IB Extended Essay General Guide. Archive copy.: EE Blog

Starting your journey

Christmas is coming! Many of you are starting to think about getting ready for journeys home - and I'm sure all of you are looking forward to the end of term on Wednesday. However you are all also just setting out on your EE journey and, as with any trip, you need to make sure that you know where you are going and have packed everything you need. With less than 2 school days left until the end of term, now is the time to make sure that you are prepared for the next leg of your journey.

When we come back to school in January, you will have less than a week before you need to submit your research proposal, so you need to be doing some background reading over the holiday. You are expected to make a note of this background reading on your Research Proposal form.

Before term ends, ask yourself:

• Have I read the Choosing a Subject and Topic page of this LibGuide?
• Do I understand what I need to do over the holiday, or do I need to ask for advice before I leave?
• Have I borrowed some relevant books from the Library to broaden my understanding of my topic?
• Have I looked at the Subject LibGuide for my subject? Do I know how to access the IB Subject Guide for my subject?
• Do I know how to access the school Subscription Databases that I might need for my preliminary research? (you can find links to these in all of the Subject Libguides. Ask the Library staff if you need help)
• Have I asked my subject teacher or supervisor whether they have any books/ resources that they would recommend that I read as an entry point into my topic?

As you get started on your reading over the holiday, this would also be the ideal time to set up your Researcher's Reflection Space - which is a fancy way of saying that you need to have a single place where you can keep all of the work you do towards your Extended Essay, including a record of what you are reading and what you think about it, together. This will save you a lot of time in the long run. It could be as simple as a ring binder or a notebook (but if you do this then you might also want to keep an electronic document where you can save web links), or you might want to set up something like a OneNote Notebook (which would have the advantage that you could share it with your supervisor).

Have a wonderful, restful and productive break!