IBEXTENDEDESSAYAHOWTOGUIDE

1、ib extended essay: a “how to” guidehenrico high school ib programpart i: getting started with the extended essay: where do i begin?to begin, you must understand the key aspects of the research paper genreusually at the secondary level, when it finally comes time to write your first real research ess

2、ay-or "paper" as it's more commonly called-you may find yourself confronted with confusion, resentment, panic, and a touch . . . okay, let's be real . . . a heap of 'page fright.' maybe you have a creative writing background from high school or even college where you were a

3、ccustomed to writing "personal essays," the only research involved being a mental rifling through your brain's repositories for relevant experiences you've had. or you vaguely remember writing a five-paragraph expository essay in english comp. 12 on william golding's lord of th

4、e flies where the body of the essay was filled only with your ideas and examples straight from the text. or you have "reports" under your belt on japanese culture or how papyrus was made and used in ancient egypt, neither of which you knew anything about at the time the assignment was give

5、n, so you absorbed information from the library and regurgitated your findings in summary form. none of these are research papers. true research papers are more than a loose collection of anecdotal memories or a patchwork of data pulled from several books. but while new to most first-year students,

6、a research paper can be incredibly exciting, rewarding, and even comforting to write because it finally allows you to really get into a subject you care about with both hands while having added security-a proverbial squad car of "back up" to support you while you explore those dark alleywa

7、ys of future knowledge. true research papers are more than a loose collection of anecdotal memories or a patchwork of data pulled from several books. that "back up" won't only be the academic texts you incorporate into your paper from sources who also care deeply for the same topic you

8、 do, but also this very cyber-workshop which will, we hope rather painlessly, guide you through the entire process. however, before you move along the steps we've laid out and pick up our breadcrumbs of wisdom, you're probably still wondering, and rightfully so, what exactly is a research pa

9、per? another point of confusion may simply include the recognition that research papers come in all shapes, sizes, forms, and disciplines. this is very true and it's easy to get off-track on your approach if you don't first clarify and understand the fundamental difference between the two ma

10、in types of research essays that you're most likely to encounter in an assignment. research papers come in all shapes, sizes, forms, and disciplines. once you know what you're writing, it's time to do what so few first-year students do: give thought to who you're writing for. this is

11、 an integral part of research papers in particular because of the natural broadening of the audience that occurs from the consultation of "others" in the field: your outside sources. even when you are clear on the purpose and audience of your paper, one of the most intimidating, nerve-wrac

12、king, and dangerous aspects of research paper writing is plagiarism, especially when you're not experienced with the process of using secondary sources. but knowledge is power. it can't hurt you if you know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. what is a research paper?a research paper is

13、a piece of academic writing that requires a more abstract, critical, and thoughtful level of inquiry than you might be used to. but not to worry, you'll gradually pick up that mindset the more you envelop yourself in tutorial discussions and lectures at the college level, and of course, the more

14、 you write. not just research papers but any paper, period. writing a research paper involves (1) first familiarizing yourself with the works of "experts"-for example, on the page, in cyberspace, or in the flesh through personal interviews-to build upon what you know about a subject and th

15、en (2) comparing their thoughts on the topic with your own. you'll end up using relevant information-facts and/or opinions-from these expert sources, these "others," to support the topic you have been given or chosen to explore. then, as our subsequent steps will outline, the final pro

16、duct will be a unique and appropriate integration of evidence you have located outside yourself and personal insights generated from your own internal think tank-your mind! the final product will be a unique and appopriate integration of evidence you have located outside yourself and personal insigh

17、ts. often to the surprise of many a first-year student, it is the latter that your professors are most interested in. the inclusion of sources isn't just some arbitrary can-you-use-the-library? test in disguise, but complements your own ideas by providing academic context and credibility to what

18、 you are asserting. no professor will be marking what the published experts have to say, only how well you use what the experts have to say to advance your paper's purpose. note: a mere review of the academic "literature" in a field-i.e. a summary of the existing body of knowledge on y

19、our subject-does not make a research paper. if you think about it, it's indeed reminiscent of those high school reports on japanese culture or papyrus mentioned earlier except that instead of using encyclopedias, you'd be consulting academic journals. by itself then, such a review is not oft

20、en assigned because it wouldn't test your capacity for critical thinking. that doesn't mean you won't see or write these kinds of summaries though, but usually only as part of longer write-ups for actual research studies in the social or physical sciences.the two main types: to analyze o

21、r to argue? that is the question.regardless of the type of research paper you're writing, we hope the previous discussion of what a research paper is has established that your finished paper should be a presentation of your own thinking backed up by the ideas or information of others in the fiel

22、d. however, whether your paper is analytical (uses evidence to analyze facets of an issue) or argumentative (uses evidence to attempt to convince the reader of your particular stance on a debatable topic), is definitely going to have a bearing on your strategy from here on in. in fact, it will deter

23、mine your paper's purpose. so here's a more thorough discussion of the difference between the two types, followed by a concrete example that directly compares the two. 1) analytical papersas the staff at the suny empire state college writer's complex so aptly explains it: "to analyz

24、e means to break a topic or concept down into its parts in order to inspect and understand it, and to restructure those parts in a way that makes sense to you. in an analytical research paper, you do research to become an expert on a topic so that you can restructure and present the parts of the top

25、ic from your own perspective." 1 in this brand of research paper, therefore, you go into the researching stage with a specific topic about which you have not made any kind of conclusions. often you will hear this called your research question. your task is to survey the information and views al

26、ready out there-both before and once you become familiar with the topic. that will require critical thinking and reading, plus evaluation of the resources you handle. by the end of the paper you will be able to contribute your own thoughts to the academic discussion by drawing some conclusions about

27、 the topic you have just analyzed. your task is to survey the information and views already out there-both before and once you become familiar with the topic. that will require critical thinking and reading, plus evaluation of the resources. what exactly does critical thinking mean though?a term thr

28、own around at the post-secondary level, "critical thinking" is a broad concept that encompasses a lot about college or university academic expectations. but for our purposes it's enough to say that in a research or reading context it means not considering any view as "truth"

29、simply because a source has been published or seems to be an expert. it requires you to maintain some objectivity and ask questions to yourself as you read (or watch or listen). this slight air of initial skepticism urges the resource to convince you of its authority. in short, a critical eye teache

30、s you to regard anything- especially if it's published or in other media- as if you're doing a peer edit or with the attitude your own professor will be adopting while marking your paper. no matter what your knowledge level, as a student with fresh eyes and unique experiences, you always hav

31、e inquisitiveness as a skill; this is how students enter a research community with some authority of their own. 2) argumentative (or persuasive) papersin addition to the concept of critical thinking (which any paper at the university level will demand of you), another widely-used term at the college

32、 level which you may or may not be familiar with in its academic context, is the term argument. this is the basis of the persuasive kind of research paper. the student services staff at charles sturt university in australia defines an argument as "a series of generalizations or propositions, su

33、pported by evidence or reasoning and connected in a logical manner, that lead to a justified conclusion. you must sustain your argument by giving evidence and reasons." in direct contrast to the analytical paper, your approach here is to take a stand on an issue and use evidence to back-up your

34、 stance, not to explore or flesh out an unresolved topic. we have included an entire step just on this aspect of the research paper writing process, but it's probably worth your while now to know that this stance, this debatable statement or interpretation is known as your thesis. in direct cont

35、rast to the analytical paper, your approach here is to take a stand on an issue and use evidence to back-up your stance, not to explore or flesh out an unresolved topic. argumentative or persuasive papers, as these names suggest, are attempts-after all, essay does come from the french word essai, or

36、 "attempt"-to convince the reader of a debatable or controversial point of view. that point of view-your thesis-and not some research question, is the core of this breed of paper. convention has it that theses are generally found in the introductory paragraph(s), which makes sense consider

37、ing your reader will get frustrated if your persuading point isn't stated early on. this is why guides to true analytical papers-even our short description above-avoid using the word "thesis" altogether and describe you as "drawing conclusions." they recognize that your criti

38、cal evaluations, insights, and discoveries are going to be located toward the end of the paper and so are not theses in the true sense of the word. note: while it would be really useful to call them thesis papers from here on in (since a proper argumentative paper should always have a thesis stateme

39、nt), we can't use that name. technically, a real "thesis paper" is the name given to the research projects pursued at levels of university beyond a bachelor's degree. since you are a high school student, refrain from calling argumentative papers "thesis papers" and you

40、9;ll avoid confusion.in true research paper fashion, we have just laid out the difference between analytical and argumentative papers in a more abstract form. to drive the point home, here is the concrete example we promised earlier: examplefor an analytical research paper, let's say you have de

41、cided to explore "the purpose of madness in renaissance tragedies." you don't have an answer in mind to turn that into a sentence (that wouldn't be following the purpose of your paper!) so you do some research to locate instances of insanity in various plays. the body of the paper

42、would analyze or break down the topic into three or four "parts" which will later become the main paragraphs of your draft. perhaps your research helps you discover several purposes to madness in these tragedies, with your paper devoting a paragraph to considering each. or perhaps there

43、9;s debate among scholars as to the main purpose of madness, so you decide to present some of these varying opinions. however you choose to explore the topic, in the body of your paper you'd be using evidence from the plays themselves (a.k.a. primary sources) and expert opinions on the plays (a.

44、k.a. secondary sources). your concluding paragraph(s) would finally incorporate some of your critical interpretations of both the plays and the experts' essays. here, you'd include a critical evaluation and discussion of your overall findings as well as some conclusions based on the patterns

45、 you've researched or detected yourself to make some final comments about the purpose of madness in renaissance tragedies. now, an argumentative paper would lay out exactly what you consider to be the purpose of madness in renaissance tragedies in a declarative sentence right in the introduction

46、-the thesis statement. thus, the template would change accordingly to "the purpose of madness in renaissance tragedies is _ (for comic relief? to provide a reflection of moral chaos? and so on and so forth)." see, it ceases to be just a topic (notice above that our topic for the analytical

47、 paper is not a sentence!) and has become instead an interpretation. the course of the paper will develop why you believe-and importantly, why the reader should believe-what you do. this time, you'll select only that evidence (still examples from plays and opinions from experts) which directly s

48、upports your thesis. the body of your paper turns into a site for laying out the proof you've collected rather than a canvas for delineating a topic. and considering that scholars still debate the psychological state of prince hamlet (close to 400 years after the play was written!), there is no

49、right or wrong answer. you will not get a bad mark if your professor happens to completely disagree with your thesis. that's not the point. solid back-up and convincing arguments, not safe thesis statements, are what make for happy profs. because your insights, which are what your professors are

50、 most interested in, are the very fulcrum on which an argumentative paper balances rather than just interspersed or tacked on the end of analytical papers, argumentative papers are probably the most popular type of research paper. of course, your experiences may vary depending on the courses and tea

51、chers you have. audiencethe first question you might have is "huh? what audience?" this is the most common mistake first-year college writers make: thinking they're writing for a professor and that's it. or at the other extreme, and equally ineffective, envisioning the audience as

52、"society in general," "everyone with a college education," or "any scholar or academic." the former mistake is too narrow and the latter too broad to give your paper any focus. here's an analogy illustrating the importance of audience from dr. steven hale's arti

53、cle choosing and writing for an audience. when you prepare an oral presentation, isn't one of the implicit requirements of the assignment to know who your audience will be so that you can adjust your style accordingly? nothing changes when you write an essay.well, except that it's harder to

54、remember to apply the same procedure. after all, it's rather hard to picture an "audience" reading your paper the same way a group would be physically listening to you speak. when you prepare an oral presentation, isn't one of the implicit requirements of the assignment to know who

55、 your audience will be so that you can adjust your style accordingly? nothing changes when you write an essay. as hale, professor of humanities at dekalb college, describes it, the audience is divided into the real and the intended. real or actual readers might be a peer, a tutor from an owl, and of

56、 course your teacher. but though you hand it in to your prof and it comes back to you, a research paper does not work like a one-to-one "dear mrs. smith" private correspondence. remembering a teacher's preferences is important, but it isn't-to borrow a star trek term-your prime dir

57、ective. hale reminds us that it's crucial to write with the intended audience in mind. but who exactly is that? well, richard creese, karen moloney, randal woodland from the campus writing center at the university of michigan at dearborn articulate it to a tee: .imagine your instructor as repres

58、enting a larger academic audience. that audience often expects something like what appears in academic journals that share original research with members of the community. writing should make a new contribution to the knowledge of a given field. therefore, you need to appear serious about the subjec

59、t matter. you take on a role as an entering member of the academic community. you are establishing a relationship between yourself and a larger audience, not simply between you and your instructor." so think of yourself as carving out a little niche in an ongoing scholarly debate, of adding ano

60、ther voice to the chorus of academics who already have something to say about the topic you're writing about. a good idea might be to narrow your audience down to your course (that includes professor, classmates, t.a.s, future profs) and the research community in your field be it english, biolog

61、y, or sociology. think of yourself as carving out a little niche in an ongoing scholarly debate, of adding another voice to the chorus of academics who already have something to say about the topic you're writing about. why is it important to write with a more specific audience in mind? hale urges that your essay will hav