Criterion D

🎯 Criterion D: Presentation (4 marks)

You’re being assessed on:

✅ Your essay’s structure (logical layout, clear organisation)

✅ Your visual presentation (font, spacing, page numbers)

✅ Your citations and referencing (consistent style, complete bibliography)

Can the examiner easily read, navigate, and assess your essay without confusion or frustration?

This should be the easiest for you to have some control over. 

The submission checklist that you'll complete when handing in your essay will help you meet these requirements too. 

Here’s what the IB rubric says for top marks (4):

“Presentation is excellent.

Structure is clear, coherent and appropriate to the research question.

Layout, organisation, appearance and formal elements (such as title page, table of contents, page numbers, headings, citations and bibliography) are present and correctly formatted.”

So a strong essay must:

⭐ Essay includes all formal elements:

✨Title page

✨Table of contents

✨Page numbers

✨Section headings

✨Proper in-text citations

✨Complete works cited

⭐ Font and spacing are consistent (12pt, double-spaced, readable font)

⭐ Tables, figures, images, and graphs are clearly labeled and referred to in the text

⭐ The essay looks polished and professional — not rushed or messy

⭐ Structure follows a clear logic (introduction → body → conclusion)

⭐ The essay is easy to navigate, with everything where it should be