IB EXTENDED ESSAY

The IB Extended Essay is an independent, self-directed piece of research, finishing with a 4,000-word paper. It is one component of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme core that is mandatory for all students. The Extended Essay provides preparation for undergraduate research and an opportunity for students to investigate a topic of personal interest to them, either relating to one of the six DP subjects or taking the interdisciplinary approach of a World Studies Extended Essay. Through the research process for the Extended Essay, students develop skills in formulating an appropriate research question, engaging in a personal exploration of the topic, communicating ideas, and developing an argument; this process develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate knowledge.

Over the course of both junior and senior year, I had to come up with a topic and research question of my choice, format many notes and outlines, and eventually write, edit, reflect, and write again the big Extended Essay. Originally, I was just going to write about banned books through history, but I needed to go deeper. I needed to format a topic that took a deep dive into something I was passionate about. Thus, I came up with a topic on two famously banned books, Lord of the Flies and The Satanic Verses, and how their censorship correlated with their respective fundamentalist religions, Christianity and Islam. I crafted over 10,000 words of research for my EE over the two year period of writing and reflecting on my work. I made outline after outline, taking my knowledge apart piece by piece before formatting it again in a new image like it was a puzzle I was trying to fit together just right. My EE mentor, Marsha Hook, guided me on my journey and helped me narrow down my focus, fitting my EE into the category of World Studies, subcategories of Culture, Language, and Identity, and disciplines of English A and World Religions. We met throughout the four semesters, and I wrote reflections on each one up to the Viva Voce (Final Interview). I loved laying out my rough drafts and highlighting/sticky-noting anything and everything in an effort to create the best possible version of my paper; it truly became my baby as I molded the research question: How has the relationship between literary treatment of religion and fundamentalist ideology led to the censorship of novels?

With the IB Extended Essay, I found my strengths to be my powerful writing skills of analysis and description, my multiple perspectives, my in-depth research over many months, and my overall fascination in both books and religion. My weaknesses included struggling to get my word count down until the last minute and my lack of specific marks to the individual IB grader. Overall, I am extremely proud of my IB Extended Essay as I improved my writing and analysis skills while showcasing my new plethora of knowledge; I love being able to talk about my essay and its important, yet fascinating, subjects to the many new people I meet and get to know.