Writing Your Essay
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The Research Process
After the research it's time to start writing!
On this page you can find information on:
Useful Note-taking Tools: Memonic and Evernote
The IB expects you to work with your information sources effectively to extract and record the most useful information and produce your own original piece of work. See the page in this section on:
Formal vs. Informal Writing (or, How to Avoid Colloquial Writing)
A quotation is a piece taken from another piece of work, exactly as it was originally written.
Paraphrasing involves taking a piece of writing and re-writing it in your own words.
Summarizing involves using your own words to re-write the main idea(s) of someone else's work. A summary will be significantly shorter than the original piece and will be a broad overview of it's content.
Quotations and paraphrased or summarized material must always include a citation and reference to the original source. See the OWL Center website page Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing, the guide, Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting from Sources, from the Eastern Illinois University Writing Center, and the IB document, Effective Citatons and Referencing, for more information. (Links are below.)
OWL: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University offers writing resources and online reference material, This page of their website is on quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting from Sources
Defines and explains summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting, and when each is appropriate for your research paper. Also explains the use of "signal phrases" when quotations are integrated into a paper, and gives a list of suggested verbs for signal phrases. Source: Eastern Illinois University Writing Center.
Effective Citing and Referencing
Explains why citations are needed, what needs to be cited, when citations are necessary, and how to cite, and also provides a list of citation definitions, a documentation checklist, and a chart showing the elements to be included in a reference.
Tips for summarizing a piece of writing:
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Scan the text and make notes on paper. Read closely to absorb the author’s tone and central ideas, and then comb back through to clarify points.
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Outline the main idea of each section in your own words. Include only meaningful details and proofs, organizing them from most to least important.
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Develop your thesis, summarizing the main points of the piece. Be sure to include the author’s name and the title of the work right away. Tip: Avoid using your own opinions or interpretations, no matter how familiar the subject may be.
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Arrange the information to clearly support the author's points, adding details to each section. Improve the flow of ideas with transitions that connect sections.
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Be sure that sources are cited properly. Paraphrase and don’t use the author’s words if you can help it. Make sure you haven’t wandered off topic. Tip: Ask who, what, why, when, where, and how questions to be sure you have represented the author’s work faithfully.
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Make final corrections, looking at your grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Dignify your work and that of your subject’s with the care good scholarship demands.
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Ask for criticism - try asking a hyper-critical friend to read your work. Be receptive and not over-sensitive – if they can’t identify your main points, you need to revise.
Steps for Revising Your Paper
OWL: Steps for Revising Your Paper
Proofreading is primarily about searching your writing for errors, both grammatical and typographical, before submitting your paper for an audience (a teacher, a publisher, etc.). Use this resource to help you find and fix common errors.
Required Elements of the Extended Essay
Required elements of the extended essay
List and description of the six required elements of the final extended essay work that is to be submitted for extended essays for November 2018 and forward (IB Guide 2018).
Memonic
Memonic
Memonic is a free, online note-taking application. You can clip content, save webpages to read later, or simply take a note. Organize with tags and notes, and synch your collection to your phone and laptop and have all of your notes and reading material available to you anytime.
Evernote
Watch this video from the Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State University for an introduction to how you can use Evernote to organize your research.
Use Evernote to: take and save notes, and use the Web Clipper to save research, emails, news, and anything other digital content from the web or emails from your desktop computer into Evernote. You can access everything from your computer, phone, or the web. A Basic Evernote account is free.
Plagiarism
Two Types of Plagiarism
Plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional but either way it is Academic Dishonesty.
Ignorance is not accepted as an excuse for plagiarism.
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On this page:
Academic Honesty, 2018 IB EE Guide
Guidance on producing accurate references and a bibliography is a skill that students should be seeking as part of the extended essay writing process, covering: bibliography, citations, referencing (both traditional and online sources), using electronic sources, using online encyclopedias and other similar information websites, use of computer programs, and reliance on external sources.
Academic Honesty in the IB Educational Context
Discusses the importance in the IB of making academic honesty a school priority, provides a framework for identifying aspects of academic honesty in the various courses in the IB Diploma Programme.
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism: The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.
Origin: Early 17th century: from Latin plagiarius 'kidnapper' (from plagium 'a kidnapping', from Greek plagion) + -ism.
"Plagiarism." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford UP, n.d. Web. 21 Aug. 2015.
Plagiarism is one form of academic cheating which occurs when someone reproduces another person's words, ideas or findings and presents them as their own without proper acknowledgement.
OWL: Avoiding Plagiarism
There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work. Source: Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
Formal vs. Informal Writing
Differences Between Informal and Formal Essays
When writing your extended essay you should use language that is formal and academic in tone. The chart below gives you some idea of the differences between informal and formal essays. See the box below for examples of the differences in tone in informal and formal essays written on identical topics. A PDF of this chart, and the examples below, is in the box to the right, along with a list of tips for avoiding colloquial writing.
Formal vs. Informal Writing
Examples of Informal and Formal Tone in Essay Writing
The following examples highlight the differences between formal and informal tone.
Language B - English
Informal:
I decided to write an extended essay on how hip-hop works as protest of the lower classes because I think the music is cool and really gets people dancing, inspiring those people who wouldn’t normally think there’s any point in being against anything to listen to the message. Being an enthusiastic hip-hop dancer myself, I really wanted to find out some more about this.
Formal:
This extended essay on how the lyrics of hip-hop developed as a form of protest against a society segregating the working classes is based on the premise of the music having a distinct and energizing rhythm that really inspires people to move, thereby reaching out to audiences who wouldn’t normally believe in protest, let alone speak out in public. Thus, the music becomes a vehicle for words of protest that can and indeed have changed the world. My own experience with dancing hip-hop at a relatively advanced and skilled level fuelled my desire to research this topic in more depth.
Biology
Informal:
Biology has always been a passion of mine. Ever since I was searching for frogspawn in my grandparent’s pond as a four-year-old and annoying my mum with a battery of jam jars on the window sill in which I was trying to raise tadpoles I have been fascinated with observing nature in detail. Even in English, reading Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney, I found myself thinking up an experiment to do with dragonflies and bluebottles. I have a fish tank at home with three different sorts of fish. I’ve noticed that they all respond differently when I feed them. I’m wondering what else is different in their behavior so, in this extended essay, I’m going to find out how they react to light.
Formal:
This extended essay is focused on investigating the phototaxic responses of three different species of fish that occupy different areas of an aquarium: danios (Danio rerio), which group near the surface of the water, black skirt tetra (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi), which swim in the middle of the tank, and kuhli loach (Pangio kuhlii), which swim near the bottom of the tank. It is anticipated that they will respond differently to light according to their niche within the tank.
The outcome of my investigation could inform the feeding strategy used for different fish as well as highlight the adaptive nature of toxic response in fish. In addition, this essay may help to inspire some fellow students to view their fish with new interest, and consider their own strategies in populating a fish tank.
Psychology
Informal:
When I go into a supermarket there is always gentle background music playing, although in the clothes shops I like it is always loud pop music. At breakfast my dad likes to listen to Rossini string sonatas, while my little brother has heavy metal on his iPod and will head-bang his way through a bowl of cornflakes. My extended essay is trying to research why people rely on certain types of music to influence their mood and how music is used in this way for advertising. I am not sure if there is a connection and whether the music does affect, for example, people’s shopping habits, but it will be interesting to try to find out, especially to see if different peoples’ brains are wired differently when it comes to music.
Formal:
This extended essay intends to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between music listened to and the mood of individuals. Additionally, it will seek to explore whether this relationship is used in advertising to encourage people to spend money.
Resources
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A chart giving the differences between informal and formal essays in seven areas (author's viewpoint; subject/content (sources of evidence); tone; structure; location of the research question; vocabulary; and purpose. Also included are examples comparing informal and formal writing for essays in English, biology, and psychology.
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How to Avoid Colloquial (Informal) Writing
While it may be acceptable in friendly e-mails and chat rooms, excessive colloquialism is a major pitfall that lowers the quality of formal written text. Here are some steps/tips that you can follow to help improve your overall writing.
Learn from the Work of Others
Examples of Extended Essay Titles
Biology
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The effect of age and gender on the photoreceptor cells in the human retina
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The relationship between the population density of Pandanus heliacorpus and and the population size of Macrobrachrium rosenbergii sp.
Chemistry
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Ascertaining the Concentration of Copper Ions in Water Using Quantitative Techniques: Spectrophotometry and redox potential
English A, Group 1
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Identity issues faced by the African-American characters of Toni Morrison's novels "Beloved" and "Song of Solomon"
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Motherhood, Life, and Death: The human body in Sylvia Plath’s Ariel
English B, Group 2
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Portrayal of the social situation of African Americans in "The Help"
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Social impacts of video games and societies
History
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Continuity and change in Japanese policy towards Jewish refugees in Shanghai, 1938-1943
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The early development of football in San Jose, Costa Rica as a reflection of the ongoing social and political disputes
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The failure of the German V-Weapon program, 1943-1945
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From Dracula’s Nose to Lizzie’s Locks: How the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 Resulted in a New Sense of Identity for Victorian Londoners
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The role of Èmile Zola's "J'accuse" in the Dreyfuss affair
Literature and Performance
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Counterculture Icon or Artistic Memoir: Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”
Mathematics
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Higher Dimensional Generalizations of Pascal's Triangle
Physics
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Investigation of the effects the change in vertical centre has on the stability of a canoe
Politics
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Legitimizing Jihad: Hezbollah's Lebanonization process
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U.S. Intervention in Iraq: Why the prospect of an ideal democratic government in the State of Iraq is unatainable
Theatre
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British Pantomine: Its unique characteristics and their origins
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