Extended
Essay
Embedded Files
The Extended Essay (EE) is a defining element of the core in International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), providing students with an unparalleled opportunity to explore a topic of personal interest through independent research. As a student, you have your EE as the most important personal project as a passport to be awarded the diploma.
The EE It is an independent piece of research, culminating with a 4,000-word paper. Independent means: The candidate has no limitation to choose specific filed of research. It is recommended to write the subject(s) that your EE covers. For example: “Extended Essay in Chemistry”
Title:
The title will reflect the field and the focus of your EE. It is in the form of a statement and different from your RQ. For example:
“An Analysis of the Impact of Technological Advancements on Business Strategy: A Case Study of the Retail Industry”
Research Question:
RQ is a cause-and-effect expression indicating your investigation line. It must be very focused and clear. All along your EE, you will try to answer this question. So please make it carefully and edit it if necessary. The reader must see that something like A is affecting B. A question like: “What are the causes of the U.S 2012 economic recession?”, cannot be a RQ in EE. If you like to make an appropriate question, it would be like: “To what extent mortgage affected the U.S 2012 economic recession?”. So, here, mortgage is cause and 2012 economic recession is the effect.
Introduction
Try to have one or two paragraphs here to go over:
1. What is going on in this essay?
Outline the nature of your essay (in passive voice like: …. In this essay the relationship between temperature and conductivity of acidic solutions will be studied during a set of lab experiments ….
2. Reexplaining your RQ.
In other words, explain what do you want to find. What exactly you are looking for. Have a short illustration about the keywords in your RQ for a nonexpert reader. Do not hesitate to give a perspective about the work you have done.
Background information
Give relevant information to the reader about your research. The necessary knowledge that you will refer back to them. This part is not going to be very long, maybe about a page. Do not delve into very specific details. You are supposed to make give enough knowledge to the reader that the cause and effect you mentioned are really related. Mention your vision about how you are going to answer your RQ.
Thesis statement
This is the most important part of your essay. Give a complete answer to your RQ. Tell the reader how does A affect B, and why. Give a complete answer to your RQ and have an educational reasoning for that. Keep in mind that you will advocate this thesis statement all throughout your essay. Every word you use here is important. The thesis statement can include one to three sentences as the main answer, and a few supporting sentences for reasoning. Usually, the thesis statement will not be more than a paragraph, but in a supporting paragraph you can extend your educational guess about the expectations in an educated guess.
Note: it is usual among the researchers that they finish the essay then revise the thesis statement according to the conclusion. Your thesis statement must come true according to your findings, so be very careful about its content.
For example, you are going to prove that Facebook as one of the most common social media, will cause sleep disorder among 60% of young generation. The statistics and measurements you show must completely confirm the sleep disorder and the percentage you claimed for. If you go through the resources and find a percentage of 45%, you should go over the thesis statement and correct it to the exact percentage you found.
Academic value
All along your essay you should address all features giving academic value to your article. Rather than providing a section to show that this work is based on observation of similar works, you are supposed to set a meaningful order to the headings. Citation in a must in all parts you have used other investigations or evidence.
Methodology
In methodology, you will explain the method of your research i.e. approach, method of data collection, method of data analysis, and justification of your method (why this method is your priority among the other alternatives.)
Methodology is written in past tense and passive voice.
Your methodology must show the nature of your data (qualitative or quantitative), but you shouldn’t mention the data or results. Do not forget to stick to your RQ. If there are similar approaches, you can mention them and express your reason to choose this method.
Example:
“The survey consisted of 5 multiple-choice questions measured on a 7-point Likert scale. The goal was to collect survey responses from 550 active subscribers. Here, an active subscriber was defined as a person who had commented on more than 10 posts during the last 20 days. Participants were given 5 minutes to fill in the survey anonymously. In total, 408 subscribers responded, but not all the questionnaires were fully completed. Due to this, 371 survey results were included in the analysis.”
Evidence
There are variety of evidence you can provide here sort of your own experiment and research data and results or the data from credible resources. Get help from your supervisor to provide a concise and complete set of data to be used in your analysis and then argumentation. They must be all supporting your thesis statement as the main axis of your essay. The evidence may be quotation from a specific book, tables and graphs you make or import from different resources or even some specific targeted set of artistic pictures. Depending on the nature of your research they are customised. They should not be the direct answer to your RQ, but the engaging materials helping you to prove your thesis statement. So do not try to find a resource that directly answers your RQ, you should do it, thus the evidence is just a reference not the answer.
Argumentation
Now it’s the time to make some specific body paragraphs (probably with some headings) to advocate your thesis statement. If you have three different parts in your thesis statement, you must advocate them one by one, referring to the aforementioned evidence you provided already. Use strong words indicating your engagement upon the data you presented. Phrased like “according to …” or “referring to …” are very usual ones. Avoid phrases like “in my opinion …” or “I think …” or “probably …”. Do not say: “it seems ...” instead say: “it is confirmed …”.
If your results are going to prove a probability, present it as a confirmed percentage not a doubtful idea.
Counter arguments
It is good to mention some counter arguments is short. But do not leverage them to weeken your argument. You can mention why these counter arguments are rejected based on your evidence.
Conclusion
In this part you must:
1. Mention your thesis statement in other words.
2. Have a concluding idea in sufficient words. Tell the reader if (not why) your RQ was answered or no? In what level of agreement, could you prove your thesis statement?
3. Have some unsolved questions related to your RQ. Present some more questions that your research has not answered.
4. Mention the lessons you have learned during your research, but all based on the axis of research.
Bibliography
Here you should mention the woks cited for example you can use MLA format. You can easily generate it by the available tools in MS-Word or Google Docs. All along your essay, when you use a resource, immediately save it in your references. Make the proper in-text citation wherever needed and then continue. Regarding the academic honesty, it is a must and gives a high value to your research.
How to develop a paragraph
You are supposed to know the meaning of paragraph. Usual belief is that a paragraph is one or more than one sentences related to each other. But how? I suggest watching this video to learn it.
If you need personalized help, template and resources for your EE, you should fill this form. I will consider your case and invite you for a free online meeting. Then we will decide about our sessions.
Why don't you choose an interdisciplinary EE?
Have a look at this map:👇
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse