Local

Able to collect reliable primary data and/or reliable secondary data

Argumentative, not descriptive

Spatial and/or temporal in nature

Focused (that the topic is not broad and can be answered in 4000 words).

Interesting/engaging topic that the student will enjoy

Read about the topic in the IB textbooks - to get a general feel.

Do some basic JSTOR searches for key terms

Read the abstracts of the articles, any which seem good, read AND TAKE NOTES

Follow the footnotes/referencing on the articles to find more and more relevant literature about the chosen topic

Be flexible about the exact focus of the essay when doing steps 1-4 (literature review)

Look for possible secondary data sources (e.g., government statistics office).

Read examples of good Geography EEs in order to see the expectations

Plan - what is the main question/argument and therefore conclusion you are trying to convey

Clear structure - Introduction, body and conclusion - with subtitles and subsections

Use of images, maps, diagram, tables, photographs, graphs etc are clearly labelled, included in a table of contents and referred to in the written part of the essay.

No large data tables or quotations included. Any raw data or transcripts should be included in the appendix - but ONLY if needed.