Tackling the Extended Essay
The school year may be over for many students (yay!) but for students halfway through the IB Diploma Programme the summer, while a chance to take a short break, is also an opportunity to get a head start on upcoming deadlines. One assignment that students will need to spend time working on is their Extended Essay (EE). A mandatory component of the Diploma Programme, this 4,000-word independent research essay is the behemoth that makes many an IB student quake in their boots and lie awake at night. But fear not! The EE can be broken down into a manageable, stepped process and - with the right guidance - can be turned into not just a manageable task but one of the most rewarding learning experiences that IB students are exposed to. Here are my key student tips for success.
1. Be strategic by choosing a topic relevant to university applications
The EE is your chance to kill two birds with one stone, but many students struggle with subject choice and end up choosing a subject without a strategy in mind. For most country destinations you need to apply for specific subjects in your university applications, but even where this is not a requirement such as liberal arts colleges in the US, application essay prompts often ask students to draw on formative academic experiences. I encourage you to think about how your Extended Essay contributes to your university application profile. If you are thinking of studying Economics at university, and take Economics as one of your six subjects, then it makes sense to have an EE rooted in this subject. This choice would demonstrate both an interest and skill level in this subject that are necessary to be successful in the subject that you’re applying for. What better way to do that than to have written a 4,000-word research essay in that subject?
2. Learn the Extended Essay rules!
Students often don’t read the guidance which is absolutely crucial to understanding how to successfully meet the assessment criteria. The guidance, which is referred to as ‘The Extended Essay Guide’ and is accessible to students on its own website, is over 300 pages long so I understand that it’s easy to think you can save some time by skimming over it. Unfortunately, though, many students come up with ideas that simply aren’t suitable. If they’d read the guidance properly, they would know these ideas aren’t appropriate for basic reasons. In Economics, for instance, your topic can’t be older than five years old. These are easy rules to follow once you know them. The guidance also provides some options for essays that aren’t taught as subjects which you should consider. The World Studies Extended Essay, for example, allows you to explore a contemporary global issue through a local case study. This allows you the opportunity to study issues like economic inequality or political challenges within the Hong Kong context, which many students are interested in at this time.
3. Start early and invest time in the first part of the process
Don’t procrastinate! Students underestimate how long the process is going to take, especially the initial stages. Choosing a subject, topic and narrowing down a research topic sounds easy but, in fact, these tasks take the longest. It can not be done the night before a deadline; this is exactly how bad decisions are made! Exploring different ideas, or texts or case studies to evaluate their viability as topics for extended research all takes time. This is where the ‘meat’ of the EE is. You need to have a very good idea in your mind of where you’re going to get the information from to answer your research question, so you need to have a good understanding of what your investigation will look like before your topic and research question is finalised.
Understand the power of this first phase preparation. If you rush this phase, you might be setting yourself up for failure. You may be searching for information that isn’t in the public domain, is behind a paywall, or isn’t available at all. Don’t set yourself up to answer a research question that actually isn’t viable for those reasons.
4. View the Extended Essay as a learning experience, not a task
The EE is an opportunity to develop those key academic skills that you will need at university and beyond – devising a research question, research, written communication, academic honesty, and that’s just for starters. When the EE is viewed as having the same importance as a subject rather than just a task to be completed, the learning process is foregrounded. The EE is a lengthy process that has been created as a vehicle to embed important academic skills. If it’s rushed, those skills don’t have a chance to solidify.
5. Be open to evolving your Extended Essay
Students are in a supportive relationship with their supervisor for the duration of the EE process. This involves receiving both formal and informal feedback, including extensive feedback on the first draft. You should be prepared to rewrite, edit and proofread but, in my experience, students don’t ever leave enough time for this. Remember, once the essay has been written, then it’s time to edit the document – there’s still work to be done labelling graphs, checking every citation, creating cover pages and possibly appendices at the end. The IB is very stringent in terms of formatting. It requires a certain font size and style; these are all details that students often forget about because they get into a time crunch. But this can be the difference between an A and a B.
The editing process takes time but learning to be reflective and critical of one’s own work is such an important skill to develop. Sharing this important piece of writing with peers, parents and teachers for feedback is a valuable experience that can help evolve an EE from good to great. Students find it hard to be open to feedback and changes when a piece of writing has been such an enormous effort already. But every edit makes an EE stronger, and more evolved! And don’t you want it to represent your absolute best effort after all the work that’s gone into it?
6. Pay attention to the reflection
Student are supposed to reflect on the process and how they’ve overcome challenges. In fact, 18% of the grade for the EE is based on reflection. It’s so important that it has its own assessment criterion and even EEs that aren’t strong for technical reasons can score well here if the student show true engagement in the process and the product. Students complete the essay but they also complete three reflection sessions with their supervisors. You will need to write up each of those sessions in three separate entries. This form is submitted and assessed by the examiner. Don’t let the reflection become an afterthought; give it the attention it’s worth! After all, IB students know that reflection is a key skill that IB students develop continuously and throughout all their subjects. It’s equally as important in the EE as it is everywhere else in your learning experiences.
With some planning, preparation, time management and organisation, the EE can be one of the most rewarding and gainful experiences you will have as an IB student. But if you are falling behind on your deadlines and are struggling to see the forest for the trees, seek help now to get back on track to avoid losing precious time before the end of the summer!
Guest article written for Honeycombers