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There is a total of 4 out of 34 points available for the presentation of your extended essay. These marks are relatively easy to obtain if you pay attention to the small details outlined in the criteria below.
The basic structure of the extended essay is as follows:
Title Page
Table of Contents
Page numbers
Section Headings (where appropriate)
Effective inclusion of illustrative materials and quotations
Bibliography and in-text citations
Overall formatting and word count - to be completed at the end
- Preparing the Title Page
The IB extended essay guide states that the Title Page (Cover Page) should have the only the following pieces of information:
Title - this is the topic of the essay (see below for more detail)
Research Question - this is the research question that you are answering and is also stated in your introduction
Subject Area e.g. Language and Literature, Business Management, Visual Arts etc
Note: If it is a language and literature or language acquisition essay then category must also be stated. If it is a world studies essay the theme and two subjects utilized must be stated
Word Count
Important: Do not include the following on your title page or anywhere else in your essay:
Your name
Your candidate number
Your supervisor’s name
The school name
Any other identifying piece of information
About the EE title
The IB extended essay Guide on pages 78-9 says “the title of your essay should be a clear focused summative statement of your research, which gives the reader a clear indication of your research topic. It should not be phrased as a research question.” See these examples below:
2. Preparing the Table of Contents
2. Preparing the Table of Contents
The IB is very clear, the EE must contain a Table of Contents. According to page 79 of the guide states “A contents page must be provided at the beginning of the extended essay and all pages should be numbered. Please note that an index page is not required and if included will be treated as if it is not present.”
It is quite easy to produce a contents page using tools in Microsoft Word, GoogleDocs or Pages click on any of the links below to access a video tutorial on how to make you Table of contents:
How to make a table of contents using Microsoft Word
How to make a table of contents using Google Docs
How to make a table of contents using Pages (Apple)
Important: Before you prepare your Table of Contents, you will need to have determined all of your section headings - see Step 4 below.
3. Preparing the Page Numbers
3. Preparing the Page Numbers
Use the footer section of your document to put the page numbers of your essay. If you are not sure how to do this, the video tutorials below can help.
How to add page numbers to a document in Microsoft Word
4. Preparing illustrations and tables
4. Preparing illustrations and tables
It is essential that illustrative material, if included, is well set out and used effectively. Illustrative material that you use in your essay could include graphs, diagrams, photographs and maps. Illustrative materials are effective only if they are clearly labelled and can be interpreted with ease. For example:
Figure 1 shows...
...as shown in Figure 1.
Alternatively, you can write as sentence that refers to a piece of illustrative material and then put the illustrative material referred to in brackets e.g. (Figure 2)
Note: Any illustrative material referred to is a Figure and must also include a title.
e.g. Figure 1 - Population Growth of the USA between 1950 and 2020
Any labelling that you may include on an illustration 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.
Note: If you include a table, then it should be referred to as a Table and include a title:
e.g. Table 1 - Energy sources for North American countries 2015
5. Preparing the Section Headings
5. Preparing the Section Headings
You will need to determine the number of sections for your document and give each section a heading, Your essay may include any the following sections:
Introduction
Background
Literature review
Methodology
Fieldwork and findings
Analysis and discussion - this may be broken into specific parts with specific headings
Conclusion
Bibliography / Works Cited
6. Preparing the Bibliography and in-text citations
6. Preparing the Bibliography and in-text citations
The Bibliography or Works Cited list
Putting together a Bibliography is not only a key aspect of the presentation of your extended essay but it is also a great skill to have in preparation of college / university. If you have conducted your research well, you will haven noted all the sources that you have used and made reference to in your Noodle Tools or Researcher's Reflection Space, by the time you get to put the Bibliography together.
At ISI we use the MLA Style of referencing for the bibliography, which is explained in the ISI library guide
The IB guide (P.86) states that "A bibliography is an alphabetical list of every source used to research and write the essay. Sources that are not cited in the body of the essay but were important in informing the approach taken should be cited in the introduction or in an acknowledgment. The bibliography must list only those sources cited."
Important: Only place the sources that you refer to in your essay in the Bibliography. As a result, you may wish to call the Bibliography a 'Works Cited' list instead as the header for this section.
Citations
A citation is a shorthand method of making a reference to a source in the body of an essay, either as an in-text citation or footnote/endnote. This must then be linked to the full reference at the end of the essay in the bibliography. A citation provides the reader with accurate references so that he or she can locate the source easily. How sources are cited varies with the particular referencing style that has been chosen. Page numbers should normally be given when referencing printed material and this is especially so in the case of direct quotations. For some styles this will also be in the citation, in others in the full reference. Once again, it is important to emphasize that there must be consistency of method when citing sources.
At ISI we use the MLA Style of referencing for citations in our work, which is explained in the ISI library guide
7. Formatting and Word Count
7. Formatting and Word Count
Formatting
Font type: Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Helvetica are all good fonts to use
Font size: 12 pt
Word spacing: Double space
Paragraph: It is up to you if you wish to Indent at the start of paragraphs. It is not a requirement but you must be consistent throughout the essay.
Page margins: 1 inch margin all sides left, right, top, bottom
Note: The file size of your extended essay must not be more than 10 MB
Word Count
The IB states that: "The upper limit is 4,000 words for all extended essays. Please note: 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." i.e. you will lose marks.
Please refer to the following guidance on what content should be included in the word count.
Ready to go?
Ready to go?
Here's a checklist that you can use to see if you are fully addressing Criterion D
EE Presentation - Criterion D checklist.docxPage updated
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