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 draft.
You must have a TITLE and then a separate research question (RQ) for example: Title – The October Revolution: RQ: To what extent was Trotsky’s role essential to the success of the Bolshevik seizure of power?
It is only worth a maximum of 1.5 points out of 45. Keep it in perspective with your other subjects.
4000 words is all you are allowed. DO NOT GO OVER THIS AMOUNT OF WORDS
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. Your engagement and enthusiasm is actually assessed.
World Studies EE
link your title and RQ to one of the six themes.
have at least two IB subjects included as part of your interdisciplinary approach.
Your WS essay needs a global issue and a local example.
Your WS essay needs to be around contemporary issues (the IB considers contemporary to be within your lifetime)
Read the Assessment criteria – you may write a great EE but get low marks because you fail to follow the instructions.
Keep your RPPF and RRS on managebac up to date – you can’t do these at the end it will not work!
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 rather than trying to reconstruct a list at the end.
Choose a topic and a research question that can be answered. If there is a problem you can change your question. The sooner you do this the better.
Use the appropriate language and concepts for the subject you are writing in.
Back your work up using a cloud – so many students carelessly lose their work and that is always a catastrophe!
Examiners’ reports mention these things to be avoided at all costs and are worth consulting.
Students should not work with a RQ that is too broad or too vague, too narrow, too difficult or inappropriate. A good RQ 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.
With World Studies it is very important to have a GLOBAL ISSUE and to focus on a LOCAL EXAMPLE.
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
plagiarize
merely describing or reporting – essay should be ANALYTICAL and not NARRATIVE
your evidence must be used to support the argument
repeat the introduction in the conclusion by making reference to KEY WORDS in the question
cite sources that are not used
One further piece of advice is as follows
the more background a student has in the subject, the better the chance he /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.