The
Extended Essay (EE) is one of the requirements of the
IB Diploma Programme.
It is an
essay
of up to 4,000 words, written on a freely-chosen topic, and provides the
students with an opportunity to conduct independent research on a topic that
interests them. The student writing an EE works together with a supervisor
who advises and guides them in the writing process. In total, students are
expected to spend about 40 hours on writing the EE, but some students use a
shorter and others a longer amount of time. The Extended Essay is externally
assessed (graded) by the
International Baccalaureate
Organization.
(IBO)
The EE may be written on a topic of the student's choice,
taken from the field of any one of the
IB subjects.
However, the topic must be neither too broad nor too narrow. The subject
that the EE is written is recommended to be one that the candidate has
formally studied, but this is not required. Also, the EE may not be written
across different subjects – it must concentrate on one subject only.
The supervisor must be a
teacher
at the
school
that the student attends. The supervisor provides the student with
assistance in putting together their EE, including guiding them in finding a
suitable research question and on how to acquire the necessary resources to
complete the research (such as a specific resource material–often
hard-to-find documents or books–or laboratory equipment). The supervisor may
suggest improvements to a version of the EE, but must not be engaged in
writing it. The IBO recommends that the supervisor spend approximately two
to three hours in total with the candidate discussing the EE. Some schools
allow their students to choose a supervisor from outside their school,
provided that the student appoint a teacher from inside the school to handle
required administrative paperwork (such as anti-plagiarism
policies).
The Extended Essay is assessed (graded) by examiners
appointed by the IBO on a scale of 0 to 36. There are "general" and
"subject-specific" criteria, at a point ration of 2:1 (24 possible points
for the general criteria and 12 for the subject-specific one).
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