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Extended Essay: Writing the Essay

Pre-writing

Once you have started gathering your sources, before you start writing you should organize your ideas and thoughts in a way that makes sense to you.  You can use the mind maps and brainstorming tools below to help you do that.

brainstorm and mind map online

Brainstorm online with Bubbl.us. Easily create colorful mind maps to print or share with others. Almost no learning curve. Millions of people are using Bubbl.us worldwide to generate ideas, map out processes and create presentations.

Coggle - Simple Collaborative Mind Maps

The clear way to share complex information. Coggle is a collaborative mind-mapping tool that helps you make sense of complex things. Create unlimited mind maps and easily share them with friends and colleagues.

MindMup

Free online mind mapping. The most productive online mind map canvas on the Web. Supports Freemind mindmap import/export. Easy mindmapping software.

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.

Formatting

One of the most common mistakes made by IB students while writing their extended essay is not formatting the paper correctly. Make sure to look at the section of this guide titled Structure of the Essay to make sure you have added all of the elements to your paper. Here are some of the common errors that are made:

Work Cited/Bibliography

  • not put in alphabetical order - THIS SHOULD BE DONE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
  • not all of the same font - MAKE SURE THE ENTIRE PAPER IS WRITTEN IN THE SAME FONT
  • URLs for databases - ONLY USE URLs FOR WEBSITES

Title page

  • name or candidate number - NO PERSONAL INFORMATION ON ANY PART OF THE PAPER
  • missing word count - INCLUDE WORD COUNT ON TITLE PAGE a note on word count- the max number is 4000 but you shouldn't have less than 3500

Footnotes

  • font is different - FOOTNOTES SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN THE SAME FONT AS THE REST OF THE PAPER - it will be a smaller size but shoudl be the same font

Revising

Revising should be a regular part of writing your essay. Because this is a long process it is good practice to revisit your progress every few weeks. As you revisit it you may want to make changes or additions. Your supervisor may only read your essay from the beginning to the end one time. I would highly recommend this is done during the rough draft stage. That being said, you can have your supervisor read parts of your essay to help you determine if the content fits or if more research may be needed. You may want to have a peer edit your paper for spelling and grammar.