IB1Mar 20163 Price: €35

Extended Essay (EE) kit for IB pupils

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Introductory comments

The following paper has the dual intention of serving as both an advisory notice and also as something of a reference booklet during the course of writing your extended essays.

Your supervisor/IB coordinator should by now have introduced the basic rules and regulations of the EE. Also, the paper before you is more of a basic outline and general guide than a complete discourse on essay methodology - it is the role of the individual supervisor to guide you through the actual writing process. It is furthermore strongly recommended that students turn directly to their respective supervisors for details on general & subject specific IB guidelines, additional literature on the subject of essay methodology and help with sources. I would ask them for three items; 1) A past EE that received good grades, 2) The subject specific guidelines and grading criteria, and 3) A written time-table of meetings/events/hand-ins for the EE work.

By April you should have a serious proposal about your subject and a relatively firm outline of what you are going to write about (i.e. a preliminary research topic and question). Before the end of June, you should have hammered out the basic issues like line of inquiry, sources, method and deadlines with your supervisor.

The rules of the EE are simple: all deadlines set by the IB coordinators and/or supervisors will be strictly enforced! Anyone not having probable cause for handing in late or unsatisfactory work will in all likelihood find that teaching staff has very little time for your questions pertaining to anything dealing with the EE! Most of the supers are at the point now where they actually agree with yours truly inasmuch as dropping you like a Heisse Kartoffel when you don't fulfil your end of the deal.

Basically, if you want to fail in the EE, you should do the following…

1)An excellent start is to hand in your EE forms to the IB coordinator with only the name of your super - nothing else! No preliminary question or topic, no idea about method or sources… etc. (10 marks)

2)Start work late, say around the end of August 2013. Knocking on the super's door at the beginning of the autumn term asking "Do you have anything I could write about?" is a real point-earner! (25 marks)

3)Miss deadlines, hand in incomplete work and generally procrastinate. (15 marks)

4)Avoid using footnotes (references) and including anything in your list of sources (which is called a bibliography). This will certainly cause your super to suspect plagiarism or general re-writing someone else's work. (25 marks)

5)Stay away from school for longish periods whilst making sure that you in no way are in touch with the supervisor. (12 marks)

6)Don't bother to read any of the general or specific criteria; hand in all drafts lacking such basics as introduction/question/abstract/table of contents….etc. (15 marks)

7)Change topics. Not once or twice but preferably five to six times. (20 marks)

8)Collude and/or plagiarise! This is 100% foolproof as it rescinds your right to be awarded an IB diploma! (1,200 marks)

IINTRODUCTION

Past experience lends credence to the claim that the best way of learning a craft (for writing is indeed a craft!) is to actually do it. As this would be clearly impossible within the framework of your subjects, this paper shall exemplify selected points by way of a fictitious essay on the subject of real income and purchasing power in two countries.[1] This will hopefully illuminate the captions covering the bulk of this paper; introduction, purpose, method, body of text and finally summary. The last section of this paper deals with subjects not directly related to the above, i.e. more general technicalities such as footnotes (references), table of contents, bibliography etc.

A good introduction has two main purposes: First, it should captivate the reader and whet his/her appetite for the rest of the story. Second, it presents the topic at hand in such a manner that the reader clearly sees the relevance and pertinence of the subject. Remember, there is nothing wrong with using one's artistic license to grab the reader by the lapels - as long as one adheres to the somewhat inflexible framework of proper research procedures.

I:1 INTRODUCTION

Jakarta is a very expatriate-rich city with some 600,000 foreigners now living in the city.[2]While the city combats annual flooding, weak infrastructure and restrictions on foreign ownership, the proportion of FDI and expatriates moving to Jakarta is growing as over 2% per year.[3]There is seemingly a contradiction between the openness of Jakarta towards expatriates and the growth of the expatriate community. This begs the question of whether it might come down to very high living standards for expatriates paid in foreign currencies – e.g. the US dollar – and thus the issue of purchasing power.

The introduction should be brief and to the point. Present your broad outline of the topic and your motives for studying it.[4] This is often something totally lacking in EE’s; the pupil puts forward a sound purpose and research question which simply “is”! Nothing is said or implied as to whether the impending writing effort has any value whatsoever! If you cannot in some way motivate your subject choice, then why are you doing it?

Spend some time and effort on your title! The title should, again, be short and poignant. The IB is very strict on having a title that is closely linked to both the research question (= purpose) and the essay content. A little clarity here will go a long way indeed. In addition to this, the question should be returned to at times during the iteration in order to focus the writer and show intent of purpose throughout.

II PURPOSE

The introduction should flow smoothly into a more clearly stated field of study. Having a stated purpose in one's essay serves to further whittle down the scope of study and also helps the author in defining what sources and material will be of value.

I:2 PURPOSE

This paper shall address the issue of the purchasing power of foreigners paid in foreign currencies in Jakarta. ...//... at present there are some 250 foreign companies active in the area….representing 65% of total output….[5]

It is often praxis to clearly state one's purpose in the form of a basic question (and perhaps sub-questions therein) or an hypothesis to be verified or falsified. It mostly depends on the subject at hand, the writer's personal leanings and the scientific discipline itself. It is recommended that the question is highlighted in some way in order for it to stand out.

The main question is whether the average income for middle and senior managers in American subsidiaries in Jakarta exceeds that of their purchasing power in the US ...//... Specifically, what is the average income differential, expressed in PPP terms, between multinational managers in Jakarta and the US?

It is strongly advised that the pupil avoid the alluring simplicity of writing a descriptive essay, as this all too often leads to garbled objectives, weak theoretical foundation and inherently hazy conclusions.

Limitations (or “scope” of the essay): Almost equally important here, is to mention what will not be a subject for study! This is called "stating the limitations" of the essay and clearly shows how any conclusions reached are subject to these limitations. Commonly you will need to limit your study geographically, in terms of the subject and in terms of a time period. This study is limited to the years 2005 - 2012 and focuses only on US companies with production subsidiaries in the Jakarta metro area. Furthermore, only middle and upper managers are looked at.

IIIMETHOD

This is the part that really freaks people. First off let it be said that a brief description of how one has gone about writing the essay is NOT A METHOD! Method is the assembly of disparate tools one uses to answer the questions posed at the outset.

Your methodology is your basic approach to the research question. For example, conducting interviews as a research method is probably more fruitful in addressing the question “Are consumers in America confident of the future?” than in answering the question “Do Norwegian gerbil populations change at rates positively correlated to temperature rises?” Simply speaking, method is comprised of the following three ingredients: sources, theory/model and compilation of the data found.

One can say that any approach to answering the research question is viable as long as it is scientifically acceptable within the chosen discipline. Surveys, experiments, statistical compilations etc. are all examples of acceptable methods. Again, the individual supervisor will assuage any worries you might have here.

1) Sources: These could be anything from newspaper articles to collecting data via extensive questionnaires:

- Written sources: books, articles…etc.

- Verbal sources: interviews and the like

- Primary sources: material gathered by yourself such as interviews and statistics

- Secondary sources: material gathered by someone else

Note that in economics the brunt of your sources have to be primary – e.g. you must collect data via interviews, surveys or simply price-watching! one has to think about the validity and reliability of the sources one is using. The former deals with whether the source indeed can help answer the questions, the latter with the "trustworthiness" of the source.

The primary sources here are the profit and loss statements for all ten companies that are part of the study...//... Additionally, several internal company documents are used ....//... Interviews will all three Section CEO's have been done in order to gain additional insight...

2) Theory/model: All models built have been based on more or less extensive studies by the founder. Naturally all theories have basic assumptions, limitations and levels of applicability. The author must include these! This is perhaps (?) a bit easier for those writing in the "hard sciences" such as Biology and Physics - but how would I know?

A basic statistical compilation of net incomes for middle/upper managers in US companies in Jakarta…compared to the US average…and then average prices are looked at in terms of a “basket of goods” that covers most of the expenditure by expatriates in Jakarta. Real purchasing power income is defined as nominal income adjusted for the average price of the basket in the US and Jakarta…

3) Compilation of data: Basically, this means "how I have gone about putting together the data I have amassed". This is partially a question of legibility but also gives additional credence to the value of the theory in answering the questions posed.

In Section 1 the baskets are compiled for the US and Jakarta managers. In section two the data is presented for gross and net incomes and in Section 3 the net incomes are adjusted using the baskets as price indexes…

At the end of the section on method, one should include any weaknesses that are inherent in the method and briefly discuss whether or not these weaknesses will skew the results and therefore conclusions. This is all part of academic humility and scientific honesty. (It also disarms your opponent!)

It is worthy of note that there can be enormous differences in incomes between the industrial and banking/financial centres, so this paper cannot by any means be representative of TOTAL expatriate incomes…

IVBODY OF TEXT

Avoid verbosity in general. Keep to the point without stooping to Hemingway-ian taciturnity. Most important here is to make the essay easy to read and easy to follow the line of thought. A few notes:

  • Very often it helps to give some form of background to the subject in the first chapter.
  • Use simple yet appealing methods to separate main headings from sub-headings - you should know about this by now.
  • Use the neutral form of writing; i.e. use "...it could be said that..." rather than "...I think that..." or "...for me this means...".
  • It is often appealing to the eye to "air" the text body so as to make it easier on the reader. None of this Greenpeacing and tree-hugging; use some space!
  • Use charts, tables, diagrams and illustrations as needed. Note; do not use themin place of text but rather as an addendum or elaboration/ exemplification of the surrounding text.

Avoid emotionalism! You are assumed to have donned the mantle of an aloof scientist and as such you have no use for anything even remotely resembling emotionalism. Avoid exclamatory, inflammatory or otherwise agitating invectives. A stance can be taken only in summation - and then only when the commentary is clearly that of the author and based exclusively on facts brought up earlier in the essay.

In general; be systematic! This will show that you are on-line in terms of both intention and content of your iteration. One cannot stress the virtues of neatness and clarity enough.

VSUMMARY

This is where the results of your study are compiled. Very often writers start this section by briefly re-iterating the main topic/questions and how one has gone about answering it. Then one gives the conclusions.

Note that there are a number of headings for this section (one can also use "Conclusions" for example) where the distinctions between them become blurred. This is also the only area in which you are allowed to insert your own remarks and comments; yet you must never use any new material here! One should in other words not need to have any footnotes (references) for the Summary.

Answer the questions posed! You would be surprised how many budding scientists forget this simple task. You do not need to itemise all the questions posed in the introduction and then answer them piecemeal; use the flow of narrative to fit the compounded answers in neatly.

The study shows that average expatriate incomes for middle and upper managers in industrial firms in Jakarta have a purchasing power that is 35% higher than they would have in the US….110% higher than comparative Indonesian managers…

One can also add a discussion on certain aspects of interest that arose in the body of text, such as whether or not a certain source has perhaps skewed the results or not. Also, this is the place to draw your own conclusions.

VI GENERAL TECHNICALITIES (and a few words of paternal advice!)

A few additional points and FAQ's that didn't fit neatly into the above captions:

Title/ front page: See the IB criteria here. One always has a front page where the title, author, date and supervisor are clearly written. Artistry usually acceptable.

Abstract: Gives a "Reader's Digest" version of the study. Entered after cover page. (Note: not numbered).

Table of contents: Precedes the introduction. Many ways and formats here. (Note: not numbered).

References: This seems to be a big problem for young writers - and many do not realise that references are part of the scientific veracity of the work done. The basic rule of thumb is to add a reference to any statement/ claim that cannot be considered to be general knowledge in a footnote. One also adds footnotes in order to elaborate on a marginal point in the body of text such as whether a source can be considered valid or not. Basically, it is better to have one footnote too many than too few! Use common sense and see the examples in Italics above. There are about 15,678 different ways to include footnotes; ask your supervisor – let them work it out.

In this author’s humble opinion, references should be placed at the bottom of the page - not at the very end of the essay. This simply makes it easier for the reader to find the notes.

Some advice here; as soon as you use a source when you are writing, add the authors name & book/ newspaper title in parentheses immediately after! This could save you a lot of time later on when your supervisor asks you to add a source.

Quotations: One always uses quotation marks when excerpting verbatim from a text or interview. Any quotes are naturally endowed with a source. One should be very careful of including many quotations as this rather weakens one's work rather than strengthening it.

Who is the reader: Basically you are writing for people in your field; yet this should in no way inhibit writing to a wider audience!

Language: You should note that good language always gets credit - even at the subliminal level of the IB EE Examiner. Writing is not mechanics - it is an art!

Finding a subject: Hear it now; this is the only thing that the supervisor cannot help you with! All we can do is to help you in your formulation of the research question – we cannot find one for you! Base your choice of subject on what you are interested in, what you have knowledge/ experience in and where you might have good contacts and/ or sources. If all three are present, you have a winner. Get started early, here! Do not postpone this matter, as the earlier you decide on a broad issue, the faster you will hone down the scope to viable questions. This will make searching for relevant sources easier, too.