An extended essay task doesn’t have to be a nightmare. It’s actually an easy, self-directed research project, which you can complete within the allotted time provided you know exactly how to approach it.
In this guide, you learn exactly how to write an extended essay from start to finish in no more than 40 hours. By following the suggestions in this guide, you’ll write an EE that easily explores a research issue comprehensively and score top grades.
Steps to Write an Extended Essay
To write a good extended essay:
- Choose an IB approved subject.
- Select an interesting topic.
- Develop a research question.
- Conduct in-depth research.
- Structure your essay.
- Write your extended essay
- Attend reflection sessions.
Choose an IB Approved Subject
The very first step is to choose an IB subject in which you’ll focus your extended essay.
Determine what your interests are before you settle on a subject. Here’s where you consider your experiences and passion. In any case, your interests, and especially what you love to study and explore, will lead you to picking the right subject.
Don’t hesitate to consult with your teacher if you feel stuck on picking a subject. Your teacher can offer valuable insights that can help you decide what subject to choose.
Select an Interesting Topic
Your choices for extended essay topics are limitless, but you can pick only one topic because, unlike internal assessments, IB requires you to write only one extended essay.
Unfortunately, you can’t scrape a good topic out of a book or ask a friend in your class to share their thoughts. You have to brainstorm and conduct preliminary research to find an interesting topic to work on.
To find a good topic for your extended essay:
- Determine what you’re passionate about outside your classroom.
- Create a list of potential topics you can explore based on the subject of your choice.
- Pick only one of the topics from the list, as long as it’s relevant to area you’ve always wanted to explore.
A good topic for an extended essay is one that allows you to express a higher level of originality based on ideas that are beyond obvious.
Develop a Research Question
Now, come up with an EE research question from the topic you selected. This research question will be the focus of your essay.
According to “IB’s extended essay guidelines”, the research question doesn’t have to be in the form of an actual question. However, the question should be clear, concise, detailed, linked to the topic, and worth asking.
For example:
The question “Why do only some people act aggressively?” is exceptionally broad. It would require more than 4,000 words to answer, which is against IB’s guidelines.
A more suitable research question would be something such as “to what extent does the MAOA genes contribute to violent behavior?” This question is clear, direct to the point, and without ambiguity.
Focus only on a research question you can answer. Therefore, conduct preliminary research to determine if there’s enough existing information to warrant exploring the question further.
Conduct In-depth Research
An in-depth research of your topic will inform your essay in the writing stage. Once you conduct sufficient research, the structure, case study, and experiments will easily fit on their own.
- Read the EE guidelines once more to determine whether you need primary sources, secondary research, or both.
- Ask your supervisor how recent your research should be.
- Determine if you have to collect data from someone else, create your own data, use people’s opinions, or look for facts.
- Base your research specifically on the subject, the topic you chose, and the suggestions from your supervisor.
You may have to search multiple sources to find the most relevant information for your extended essay. If anything, ensure your bibliography is detailed enough to show that you’ve invested enough to research your topic.
Structure Your Essay
In general, the accepted format for an extended essay is as follows:
- Research question
- Cover page
- Table of contents
- Introduction
- Main body
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- 3 Reflections
The structure and content will vary based on the subject. So the idea here is to give your work a clear structure so that there’s a clear flow of thoughts as you write.
Write Your Extended Essay
Once you’re comfortable that you’ve done your research and created a comprehensive structure, use the outline to write your extended essay.
Don’t worry about grammar, word count, or punctuation when writing your first draft. Give life to your structure and then use the first draft to complete an original extended essay that you’ll submit for grading.
Proofread and edit your work after writing. Check for typos, grammatical errors, factual errors, and formatting and citation mistakes. If possible, ask your supervisor to go through the essay as well.
Attend Reflection Sessions
IB allows you to choose someone to guide you throughout the EE writing process. According to their current guidelines, you have to meet with your supervisor three times for reflection sessions.
These sessions are important because they help you get constructive feedback you can use to perfect your essay. Moreover, it’s mandatory to attend all the three reflections because they account for 17% of your final extended essay grades.
Where Can I Get an Extended Essay Writer?
You can get an extended essay writer on Help for Assessment. We’re a professional academic writing platform that focuses on helping IB students score top grades in all their written assessments.
Accordingly, the writer you hire will help you complete every part of the EE process, from topic selection and in-depth research to custom writing and timely delivery.
Whether you need a standard writer or you prefer a subject expert to write your extended essay, we have someone readily available for you.
Our cost to write an extended essay ranges between $12.99 and $40 per page depending on the urgency of the task. With our professional writing help, you won’t have to worry about failing an extended essay or delaying your graduation with an IB diploma.