General Advice

Once the research question is agreed it is crucial that you understand that all you will be judged on ultimately is the quality of your final Essay. The examiner will base their final grade on how your essay fits the four summative assessment criteria together with the formative assessment of the process (Criterion E: Engagement). It is therefore not only good practice, but now virtually a requirement, to put ‘pen to paper’ throughout the process while you are still gathering your research data to inform and support your argument in your researcher's reflective space. Technically you can still literally put 'pen to paper' when it comes to writing the actual essay but it is now more than twenty years since I’ve marked an essay that was not word-processed. Word processing the text of the essay makes complete sense as it does not all have to be rewritten as one draft gives way to another. However unless you are very skilled at Information Technology you should not spend hours using the computer to draw every diagram or the structure of every complex molecule. Drawings can be scanned and added or indeed just drawn in by hand. A digital camera (i.e. your smart phone) can be useful when used sensibly, such as to show an experimental set-up designed by you, but do not include spurious images in your essay. It is better to spend the time usefully improving the quality of the content rather than spend many hours just making it look pretty.

From the outset you should have a plan of the outline of the essay. It must include six formal components. These are:

Title page

Contents page

Introduction

Body of the essay

Conclusion

References and bibliography

You must have a copy of the Assessment Criteria and the information as to how they are applied in chemistry before you start writing. You should also have seen several examples of past chemistry Extended Essays that have been graded ‘Excellent’.

Specific advice as to how you can maximise your mark for each criteria is given in the separate pages for each criterion under Assessment. 

Your writing does not have to take place as a linear process. The bibliography can be compiled as the research progresses so that all the important parameters about each source are recorded in one consistent correct way as they are read. It is likely too that the Introduction will not be finalised until the body of the Essay and the Conclusion has been written as it can be helpful in the introduction to give some outline of the direction of the Essay.

The main body of the Essay contains the reasoned argument. You must make clear to the reader what relevant evidence has been discovered, how it has been discovered and how it supports your argument. The validity of the evidence should be discussed and any evidence for counter-arguments should also be included. If you have obtained the evidence through practical work in the laboratory then sufficient detail should be given to enable a competent chemist to repeat the work. This does not mean that it must be written up according to the Internal Assessment criteria. Lists of basic equipment are not necessary and standard techniques like titration do not need to be elaborated. You must show however that you understand the underlying chemistry.  Remember that the examiner does not have to read the appendix so do not include material essential to the argument in the appendix (or in footnotes or endnotes) as a way of getting around the 4000 word limit. The 4000 word limit does not include:

Acknowledgements

The title and contents page

Maps, graphs, diagrams, annotated illustrations and tables

Equations, formulas and calculations

Citations of references

The bibliography

The appendix             

Your supervisor is only allowed to comment on one of the completed drafts. This begs the question, “What is a completed draft?” Generally it is accepted that the first completed draft is the first version of the final Essay. It seems to me quite reasonable for you to show parts of what you have written to your supervisor as your work progresses so that you can discuss it and check that you are on the right track. You will want to show your supervisor the data you have obtained, and discuss improvements or alterations to your experimental methods particularly if ‘it does not work’. You should be prepared to be fluid in your thinking. It is not unusual for the Research Question to change slightly during the progress of the work as new ideas emerge. You should be open to this.

You should try to meet quite regularly with your supervisor to keep them informed of your progress. Do not confuse supervision meetings with the three mandatory meetings for reflection. A good supervisor will praise you when you have done good work and encourage you to succeed. Attached to this page are advice on Correct referencing and bibliography and a Checklist which you should carefully go through before handing in your final version. Make sure you do meet the deadline set by your school for handing in the final version of your Extended Essay.