Extended Essay: Research Guide

Step . 3 The Researcher's Reflection Space (RRS)

The Researcher's Reflection Space (RRS) is your personal learning environment, like a research journal that helps you clearly document and understand the decision-making process. It can be either a physical or virtual support tool - You use it to record reflections on what you are reading, writing, and thinking. The use of the RRS will help you prepare for your reflection sessions with your supervisor and inform the discussions that take place.

In preparing for your reflection sessions you could use your RRS to:

• record your reflections

• respond to items that have come up in your research, such as photos, newspaper clippings, Twitter feeds, blogs, and so on

• respond to prompts and questions that may arise in your subject area, TOK class, or other aspects of the Diploma Program

• create MindMaps

• record emerging questions

Step . 4 Choose a Topic

After choosing the subject for your extended essay, the next step in the research process is to define what your research is going to focus on - the topic.

At this stage you need to explore:

• what are my possible topics?

• what do I know about those topics?

• which words would be good search terms and keywords?

But first, explore some of the options and try the tools below:

A. Identify keywords as you begin your research

• • Use Carrot2 to discover possible keywords

B. Find background information

• What has already been written about the topic?

• Was it easy to find sources of information?

• Is there a range of different sources available?

• Is there a range of views or perspectives on the topic?

• What interesting questions have started to emerge from this reading

Cautions from IB on using free online encyclopedias (such as Wikipedia)

C. Define your topic

Getting a better definition of your topic will require some research.

To get you started, use Google Scholar and other databases and websites to find background information with both sides of issues.

Use Destiny Discover to access GWA library books to help you with your research

Other Academic Search Engines:

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

BASE is one of the world's most voluminous search engines, especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 240 million documents from more than 8,000 content providers. You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free (Open Access). BASE is operated by Bielefeld University Library.

CORE (Connecting Repositories)

Aggregate open access content currently distributed across a variety of journals and repositories. This includes hundreds of millions of research papers from nearly 10,000 data providers in 145 countries. You can access CORE’s information free of charge

Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. Semantic Scholar collaborates with industry partners to achieve their mission of timely, open access to relevant scientific research. Their growing list of partners includes IEEE, Microsoft Academic, Springer Nature, and more than 500 other publishers, university presses, and scholarly societies around the world.

D. Conduct research on a specific discipline

Step 5. Draft a research question

Steps to Developing a Research Question:

You've chosen a subject and topic that interests you, and carried out some preliminary reading. What are the next steps?

Consider the emerging questions. You should now begin posing open-ended questions about your topic. These questions will usually be framed "how", "why", or "to what extent."

Evaluate the question. Once you have posed possible research questions you should evaluate them. This evaluation should be based on whether the question is clear, focused, and arguable.

• Clear - Will the reader understand the nature of my research? Will it direct the research being undertaken?

• Focused - Will the research question be specific enough to allow for exploration within the scope of the task (that is, the number of words and time available)?

• Arguable - Does the research question allow for analysis, evaluation, and the development of a reasoned argument?

Consider research outcomes. Once you have decided on a provisional research question you should start thinking about the direction your research might take. You could do this by:

• suggesting possible outcomes of your research

• outlining the kind of argument you might make and how your research might support this

• considering options if the research available is not sufficient to support a sustained argument

Step 6. Identify sources

In this stage of the research process, it's time for you to locate the information you need - identify the "how and where" for the sources you will use to write your essay. The important thing to remember is to not be overwhelmed by the amount of information out there, just collect what you think might be useful to you. If you look in the right places and search efficiently you can find relevant resources quickly and easily.

Step 7. Decide on a citation style

It is very important to reference ALL your sources because it answers these questions from your reader:

Where did you find your information?

What kind of source is it?

Where can I find the source myself?

What range of sources did you use?

Refer to Noodletools guide to the left.

See effective citing and referencing according to IB (to the left)

Explains why citations are needed, what needs to be cited, when citations are necessary, and how to cite, and also provides a list of citation definitions, a documentation checklist, and a chart showing the elements to be included in a reference

Step 8. Setting a personal deadline and managing your time wisely!

Setting realistic deadlines for yourself and effectively managing your time are really important skills to master for any student. It's essential when you are undertaking a long-term project, such as the Extended Essay, where you need to spend time preparing, researching, and writing up over a number of weeks - don't leave everything to the last minute!

To manage your time, it helps to:

be aware of your own time management

be aware of how long it takes you to complete each type of study task

schedule time for unforeseen events

schedule time for relaxation and leisure

be very specific in your time-planning

Step 9. Plan a structure for your essay

One way to plan a structure for your essay is by writing an outline. An outline breaks down the parts of your thesis in a clear, hierarchical manner. Most students find that writing an outline before beginning the paper is most helpful in organizing one's thoughts. If your outline is good, your paper should be easy to write.

Step 10. Read! Read!

You have your subject, topic, and research question, and you have identified some sources. Now you need to do some preparatory reading to make sure your research question is viable in light of the information you have found.

The IB advises that you evaluate all of your sources (online, print, and otherwise) to make sure they are valid and reliable. see evaluating your sources

Step 11. Do the Research

It's time to "carry out the research".

During the initial inquiry stage of your research, you're collecting information from a range of sources to help formulate your research question. This may involve talking to people as well as reading. You should be trying to read as much as you can of what has already been written about your topic.

Primary research techniques include:

• setting up experiments

• extracting information from original documents

• interviewing experts

• conducting formal surveys

• gathering information by other methods from primary sources

Secondary sources may include:

• printed works—books, journals, newspapers, magazines

• Internet sources—websites, articles, journals, and so on, available only online

• other media sources—films, TV and radio programs

• any other published information containing ideas and information relating to your choice of topic