Extended Essay Handbook AIS

The Extended Essay Handbook

American International School Kuwait

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The Extended Essay

Supervised Study PresentationMonday, September 16, 2013

Mrs. Murray

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What Is The Extended Essay?• Compulsory for all Diploma Programme students• Externally assessed and, in combination with the grade for theory of knowledge, contributes up to three points to the total score for the IB diploma

• A piece of independent research/investigation on a topic chosen by the student in cooperation with a supervisor in the school

• Chosen from the list of approved subjects (noted later)• Presented as a formal piece of scholarship containing no more than 4,000 words

• The result of approximately 40 hours of work by the student

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Responsibilities of the StudentIt is required that students:• choose a topic that fits into one of the subjects on the approved extended essay

list • observe the regulations relating to the extended essay• meet deadlines• acknowledge all sources of information and ideas in an approved academic

manner.

It is strongly recommended that students:• start work early• think very carefully about the research question for their essay• plan how, when and where they will find material for their essay• plan a schedule for both researching and writing the essay, including extra time for

delays and unforeseen problems• record sources as their research progresses (rather than trying to reconstruct a list

at the end)• have a clear structure for the essay itself before beginning to write• check and proofread the final version carefully• make sure that all basic requirements are met (for example, all students should get

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Advice to Students from ExaminersPrior to the research process, students should:• read the assessment criteria• read previous essays to identify strengths and possible pitfalls• spend time working out the research question (imagine the finished essay)• work out a structure for the essay.During the research process, and while writing the essay, students should:• start work early and stick to deadlines• maintain a good working relationship with their supervisor ‐ Supervisors are

volunteers if they feel as though they are chasing students for work then they shouldn’t feel obliged to supervise.

• construct an argument that relates to the research question• use the library and consult librarians for advice• record sources as they go along (rather than trying to reconstruct a list at the

end)After completing the essay, students should:• write the abstract• check and proofread the final version carefully. 6/70

Things to AvoidExaminers’ reports also mention these things to be avoided at all costs.• Students should not work with a research question that is too broad or too vague, too narrow, too difficult or inappropriate. • A good research question is one that asks something worth asking and that is answerable within 40 hours/4,000 words. • It should be clear what would count as evidence in relation to the question, and it must be possible to acquire such evidence in the course of the investigation. If a student does not know what evidence is needed, or cannot collect such evidence, it will not be possible to answer the research question.

In addition, students should not:• forget to analyse the research question• ignore the assessment criteria• collect material that is irrelevant to the research question• use the internet uncritically• Plagiarize• merely describe or report (evidence must be used to support the argument)• repeat the introduction in the conclusion• cite sources that are not used.One further piece of advice is as follows: the more background a student has in the subject, the better the chance he or she has of writing a good extended essay. Choosing to write the extended essay in a subject that is not being studied as part of the Diploma Programme often leads to lower marks.

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Writing the Extended Essay• The required elements of the final work to be submitted are listed here. More details about each

element are given in the “Formal Presentation of the Extended Essay” section. Please note that the order in which they are presented here is not necessarily the order in which they should be written.– Title page– Abstract– Contents page– Introduction– Body (development/methods/results)– Conclusion– References and bibliography– Appendices

• Students should use the chosen system of academic referencing as soon as they start writing. That way, they are less likely to forget to include a citation. It is also easier than trying to add references at a later stage.

• Some students draft the introduction first. If students do that, they must be prepared to revise it once the essay is complete.

• The main task is writing the body of the essay, which should be presented in the form of a reasoned argument. The form of this varies with the subject of the essay but, as the argument develops, it should be clear to the reader what relevant evidence has been discovered, where/how it has been discovered and how it supports the argument.

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Writing the Extended Essay• In most subjects, sub‐headings within the main body of the essay will help the

reader to understand the argument (and will also help the student to keep on track).

• Once the main body of the essay is complete, it is possible to finalize the introduction (which tells the reader what to expect) and the conclusion (which says what has been achieved, including notes of any limitations and any questions that have not been resolved).

• Any information that is important to the argument should not be included in appendices or footnotes/endnotes.

• The examiner is not bound to read notes or appendices, so an essay that is not complete in itself will lose marks.

• The remaining stages in writing the essay take time but are not difficult. Students need to check that they have cited sources for all material that is not their own, and that the citations are complete and consistent with the chosen referencing system.

• The bibliography should list only the sources used in the essay. • The whole essay needs to be proofread carefully (computer spelling and grammar

checkers are useful but will not do everything). • Pages must be numbered and the contents page must be completed. • The abstract is normally written last. 9/70

Formal Presentation• The extended essay should be written in a clear, correct and formal

academic style, appropriate to the subject from which the topic is drawn. The length of the extended essay• The upper limit is 4,000 words for all extended essays. This upper limit

includes the introduction, the body, the conclusion and any quotations, but does not include:– the abstract– acknowledgments– the contents page– maps, charts, diagrams, annotated illustrations and tables– equations, formulas and calculations– citations/references (whether parenthetical or numbered)– footnotes or endnotes– the bibliography– appendices.

• Essays containing more than 4,000 words are subject to penalties and examiners are not required to read material in excess of the word limit.

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Formal Presentation: Title

• The title should provide a clear indication of the focus of the essay.

• It should be precise and not necessarily phrased in the form of a question.

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Formal Presentation: The Abstract• An abstract not exceeding 300 words must be included with the

essay submitted. • It does not serve as an introduction, but presents an overview of

the extended essay, and should, therefore, be written last.• The inclusion of an abstract is intended to encourage students to

examine closely the development of an argument within the extended essay and the pertinence of any conclusions that are reached.

• It is also designed to allow readers to understand quickly the contents of the extended essay.

• The minimum requirements for the abstract are for it to state clearly:– the research question being investigated– the scope of the investigation– the conclusion(s) of the extended essay.

• The abstract should be typed or word processed on one side of a sheet of paper, and placed immediately after the title page.

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Formal Presentation: Contents Page

• A contents page must be provided at the beginning of the extended essay and all pages should be numbered.

• An index is not required.

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Formal Presentation: Illustrations• Presentation and overall neatness are important, and it is essential that illustrative material, if included, is well set out and used effectively.

• Graphs, diagrams, tables and maps are effective only if they are clearly labelled and can be interpreted with ease.

• All such material that is incorporated into the extended essay must be directly related to the text and acknowledged where appropriate.

• The use of photographs and other images is acceptable only if they are captioned and/or annotated and are used to illustrate a specific point made in the extended essay.

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Bibliographies, References and Citations

• An extended essay must reflect intellectual honesty in research practices and provide the reader with the exact sources of quotations, ideas and points of view through accurate bibliographies and referencing.

• Producing accurate citations, referencing and a bibliography is a skill that students should be seeking to perfect.

• Documenting the research in this way is vital: it allows readers to evaluate the evidence for themselves and it shows the student’s understanding of the importance of the sources used.

• Failure to comply with this requirement will be viewed as plagiarism and will, therefore, be treated as a case of malpractice.

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What is a Bibliography?• A bibliography is an alphabetical list of every source used to research and write the

essay (the bibliography is referred to as “works cited” in MLA. • 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

• In short, only works that have been cited should be in the “works cited”. • There are a number of different documentation styles available for use when

writing research papers; most are appropriate in some academic disciplines but not others.

• At AIS we typically use MLA, however, the supervisor will help the student decide on the most appropriate style for the particular subject of the essay.

• It is important to remember that, whatever style is chosen, it must be applied consistently. When choosing the documentation style, the student needs to have a clear understanding of how it is to be used before embarking on the research task.

• The documentation style should be applied in both the final draft of the essay and in the initial research stages of taking notes – penalties for plagiarism start at the rough draft stage.

• This is good practice, not only for producing a high‐quality final product, but also for reducing the opportunities and temptation to plagiarize.

• Consult the IB document Academic Honesty and the document Academic Honesty at AIS in the “files” tab in Managebac or the email that was sent to you for further explanation of the consequences of academic malpractice. 16/70

What is a Reference/Citation?• A reference is a way of indicating to the reader, in an orderly form,

where information has been obtained (often referred to as the bibliography or works cited).

• A reference provides all the information needed to find the source material. References must also be cited because they acknowledge the sources used, and enable the reader to consult the work and verify the data that has been presented. Simply listing references in the bibliography is not acceptable.

• References must be given whenever someone else’s work is quoted or summarized. References can come from many different sources, including books, magazines, journals, newspapers, emails, internet sites and interviews.

• Internet references should include the title of the extract used as well as the website address, the date it was accessed and, if possible, the author.

• Caution should be exercised with information on websites that do not give references or that cannot be cross‐checked against other sources.

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What is a Reference/Citation?• The more important a particular point is to the essay, the

more the quality of its source needs to be evaluated.• Any references to interviews should state the name of the

interviewer, the name of the interviewee, the date and the place of the interview.

• The difference between a citation and a reference is that a citation is a shorthand method of making a reference in the body of an essay, which is then linked to the full reference at the end of the essay.

• A citation provides the reader with accurate references so that he or she can locate the source easily.

• It is important to emphasize that there must be consistency of method when citing sources.

• A quick guide to MLA citation is located in the files tab in Managebac in the “Extended Essay Documents/Explanation” category on the right of your screen. 18/70

Appendices, Footnotes and Endnotes• Appendices, footnotes and endnotes are not an essential

section of the extended essay and examiners are not required to read them (unless they are a formal method of referencing one’s work), so care should be taken to include all information of direct relevance to the analysis and argument in the main body of the essay.

• An essay that attempts to evade the word limit by including important material in notes or appendices risks losing marks under several criteria.

• Unless considered essential, complete lists of raw data should not be included in the extended essay.

• Students should not constantly refer to material presented in an appendix as this may disrupt the continuity of the essay.

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Award of Diploma Points• The extended essay contributes to the overall diploma score through the award of points in conjunction with theory of knowledge.

• A maximum of three points are awarded according to a student’s combined performance in both the extended essay and theory of knowledge.

• The total number of points awarded is determined by the combination of the performance levels achieved by the student in both the extended essay and theory of knowledge according to the following matrix.

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The Diploma Programme Points Matrix•* From 2010 onwards, 28 points overall will be required to be eligible for the diploma if a student attains an “E” grade in either the extended essay or theory of knowledge. •As previously, a grade “A” in one of the requirements earns an extra point even if the other is a grade “E”. •Attaining a grade “E” in both the extended essay and theory of knowledge continues to represent an automatic failure.

No Extended Essay Submitted = No Diploma

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Choice of Topics• Language A• Language B• Biology• Business and Management• Chemistry• Classical Greek and Latin• Dance• Design Technology• Economics• Environmental Systems and Societies• Film• Geography• History • Human Rights• Information Technology in a Global Society• Literature and Performance

•Mathematics•Music•Peace and Conflict Studies•Philosophy•Physics•Politics•Psychology•Social and Cultural Anthropology•Sports, Exercise and Health Science•Theatre•Visual Arts•World Religions•World Studies*

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*World Studies• An extended essay in world studies provides students with an opportunity to undertake an

in‐depth, interdisciplinary study of an issue of contemporary global significance. World studies extended essays may:• examine issues such as the global food crisis, climate change, terrorism, energy security,

migration, and global health, technology and cultural exchange. Global issues of this nature play out in local contexts—a zero‐carbon footprint city policy in Denmark; a new clean energy technology used by a village in India; the education of migrant children in two contrasting frontier towns.

• An in‐depth examination of local instances of globally significant phenomena provides opportunities for a well‐grounded appreciation and understanding of the issue under study.

• Complex issues such as these can rarely be adequately understood if only approached from the perspective of a single subject. It is better to approach such issues through interdisciplinary research.

• The world studies extended essay requires students to identify an issue of global importance and develop a clear rationale for taking an interdisciplinary approach.

• It provides an opportunity for students to conduct independent interdisciplinary research—research that draws on theories, findings and methods from two or more IB Diploma Programme subjects and integrates them to produce a coherent and insightful analysis of an issue they choose to investigate.

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Assessment Criteria• General – See my “how to” document called “Extended Essay”. This is

located in the “files” tab in Managebac and under the “Extended Essay Documents/Explanations” category on the right of your screen. It is also in the EE Handbook.

• Subject Specific Guidelines in the 2013 Extended Essay Guide – Read the explanation of what makes a History paper a History paper or a Psychology paper a Psychology paper. This are in the 2013 Extended Essay document located in the “files” tab in Managebac and under the “Extended Essay Documents/Explanations” category on the right of your screen. I will also send you the pdf copy of the guide on your AIS e‐mail account.

• You are expected to review both of these components before, during and after writing the essay.

• You are also responsible for following the Ethical Guidelines document also located in the files on Managebac. 24/70

Sample Essays and Documents on Managebac

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Sample Essays and Documents on Managebac

Click on one of these categories once you have accessed the “files” page 32/70

Getting Started

• Go to the EE tab on Managebac and select your supervisor (if they are not listed, let me know and I’ll add them) and type in your EE question.

• This is how I know you have met your first two deadlines.

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Finishing the EE – The Viva Voce

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Finishing the EE – Suggested Grade

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Finishing the EE ‐ Submission

• Once your EE is finished and polished, you will need to submit and electronic copy on Managebac and send an electronic copy to me at ildiko.murray@ais‐kuwait.org.

• The deadline for submission is September 30th.

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mailto:[email protected]

The Extended Essay1 The extended essay is an opportunity to carry out your own research on a topic that you are interested in and to do so in a formal, academic way. The manner in which you are expected approach and carry out the work for the extended essay makes it quite different to other parts of your IB Diploma Programme. The work should be independent and self-directed. It is independent in the sense that you have control and responsibility for getting it done. The work is also self-directed, meaning that you decided what you want to write about and how t you are going to conduct and organize your research. Your research will be presented in a 4000-word paper and, as such, the extended essay as the name implies will probably be the longest single piece of work you have produced in your academic career so far. The length of the essay seems daunting at first, but most students report that the real challenge is editing their work down so that it is within the word limit. Getting the extended essay done is particularly challenging, not only academically but also in terms of time management and motivation. You need to be well organized, find an interesting idea to write about and be able to keep your motivation level up throughout the research and writing phases. You need to maintain a clear vision of your objective and not let the work get out of hand, while at the same time you need to make use of all of the resources available to you. There are two major benefits in doing an extended essay. The first is that it gives you an opportunity to carry out an in-depth study of a topic that particularly interests you and that you might not otherwise get a chance to learn about. The second is that it gives you some first-hand practical experience of the kind of work that is required of students, almost on a routine basis, at higher level education.

Notes: 1. If you fail to submit a TOK essay or fail to give a TOK presentation, you are given “N” for TOK. 2. Failing condition*: An E in either TOK or the extended essay is a fail condition. However, provided your total diploma

score is 28 or more, you can carry one fail condition and still be awarded the diploma. Nevertheless, having a failing condition puts your diploma at risk if you get 24-27 points or if you have another failing condition.

3. An N in any subject, including TOK, means you will not be awarded a diploma.

1 Most of the material produced in this explanation is from the IBO document “Approach your assessment the IB

way: Extended Essay” by Finbar O’Farrell. Other resources are documented accordingly.

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Role of the Supervisor It is the responsibility of the school to provide every extended essay student with an appropriately qualified supervisor who must be a teacher at the school. Finding An Interesting Topic Interest can stem from a wide range of experiences, for example: A book, newspaper article, magazine piece that fascinated you An author, historical figure or performer that inspires you A website that looks intriguing or a film musical performance or play that captivated

you An experiment that caught your imagination A natural phenomenon that you would like to know more about An idea that you have heard in class that you would like to explore further CAS activities

or discussions in TOK classes An issue or problem in your local community, either past or present a significant event in your own life or one of your relatives/ancestors There are actually endless possibilities for finding suitable topics but there are a number of points to be considered along the way and certain types of topic are more likely to be successful than others. From the outset make sure that: Your topic falls within a recognized IB subject (see below) A supervisor is available for this topic You will be able to find information Safety and ethical considerations can be addressed The following subjects are available in English, French and Spanish: Biology Business and

management Chemistry Computer science Dance Design technology Economics Environmental

systems and societies Film Geography

History Human rights Information

technology in a global society

Literature and performance

Mathematics Music Peace and conflict

studies

Philosophy Physics Politics Psychology Social and cultural

anthropology Theatre Visual arts World religions World studies

Very often the most appropriate and potentially successful approach is to write the essay in one of the six diploma subjects that you have chosen to study. The reason for this is that your level of knowledge, both the subject matter and the methodologies employed in the subject will most likely already be high.

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Establishing The Research Question

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One of the most successful approaches to developing a research question is to formulate the question by starting with “To what extent…” The reason for this is that you avoid asking a “yes” or “no” type of question and therefore a question that lends itself to a more analytical essay and less of a report on information. When you ask “to what extent…” it can be answered in a variety of ways along a spectrum instead of “yes” or “no”. To a significant extent To some degree To a limited extent Three Types of Research Questions Trivial There are what can be called “trivial” or “superficial” extended essays where the research question can be answered in one word or sentence, or simply by looking up the relevant information in a book or other source. Too Broad The other extreme is where the research question is hopelessly broad or complex and would require a much longer piece of work in order to address the research question properly Good Having a good research question will also help you reach the higher assessment levels in other criteria. For example, you will be able to construct a good argument if your research question is well focused and can be addressed within the word limit. You will also find it easier to show a good knowledge and clear understanding of a limited topic. Please note the “trivial”, “broad” and “good” research questions attached to some of the Extended Essay Subject Specific Guideline Documents There Is No Information Available For My Question You could try to: Expand your search – look at a wide range of different sources (books, journal articles,

websites, newspapers, magazines, etc.) Get help from your supervisor or from the librarian (our librarian will be offering you a

session to assist you in your research) Modify the research question, make it broader, include some new aspects that you had

not considered Abandon your original idea and search for a new research question It is important to look on your original idea as being provisional until you have established that you can find enough supporting information in published form. Answering the Research Question The task in writing an extended essay is not only to generate and/or report information but also to subject that information to critical evaluation.

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Selecting Resources Ask yourself the following question every time you consult a resource. Is this resource relevant? In what way is the information in this resource related to my research question? How can I build this information into my argument? Is this resource reliable and what evidence do I have for believing that the contents are

reliable? A good first step is to find out the source of the information, effectively find out who (what person or organization) is the author. If you cannot identify this then you will have a difficult time convincing anyone else (your supervisor or the examiner) that the information is reliable. It is often helpful to find out when the information was published. In some subjects the date of publication of the information is important in deciding whether the information is reliable or useful to your paper. Other Sources of Information There are a number of ways that you can gather your own primary information. Any or all of these may be relevant depending on the type of work you are doing. Some ways of gathering information include: Conducting interviews Carrying out surveys Administering questionnaires Performing experiments Doing fieldwork Reading books

Listening to music Watching a performance Looking at pictures Studying maps Reading documents Performing calculations

Critically evaluating your own work meaning pointing out any weaknesses in the methodology you have used. In crucially evaluating information you have generated by any of the methods listed above you are effectively answering the question: How do I know? How sure am I? Could I be wrong? Acknowledging Your Sources The success of your essay as a piece of academic writing depends to a large extent on how well you have gone about fining, evaluating and selecting information. A significant part of your work then is made up of not just your own thoughts and opinions, but of facts, information, quotations, data opinions and insights of other people, gleaned from the sources you have read. Of course it is important to find a balance between providing information and writing about your own thoughts and insights. You must acknowledge these sources conscientiously and accurately in our writing. This means providing a bibliography of all of the works you have consulted and providing in-text references to show where in the essay each source has been used. To do this at AIS, we use the Modern Languages Association method of documenting our work.

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The librarian will provide a session on proper documentation and the use of the MLA style of documentation to ensure you have a full grasp on how to properly document your sources when writing your extended essay. Plagiarism and Academic Honesty2 Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s ideas without giving credit where credit is due. More specifically, the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers defines plagiarism as the “act of using another person’s ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source” (Gibaldi and Achtert 20). Plagiarism is academic theft, and it can mean the loss of all your marks for an assignment. As you enter post-secondary educational institutions it can result in the loss of credit in your course and in extreme cases of plagiarism, it can mean expulsion from post-secondary institutions. Some examples of plagiarism are: Downloading materials in whole or in part from the Internet (even if you pay for them) Copying word-for-word from published or unpublished work Paraphrasing published or unpublished material without bibliographic notation Copying and turning in another student’s work as your own with or without that

student’s knowledge How to Avoid Plagiarism Always give credit where credit is due. Citing a source means giving credit to someone or something when what you use is not your own original work. Cite your sources within your text and in a bibliography at the end of the assignment. Sources should be cited when: you use another person’s idea, opinion or theory. you use any fact, statistics, graphs, drawings, pictures, sounds, or any other piece of

information that you found from another source. you use quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words. Citing Sources All information must be cited whether it is from a book, interview, Internet, electronic source, et cetera. When you use the work of others, you must give them the credit they deserve. When in doubt, cite your source! For further information one what constitutes malpractice and plagiarism and the consequences, review your copy of the IBO’s document Academic Honesty. Pay particular attention to Section 1 (Academic Honesty), Section 2 (Malpractice and Section 5 (The Detection of Plagiarism).

2 What follows are excerpts from the MECY Distance Learning document on plagiarism

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Working With Your Supervisor As an IB Diploma Programme student the extended essay is your responsibility, it is your job to get it done. The time that you need to completed this will depend to some extent on the internal deadlines that apply in the school but will probably be somewhere in the range of four to eight months. In any case it is likely to be longer than you have spent on any one school assignment up to now. However, you will not be alone in this endeavour. Your Extended Essay supervisor, librarian, Coordinator and other teachers will be there to support you in your work.

The job of the supervisor can be summarized as helping you to navigate the process of successfully completing the extended essay. The supervisor does not write the essay for you and is not there to take responsibility if you do not follow through on the task. Successful extended essay students consult regularly and openly with their supervisor. The supervisor provides guidance, advice and often a sympathetic ear if you are experiencing difficulties. A skilful supervisor will help you to ask the right questions about the progress of your work so that you can go about finding the important answers. Students who rarely consult with their supervisor and do not look for help when they need it often struggle to complete the essay successfully. In extreme cases the supervisor may only see the student twice during the entire process: once to agree on the topic and research question and then again when the completed essay is handed in. Student who take this approach are making the task more difficult for themselves and are not making use of the support mechanisms and opportunities for feedback that are available. In addition they are exposing their work to the risk of rejection and to possible suspicion of malpractice. Supervisors are often very busy people and many lose track of the progress of your work. Don’t let this happen: be proactive, look for meetings, remind the supervisor, get their attention. There are a number of constraints on the supervisor and their role in terms of what they can and cannot do it well defined. As you progress with the research and construct parts of your paper, you can expect to get feedback from the supervisor along the way. The supervisor, however, reads and comments on one full draft of the essay only. The complete draft of the essay should be just that: complete. It is your last chance to get some feedback from your supervisor. At this stage the supervisor is not allowed to change your essay for you but may make general suggestions as to where it could be improved or where you need to check it again. For instance they may suggest you go back and check all your calculations again or they may say they do not see a firm structure in part of the essay or that they are having difficulty understanding what you mean in certain paragraphs. When you submit the final copy, you fill out the extended essay coversheet and sign the student declaration acknowledging that the essay is your own work. The supervisor reads the final copy, writes a comment on the extended essay coversheet and signs the supervisor declaration, stating that, to the best of their knowledge, the work as reflected in the essay is authentically yours. The comment which the supervisor writes can deal with how well you have engaged with the process and, as such, can have an influence on the level awarded by the examiner for criterion K, holistic judgment.

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Getting It Done As an IB Diploma Programme student you have a busy schedule with lots of things to do, deadlines to meet, assignments to complete, not to mention learning and preparing for assessments. You rarely have large blocks of time where you have no other commitments. If you look on the task of writing the extended essay as a single large item you are unlikely to be able to find the time to schedule the require work. In order to set up an effective plan you need to break the task down into smaller tasks and schedule these.

Timeline Research and consider various topics for the EE Speak with possible advisors about your ideas for an EE Decide on a preliminary topic and ask one of the teachers in the school to be your advisor Establish a time with your supervisor to develop one or two preliminary research questions to

investigate. Find out what resources are available for your preliminary questions and make a decision on

which topic would be best considering the resources that are available. With your advisor, establish due dates for the following (unless otherwise indicated):

o Collect resources and present them to your advisor to discuss their value and limitations

o Divide your essay into parts and decide when each part will be due. After each due date, discuss that portion of the essay with your advisor; this will prevent you from becoming overwhelmed by the task

o Submit a full draft to your advisor for thorough and specific feedback3 o Revise first draft and submit a final copy to your advisor for general feedback4 o Submit copy and sign coversheet to be sent for external assessment

4 The latest date for submitting this component is via “turnitin.com” is September 30, 2013.

Note the crucial due date!

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Malpractice Doing something that is unacceptable in an academic context is considered to be malpractice. This is a serious matter. If you were found to have committed malpractice you could, in the worst case, end up with a score of zero for the extended essay and not be awarded an IB diploma. There are different kinds of malpractice but what they all have in common is that they allow you to gain an unfair advantage in your work. You commit plagiarism when you present the work (text, ideas, images, data, etc.) of

another person as if it were you own. This is true even if only some sections of the essay are plagiarized. Plagiarism can be both deliberate and unintentional. Unintentional plagiarism may occur when a piece of text or visual material is not properly referenced (no in-text citation and/or not corresponding citation).

You are guilty of collusion if you allow another student to copy your work or take a piece of your work and submit it for assessment as if it were their own. The person who copied from you would of course then be guilty of plagiarism and you would have helped or allowed them to gain an unfair advantage.

Duplication of work is not considered acceptable practice and represents an attempt to gain an unfair advantage. Duplication would occur if you took a copy of a piece you wrote for an internal assessment in one of your diploma subjects and decided to “flesh it out” a bit and submit it as your essay.

How To Avoid Malpractice Reference your work right away. Do not wait to do it until you have completed your

essay. Do it as you write. This will be the easiest way to avoid plagiarism. Be systematic, thorough and accurate in your approach to your bibliography and in-text

references. Be organized and plan your timetable carefully and meet your deadlines. This will help

you avoid the temptation to submit an essay that has already been used for a different assessment component or undertake other dishonest methods of submitting a completed paper.

The bottom line is that what you write and submit for assessment must be your own work. Getting Started The introduction may seem at first to be the obvious place to start the main writing task – after all this is where you would start reading the essay. However, it is not necessarily the best place to begin writing. One approach is to begin by writing some part of the main body since you will have the evidence or information that you have gathered already at hand. In some cases writing about how you collected the information, how you selected the resources you have used or how you gathered your data, may act as a good starting point. Alternatively, you may want to start by presenting some of the data or information you have collected. This might involve paraphrasing information from the resources you have read, describing events or performances you have seen outlining the information you gathered through interviews or organizing the results of experiments, fieldwork or

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questionnaires. In any case, presenting information in whatever form is often the easiest place to being writing. As you go about presenting, you will begin to look for and find meaningful ways of organizing the information. You will be thinking about what order it should be in and which bits are linked. Constructing and Sustaining an Argument A successful approach to sustaining an argument could look something like this: 1. Tell the reader what you intend to show. Do this by presenting, explaining and putting

the research question into context. 2. Present and explain the evidence to support your case. This may take many different

forms depending on the nature of the research question, for example: a. Quotations from a text b. Opinions of authors you have read c. Historical documents/accounts of events d. Data collected through experimentation/fieldwork e. Results of surveys or questionnaires.

It is important that at all times throughout the presentation of your evidence and argument you are constantly and consistently referring back to and reminding your reader of the question you are addressing or the argument you are attempting to make. Your argument might be more complex if you are trying to point out that there are a number of alternative conclusions that can be drawn from the evidence. You might also be trying to show that a particular conclusion is actually incorrect, or not likely to be correct. 3. Draw your conclusions, referring back to the research question and to the evidence you

have presented.

Once you have completed a draft of your argument you will need to ask yourself the following questions: 1. Is the argument convincing? If not, what can I do to make it more convincing? Can I

present information differently (in a different order, with different emphasis)? Have I prioritized my evidence?

2. Are there gaps? Is there other evidence that I have not presented? How can I get my hands on this other evidence?

3. Is there room for alternative interpretations of the evidence I have presented? (If there is then it is better to pint this out yourself rather than have the examiner notice it and come to the conclusion that you did not)

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The Introduction In the introduction you are required to present the research question and explain why it is worth investigating. There are many possible reasons why it might be worthwhile carrying out research on a particular question and you need to establish your reasons explicitly at this stage of the essay. A question will be worth investigating if it is unanswered or unresolved by the existing literature or by the information or literature at your disposal. It may also be worth in establishing if there has not been much research done on it so far. Finding an issue that, to the best of your knowledge, has not been extensively researched before give you a strong case for claiming that the research question is worthy of investigation. Similarly, finding an issue which is controversial, or where there is a clear division of opinion amongst researchers, many lead to a useful question. Finally, using an innovative method to collect data or information, or applying a research approach that has not been tried before, may also lead to a useful interesting investigation. In any case, early in the introduction you will need to establish why you think this particular question is worth investigating. To do this you will need to go beyond simply presenting your personal motivation (“I find it really interesting…”). A convincing introduction will be well referenced and will show the reader that other people have said or written and will relate your research question to what is already known about your topic. In doing this you are establishing what is called the context of the reach question. A convincing way to achieve this is to show that you have “read around the topic”. The introduction should contain references to important books, publications and other resources that deal with your topic. In the end you will need to establish for the reader that the rest of the essay is worth reading because the question being investigated may lead to a new or better understanding, may solve an unresolved issue or shed new light on an old problem

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The Conclusion The conclusion must be relevant, in other words it must relate the research question. Restating the research question at this point may help you focus your writing and you should use simple direct language in order to make the conclusion as clear as possible. Do not overstate your conclusion such as, “my research clearly proves that…” instead use language that acknowledges the limitations of your research such as, “on the basis of the evidence provided it seems likely that…” Avoid introducing new ideas that are not related to the research question at this stage of your work. This will remove the focus of your work, distract from the line of argument and possibly even confuse the reader. It may be important that in your essay you explain to the reader what you have and have not concluded. In other words, what are the areas of research you touched upon that either did not support your thesis are not a part of the conclusion you are drawing.

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The Abstract The abstract give the reader a preview of the essay in its entirety and should be the last part of the writing process, written after all other parts have been completed. An abstract is not actually part of the essay; it is a separate piece of writing that has its own word limit (300) to which you need to carefully adhere. Sometimes a good abstract can be written in 100 words, but more often than not somewhere between 200 and 300 are needed to fulfill all of the requirements. In any case the abstract must contain the research question and it must contain your main conclusion(s). It must also deal with how you went about gathering the information, evidence and data that you have presented. This can be important for the reader as it may be the methods used, rather than the topic of conclusions drawn, that are of particular interest. Essentially, an abstract should answer three questions for the reader:

1. What question are you trying to answer in the essay? 2. How did you go about gathering your information (what methods did you use)? 3. What did you find out (what conclusions did you reach)?

The answers to these three questions will help the reader to understand what the essay is all about before reading the entire essay. For a researcher the abstract is of critical importance in trying to decide whether an article or report is really of interest and would be worthwhile reading in its entirety. You have probably taken this approach yourself doing your research for the extended essay by looking at published abstracts before deciding whether or not to read an entire article that looked like it might be interesting. The following is an abstract that received full marks

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In General It is generally good practice to postpone work on these aspects of the writing process until after the main body of the essay, including the main line of argument and supporting evidence, has been nearly completed. By taking this approach you can be confident that the main thrust of the essay is unlikely to undergo major revision that might require a rewriting of these parts. There is little point in tackling these technical elements of the essay if the main ideas in the body of the essay are not in place. Title Page and Table of Contents A clearly laid out and professional looking title page is a good starting point. This excludes in pictures, colour or fancy font. See examples from past extended essays to get a sense of an appropriate format. Although you are likely to include your research question on the title page it still must be included in your abstract and introduction. A table of contents is helpful if it is done carefully and accurately and a clear, well-delineated table of contents shows planning. Showing a Command of Language There is no single prescribed style for the extended essay. Different degrees of formal and more personal approaches may be appropriate depended on the subject, topic or even on your own personal preference. An effective essay will use a consistent style throughout and will not swing between different modes. It is most important that the language of your essay should be clear and simple. In order to achieve this it is best to try to be a precise as possible by aboding using complex sentences, vague and unnecessary terms and informal or colloquial expressions. There may be a strong temptation to try to copy the complex, sophisticated language that you often find in research papers, in order to impress the reader or to demonstrate that you understand the material at a deep level. This kind of approach to language is normally not appropriate and in fact often has the opposite effect to that intended. Adopting a sophisticated style or copying the style of the research papers you access, can only work if you can sustain this approach throughout the essay. Allowing the style to swing between sophisticated and informal may raise doubts about your level of understanding of the material. A good rule of thumb is: Do not write anything in your essay that you do not understand. Paraphrasing and putting ideas you have read into your own words is the best starting point for demonstrating that you understand what you are writing. In addition, a consistent style with lots of explanation of the important term sis a clear indicator of a command of the language The extended essay is a research paper and as such should be written in a formal style. One way to reinforce the impression of seriousness in the work is to avoid the use of contractions (“cannot” instead of “can’t” and “do not” instead of “don’t”, etc.). It is not necessary or even desirable, to use the passive voice even in the experimental sciences. Simple and clear does not have to mean imprecise and informal. Showing a command of language may also include using and explaining symbols, acronyms and abbreviations (for example, for units of measurement). Be careful to explain these in your writing. A useful approach is to write out the acronym of abbreviation in full the first time it appears in the essay and to use the abbreviation thereafter. In an essay where a number of such abbreviations are used it is useful to have a list of these at the start of the essay, just after the table of contents.

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Getting this right is probable the most critical aspect of writing the essay and it cannot be emphasized enough that the quality of the research question has a direct bearing on the quality of the essay. You need to focus on the extent to which the purpose of the essay is clearly specified and this can be formulated as a question (the “research question”) but it doesn’t need to be in the form of a question. If you don’t get this right you will fail to reach the top level for this criterion but you also are limited with what you can achieve in other criteria. For example, in

criteria C and E if the examiner decides that you research question “does not lend itself to a systematic investigation in the subject in which the essay is registered”, the maximum level that can be awarded for both C and E is 2. This would mean that even if your essay did well against all of the other criteria it would be very difficult to reach an excellent level overall. To help you decide whether the topic you are interested in fits within the disciple (subject) for which you intend to register get advice from your EE supervisor. Finally you need to decide whether the research question can be addressed adequately and answered within the word limit.

Your question is clearly stated in the introduction.

The working of your research question matches the wording used in other parts of the essay and the abstract.

The research question is precise and can be effectively dealt with within the 4000 word limit.

The research question should not have an

obvious answer and finding an answer should

require some investigation. Do not be surprised if

at the end of the process you are unable to

answer it completely.

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It is worthwhile planning to have a section within the essay that you think of as the introduction. In some subjects it will even be appropriate to have a chapter heading within the structure of the essay that you call “introduction”. This will help the examiner to find the appropriate information and to follow your thinking. In some subjects that use a more free-flowing style, such as group 1 or 2 languages, where it may not be appropriate to use chapter heading, it may be nest to devote one or two paragraphs at the start of the essay to meeting the requirements of the introduction. You can illustrate the significant of your investigation by pointing out whether your research

addresses an open issue (to which the student can explore a conclusion), a question that has not been resolved or an issue that has never been researched before using he approach that you plan to apply. So, effectively you are trying to show how the research question fits within the existing knowledge. To be able to do this you need to have read about your topics and some of the related issues and to refer to these sources in the introduction. A convincing introduction will be well referenced and will point out to the reader what other people have said and what is already known about the topic. In doing this you are establishing what is called the “context” of the research question.

Show how your research question relates to other similar research.

Explain how finding answer to your research question could help clarify some issues.

Explain how the answer to your research question could be important.

Make sure you state specifically your research question in the introduction.

The introduction must present the research

question and explain what you are trying to

show in your essay. It must also show where you

research question fits in with what is known

already and why it is important

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The approach to this criterion can vary considerably from one subject to another so it is important to consult the relevant subject guidelines in order to make sure you are on track. The title of this criterion makes it clear that the work for an extended essay is an “investigation” (presenting and analysing information, evidence and data in an attempt to answer the research question) and not a “report” (a summary of facts and information about the topic). In assessing this criterion the examiners make a judgement about the thoroughness of your research. This could include looking at the bibliography to assess whether you have accessed a wide enough range of sources (books, journal articles, reports, web pages, and so on) and whether the selection you have made appears to have been done “carefully” (in other words that you have selected resources based on their relevance and reliability). The bibliography itself provides only part of the evidence for this. Try to avoid the temptation to make

Although there is nothing wrong with a “well-worn” (or an often used) topic by students, arguments tend to be rather obvious when approaching the work of a popular or classic topic. It is important to adopt a fresh or original perspective, or to try to shed new light on the subject.

Use a range of sources (books, journal articles, web-based resources, etc.)

Explain how sources are selected

Enough data or information should be gathered to answer the research question.

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up a very long bibliography which includes sources you do not make use of in the text in an effort to impress as examiners will check to see whether the in-text references match with the bibliography. In addition, you need to devote some text to writing about the process you went through to obtain and select sources of information and data. You may also need to devote some text to writing about how you decided on the relevance or reliability of the sources you have used. In other words, what are the “values” and “limitations” of the sources you have used. Speak directly to their value and limitation in the text of your essay. It is recommended to be cautious and critical when using internet-based material. By doing this you are also providing evidence for the “planning” that went into the investigation, the other aspect of this criterion

Write about the strategies you used to find useful

data or information.

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In order to address this criterion it is important to show an understanding of the material. You can begin to do this by explaining the underlying theories and issues and by explaining the basic terms in the research question. One way to do this is to try to put the important issues into your own words. If you simply quote passages from the sources you may be showing that you have done some research but you will not be providing any evidence of understanding. Simply presenting facts data or the results of calculations is not a good way to show understanding. By explaining the information and drawing inferences, or pointing out possible relationships, you are showing that you have a grasp of the essential concepts and that you see how they relate to the “bigger picture” – the theory on which your research question is based.

Demonstrate your thoughts and findings from your investigation and research. Think: “how is your topic related to your chosen subject or question?” Make sure the information you have selected is specifically relevant to the research question.

Show the reader that you have understood the main points by linking the information back to the research question.

It is always a good idea to reference knowledge (from several sources) so that the essay is based on a number of relevant studies. These would then be used appropriately in the argument. It would also demonstrate knowledge of the most recent research on the area of the topic is investigating.

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This is crucial to the success of your essay. Remember your purpose is to convince the reader that the conclusions you draw regarding the research question are well founded and are supported by the evidence you have gathered

and presented. So clearly, research question, data, evidence and/or information must be linked in a convincing way to the conclusion. You must do the “linking” and not simply leave it up to the reader to “see” the connections or relevance of what you have written. It is important to be explicit in your writing about why or how certain information is important or relevant and how it helps to address the research question. This is possibly the most difficult part of the writing process and is often the deciding factor in the overall success of the essay.

Write about the strategies you used to find useful

data or information.

Regularly relate your argument back to the research question.

Support your argument with evidence.

Do not overstate your case; do not make claims that you cannot support.

Ensure you case is a strong as you can make it based on the evidence.

Ensure your conclusions are related to your research question.

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This criterion examines how successful you have been in finding and describing patterns, trends and relationships in the information or data you have compiled. The thinking process and other more technical approaches (such as statistical analysis) need to be explained and possibly even justified (if there are a number of alternative approaches, for example). The approach you take to analysing the data should be acceptable within the discipline or

subject area of your essay. In addition, a judgment is made here about how successful you have been in pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of your approach. So it is important to be critical of you own work and say which parts worked well and which parts needed more attention or a different approach.

The reader cannot be expected to find the

relationships you have discovered in your

research, even if they seem really obvious. You

need to point them out explicitly. After all, you

want to demonstrate to the reader that you have

reached a certain level of expertise in your topic

and can confidently identify and point out the

key relationships.

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Communicating clearly and precisely is not as easy as it sounds, but is a key skill when you are attempting to produce a coherent and intelligible piece of writing in any discipline. There are in fact two aspects to this criterion: the use of clear and precise language on the one hand and the use of terminology appropriate to the topic on the other. /try to adopt and sustain a clear and precise style throughout the essay. While there is not general requirement to write in a passive voice, this may be preferred in certain subjects. For an explanation of the difference between the active and passive voice see below. Where this is not required, writing in the first person singular, active voice, may be clearer and may in fact be easier to sustain (especially for non-native speakers of the target language). To help with this area of your essay you need to show an understanding of fluency with the main technical terms associated with your topic. This means being able to define and accurately use not only the key terms in the research question but also many if not most of the associated terms. It also means showing that you have a command of the terminology appropriate to your topic and that you can use this in context.

It is helpful to be conscious of the level of sophistication of the language that you are using and to try to maintain this at a consistent level. Avoid sudden changes in style; for example jumping between active and passive voice or varying between first person singular and first person plural (“I and we”). Problems can also arise if your investigation uses a very technical research approach or experimental protocol. In these cases it is important to make sure that you explain the technical language and that you are able to sustain the technical style in a convincing way.

Define your terms.

Use a simple, clear style in your writing.

Sustain the same style throughout your essay.

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5 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/02/

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6 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/02/

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The essay must include a clearly stated and relevant conclusion. It is best to highlight the conclusion for the reader by devoting a separate paragraph, headed section or chapter to this part of the essay. At this stage it is probably also a good idea to restate the research questions as this will help you focus your writing. The goal of your writing should be to make it clear to the reader that the conclusions you are stating are supported by the evidence you have presented. It is valuable to clearly outline, in a sentence or two, each of the key pieces of evidence you have used to draw your conclusion. If you mention unresolved questions then make sure that these are clearly related to the original research question. Questions that further refine or narrow the research question are often appropriate here while introducing completely new ideas in the conclusion should generally be avoided.

Your main conclusion should be directly related

to the research question but make sure that you

do not overstate your case, for example by

claiming that you have “proven” something.

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This criterion examines how successful you have been in addressing the elements of formal presentation. Technical or scientific essays tend to need a more obvious structure with chapter headings, illustrations, tables and graphs. The structure of a literary essay or exposition, based on literary works, tends to be of a less obvious, more “hidden nature. Due to the nature of this criterion, extracts cannot give an accurate reflection; however, some elements of formal presentations are common to all extended essays.

Ensure the title page is clearly laid out.

The table of contents includes page numbers and is accurate.

Illustrations and quotations are used where necessary and support the text.

The documentation style used is appropriate to the subject and is applied consistently.

A conscious decision is made about whether or not to include an appendix.

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This is a very technical part of your essay where the requirements have to be met within a 300-word limit. Stating the research question and main conclusions generally should not present any problems. The difficulty arises with what else to say. The abstract must contain information about how you went about conducting the reseal, what methods you used and how you applied these. An abstract which is a “summary of the introduction” or a personal “justification” for why you chose the topic will not meet the assessment criterion.

The abstract stands alone. Reading it should

allow you to understand exactly what the essay

is about, what methods were used and what

conclusions were reached.

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Evidence of intellectual initiative can come across in your essay, for example, if you refer to unexpected ideas that came up during your research. You could then go on to explain how you incorporated these into your work. Depth of understanding on your part can come across in a number of ways. This can be achieved, for example, by explaining the key concepts in detail or by showing that you can see the connections between seemingly unrelated facts or events and by drawing these together in a coherent way. Showing insight is also not easy but can be achieved by using a novel approach to finding information or by gathering date with a technique that has not been tried before. These are only some of the qualities that the examiner may be longing for. Other qualities could include evidence of energy, enthusiasm, dedication and commitment in the face of difficulties.

The overall impression created by the essay on

the reader is what counts here. Try to allow your

enthusiasm to come through in your writing and

point out how you dealt with practical

difficulties.

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Extended Essay Due Dates DATE EXPECTATION DEADLINE MET? COMMENTS

March 4 A properly narrowed question

Choose an item. Click here to enter text.

March 25 Discussion of sources


April 15 Outline and first 1000 words of body paragraphs


April 29 2000 words submitted to supervisor for feedback


May 20 3000 words; discussion of introduction, conclusion, abstract and work cited


May 31 Full rough draft submitted to supervisor


June 7 Rough draft returned to be re-worked over the summer


September 9 Meet with supervisor to discuss changes made and any final revisions that may be required


September 30 Final draft submitted and viva voce completed; supervisors report and declaration page filled out


Notes:

Students who have not met the due dates will be required to meet with Mrs. Murray to discuss why the due date was not met and how it will be avoided in the future.

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Extended Essay Suggested Grades Name of Diploma Candidate: Click here to enter text. Extended Essay Subject Area: Choose an item. Disclaimer: The following is just a suggestion as to where you are likely to score if the EE were submitted as it is now. These suggestions are by no means guaranteed, they are simply a guide to help you in improving your paper. Criteria: A: Research Question (0-2) - 0 B: Introduction (0-2) - 0 C: Investigation (0-4) - 0 D: Knowledge and Understanding (0-4) - 0 E: Reasoned Argument (0-4) - 0 F: Analysis and Evaluation (0-4) - 0 G: Use of Subject Language (0-4) - 0 H: Conclusion (0-2) - 0 I: Formal Presentation (0-4) - 0 J: Abstract (0-2) - 0 K: Holistic Judgment (0-4) - 0 TOTAL: Choose an item. The grades suggested above are based on the Extended Essay Subject Specific Guide. Familiarize yourself with the appropriate pages so the grades listed will be in proper context. Grade: A = 29-36 B = 23-28 C = 16-22 D = 8-15 E = 0-7 Enter Predicted Grade: Comments:

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The Viva Voce

The viva voce is a short interview between the student and the supervisor, and is a recommended

conclusion to the extended essay process. Students who do not attend the viva voce may be

disadvantaged.

The viva voce serves the following purposes.

A check on plagiarism and malpractice in general

An opportunity to reflect on successes and difficulties in the research process

An opportunity to reflect on what has been learned

An aid to the supervisor’s report

The viva voce should last between 10 and 15 minutes. This is included in the recommended

amount of time the supervisor should spend with the student. The following are examples of

questions that can be asked, which should be adapted to the particular essay and student.

“I am not clear what you mean on page XXX. You quote Y: could you explain a little

more about what this tells us?”

“On page *** you cite Z. I couldn’t find this reference (for example, web site). Could

you tell me more about it?”

“What have been the high and low points of the research and writing processes?”

“What were the most interesting aspects of the process? Did you discover anything that

surprised you?”

“What have you learned through writing this essay? Is there any advice you would want

to pass on to someone just starting out on an extended essay?”

“Is there anything else that you would particularly like me to mention in my report?”

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Extended Essay Handbook AIS

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