Drafting, Editing and Publishing the Extended Essay
This page is to be used once your research is completed and you are ready to begin writing the actual essay. It will provide you with help in drafting the body of your paper, notably: using footnotes vs. parenthetical documentation, creating a traditional bibliography, writing a thesis statement, writing body paragraphs, writing a great intro and conclusion, and the EE appendix.
Once you have completed your rough draft of the Extended Essay, you probably are feeling a sense of relief as well as exhaustion. Many students make the mistake of stopping at this point because the content is done. However, the difference between a "C" and a "B" or a "B" and an "A" lies in this stage of the game: the particulars, which are relatively easy but critical to your final score. Consider the following handouts one at a time, not all at once. Your Extended Essay will need multiple editing to end up polished. And, by the way, if you were really perceptive about the "A" exemplars and the best extended essays, you'll notice something about every single one of them: from an editing standpoint, they're flawless.
Also, below is a PowerPoint of some pitfalls to avoid that occur from year to year. Take a look through it prior to writing your EE.
The following documents will help you in the process of writing your draft of the Extended Essay. Remember that your supervising teacher can only make comments on your Extended Essay once, and those comments are broad and general. Therefore, it is your responsibility to follow the advice in the handouts provided below and revisit these handouts when your supervisor suggests that particular aspects of your essay need work.
Have you ever "wordled" a paper? Try this. It's quick and simple. If nothing else, if a really fun perspective from which to see your Extended Essay. On a more intellectual level, it will automatically tell you what words you overuse out of habit. We all have our guilty pleasures in writing. Do you know yours? Finding a synonym to these words might help the overall voice of your paper: