Step 7- The EE Research Process

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Writing and Formatting

Use the resources on this page to improve your writing, take better notes and make sure your formatting is correct right from the start.

Noodletools Login

Use Noodletools to organise your research, cite your sources and avoid plagiarism.

JStor

A digital library; containing digitized back issues of academic journals, books and primary sources and current issues of journals. It provides full-text searches of almost 2,000 journals.

Username: RCHKLIRC

Password: Rchklirc2017*

Britannica Senior High School

Britannica Online School Edition gives teachers and students’ instant access to a complete encyclopedia and other resources. This reference offers online learning materials that have been developed by teachers and curriculum experts.
Username: rchk

Password: lirc

Acknowledging, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Sources

Paraphrasing handout from the University of Wisconsin

Note-taking

Cornell Notes

The Cornell method, where you divide the paper into three sections: a space on the left for writing the main topics, a larger space on the right to write your notes, and a space at the bottom to summarize your notes; review and clarify your notes a soon as possible after class; summarize what you've written on the bottom of the page; and finally, study your notes.

Purdue Owl Writing Centre Resources

Understanding Writing Assignments

Developing an outline

Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarising

Writing with Statistics

Avoiding Plagiarism

Proofreading

Helpful Research and Writing Videos

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing from Brain pop

You must enter the username: rchk and password: lirc in order to use this resource.

Research in Context

Research in context

Designed to give Secondary School Students quick access to accurate information on science, literature, arts, biographies and general reference among others. Password is: lirc

Student Resources in Context

An online database for those seeking contextual information on a broad range of topics, people, places, and events. Includes full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites. Password is: lirc

Global Issues in Context

International viewpoints on global issues, topics, and current events. Issue and country portals, highly relevant sources for analysis of social, political, military, economic, environmental, health, and cultural issues. Podcasts, video, and interactive graphs. Use Browse Issues and Topics, Country Finder, Basic Search or Advanced Search to explore the database. Password: lirc

Hong Kong Public Library

The Hong Kong Public Library offers a vast array of materials. Click on this site for research databases, e-books, video on demand and much more. You will need a public library card in order to access most of these resources.

Sources: Locating,Organizing and Evaluating

Finding Sources

As an RCHK Student, you have access to thousands upon thousands of available sources for your research. The trick is to make sure you are not overwhelmed and that when you do your searches, you do them effectively and efficiently. You don't want to waste your precious time sorting through irrelevant sources that might lead you in an inconclusive direction.

Links to databases can be found throughout this libguide, and also can be found on the RCHK Library Online Resources page. If you are unsure where to find information that would be relevant to your topic, or need help navigating one of the databases, please speak to a subject teacher or Secondary Librarian.

Go to the "Read, Analyse and Evaluate your Sources" page in this libguide for further info on source evaluation.

Here is an excellent article about finding sources: Tips to Finding Research Paper Sources that Set You Apart

Writing Your EE Introduction

The most important thing you need to know about writing your introduction is that it should be written LAST. Although that sounds counterintuitive, that it is the best way to do it. Simply put, there is just no way to know everything that should go into your introduction until you have completed your research.

Once you have written the bulk of your paper including your reasoned argument and conclusion, you will then have all the info you need to complete your introduction.

Here are the basic components of what needs to be included in your EE introduction:

Academic Context: You need to show how your question fits into existing knowledge about your topic.
Outline of your argument: Go through your reasoned argument chronologically – in the order it appears in your paper.
Scope: How have you approached your RQ? What types of sources were used – did you use any unconventional methods?
Worthiness: why is your RQ worthy of investigation?

I strongly urge you to read Chapter 5 of the Oxford EE Guide as it gives much more detail about writing your introduction along with examples.

***Remember to state your Research Question clearly in the introduction and remember to do your introduction LAST!

Writing the Main Body of your EE

Reading Chapter 5 of the Oxford EE Guide to gain valuable insight cannot be understated if you are trying to learn about writing an excellent Extended Essay.

The Oxford Guide gives a clear path for writing effective paragraphs - follow the formula:

Thesis → Development → Evidence → Balance → Analysis

Brainstorming

Here you will find some useful tools that can be used to record your thoughts and ideas. Some of them give you the option to invite others to collaborate.

You can use brainstorming as a way to help you find a research title. Keep track and organize any topic ideas that come into your head. See:

Stormboard - Shared Sticky Notes and Whiteboards - Generate more ideas, and then prioritize, organize, and refine those ideas to make your meetings, brainstorms, and projects more productive and effective. This online application takes the metaphor of sticky notes on a boardroom wall and brings it online allowing anyone - anywhere to brainstorm with only a web browser. Each user picks their favorite ideas and Stormboard brings the best ones forward.

From their website: "Stormboard is an online brainstorming and collaboration platform. The name comes from a combination of brainstorm and whiteboard."

Find a description, screenshots, and tutorial at the New Technologies & 21st Century Skills blog from the College of Education at the University of Houston.

Bubble.us - "Brainstorming made simple" - is a really easy to use mind mapping or brainstorming tool. You can go to the site and start brainstorming immediately!

Mind mapping is another excellent way to track of your thoughts, and it is also an ideal way to group your ideas and resources and add structure to your knowledge.

See:

Coggle- is a free, easy-to-use web application for creating beautiful informative diagrams and mindmaps.

Mind Map Inspiration - At Mind Map Inspiration artist Paul Foreman offers example Mind Maps for inspiration and motivation, plus mindmapping tips, drawing tips, techniques for enhancing your creativity and improving idea generation.

Writing your EE Conclusion

The most important thing to know about your conclusion is that it MUST ANSWER YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION. So often we see students get caught up in an aspect of their research that leads them so far away from their original research question that they have not properly answered it in their conclusion.

For more information about writing your conclusion along with excellent examples, please see page 71 of the Oxford EE Guide.

Formatting Your Essay

Essay Format

Basic Formatting

The extended essay should be written in a clear, correct and formal academic style, appropriate to the subject from which the topic is drawn. Given that the extended essay is a formally written research paper, it should strive to maintain a professional, academic look.

To help achieve this, the following formatting is required:

12-point, readable font such as Times New Roman
double spacing throughout entire Essay;
page numbering
no candidate, school, or supervisor name on the title page or page headers.

Submitting the extended essay in the required format will help set the formal tone of the essay and will aid readability for on-screen assessment by examiners.

Basic Structure

The structure of the essay is very important. It helps students to organize their reasoned argument, and make the best use of the evidence collected.

There are six required elements of the final work to be submitted. More details about each element are given in the “Presentation” section of the IB Guide. Please note that the order in which these elements are presented here is not necessarily the order in which they should be written.

Six required elements of the extended essay:

Title page
Contents page
Introduction
Body of the essay
Conclusion
Bibliography -- if APA "References"

1. Required Title Page

The title page should include only the following information:

the title of the essay
the research question
the subject the essay is registered in (if it is a language essay also state which category it falls into; if a world studies essay also state the theme and the two subjects utilized)

word count

The upper limit is 4,000 words for all extended essays.

Please note: Examiners are instructed not to read or assess any material in excess of the word limit. This means that essays containing more than 4,000 words will be compromised across all assessment criteria. Given the holistic nature of the assessment criteria, students who write in excess of the word limit will self-penalize across all criteria.

2. Required Contents Page

A contents page must be provided at the beginning of the extended essay and all pages should be numbered. Please note that an index page is not required and if included will be treated as if it is not present.

3. Required Introduction

The introduction should tell the reader what to expect in the essay. The introduction should make clear to the reader the focus of the essay, the scope of the research, in particular an indication of the sources to be used, and an insight into the line of argument to be taken.

While students should have a sense of the direction and key focus of their essay, it is sometimes advisable to finalize the introduction once the body of the essay is complete.

4. Required Body of the Essay (research, analysis, discussion, and evaluation)

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. In some subjects, for example, the sciences, 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). In structuring their extended essay, students must take into consideration the expected conventions of the subject in which their extended essay is registered.

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 must not be included in appendices or footnotes/endnotes. The examiner will not read notes or appendices, so an essay that is not complete in itself will be compromised across the assessment criteria.

5. Required Conclusion

The conclusion says what has been achieved, including notes of any limitations and any questions that have not been resolved. While students might draw conclusions throughout the essay based on their findings, it is important that there is a final, summative conclusion at the end. This conclusion(s) must relate to the research question posed.

6. Required References & Bibliography

Students should use their chosen style 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. For more information on this, refer to the guidelines in the IB document Effective citing and referencing.

Writing the essay takes time but if students have used their Researcher's reflection space and reflection sessions in a meaningful way they should be well prepared to develop their arguments.

Citing and Referencing

Academic Honesty and Avoiding Plagiarism

As an RCHK Student, you hve a wealth of options to help you with citing and referencing your paper. Using Noodletools and the automatic citation generators found in many databases can greatly improve your chances of not losing marks for improperly formatting your bibliography. Please see Ms. Mansfield, Mr. Knight or your EE Supervisor for help if you have any questions about Citing and Referencing your sources.

Avoiding Plagiarism Presentation

Avoiding Plagiarism

Think. Check. Submit.

Reflections

Writing Reflections

Please read the section on critical engagement in the Oxford EE Guide (page 133) for valuable information and examples of effective reflections. The EE Guidelines require you to write three formal reflections that will be submitted along with your essay and will be assessed under the Criteria E (Engagement) markband.

A special note to consider when writing your reflections:

Please take a look at the table below from the IB Guide. Your reflections should reflect the MOST EVALUATIVE assessment of your work. NOT descriptive, NOT just analytical, but REFLECTIVE.

Click here for the IB's page about common misunderstandings about the Reflection section of the IB EE.

In general, points will be lost if all you do is describe your process.

Reflections should

provide insight into candidate's engagement with their research focus
give evidence of intellectual initiative
identify challenges or discoveries (and possibly discuss how you adapted your approach or changed course)
reflect on skills developed and possibly feedback from your supervisor

This Criteria is a “stand-alone” mark – a poor RPPF can bring down the overall mark of a relatively good EE, and vice-versa.

Also, the three entries may not exceed 500 words total. In the past two sessions, a number of RPPFs were up to 1500 words long; clearly students (and their supervisors) suffered from the misapprehension that the word limit was per entry.