appear in the final Works Cited submitted with your essay.

Your list of sources should follow the citation style you have chosen to use. Using MLA means that you will cite your sources and create your Works Cited in that particular MLA style. If you used Chicago, then make sure that your Bibliography is organized in the expected Chicago way. AISV recommends MLA for everything for convenience.

Should I place a last date of access next to online sources in my bibliography?

Yes--this is an IB requirement. If you are using a citation generator, check that last date of access is included for bibliography entries. If not, you need to add this detail manually.

What will happen if I write more than 4,000 words?

The upper limit is 4,000 words for all extended essays.

Examiners are instructed not to read or assess any material in excess of the word limit. This means that essays containing more than 4,000 words will be compromised across all assessment criteria. Given the holistic nature of the assessment criteria, students who write in excess of the word limit will self-penalize across all criteria. For example, in Criterion B, any knowledge and understanding demonstrated beyond the 4,000-word limit will be treated as if it were not present; in Criterion C, analysis and/or line of argument made beyond the 4,000-word limit will be treated as if the point had not been made.

Supervisors and students should be aware that the upload of Extended Essays will facilitate the automatic recognition of a cut-off point for assessment. Students should ensure that they remain within the word limit and should edit accordingly.