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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 its more commonly called-you may find yourself confronted with confusion, resentment, panic, and a touch . . . okay, lets be real . . . a heap of page fright. Maybe you have a creative writing background from high school or even college where you were accustomed to writing personal es
3、says, the only research involved being a mental rifling through your brains repositories for relevant experiences youve had. Or you vaguely remember writing a five-paragraph expository essay in English Comp. 12 on William Goldings Lord of the Flies where the body of the essay was filled only with yo
4、ur 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 given, so you absorbed information from the library and regurgitated your f
5、indings 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, a research paper can be incredibly exciting, rewarding, and even comfor
6、ting 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 alleyways of future knowledge. True research papers are more than a loose collection of an
7、ecdotal memories or a patchwork of data pulled from several books. That back up wont only be the academic texts you incorporate into your paper from sources who also care deeply for the same topic you do, but also this very cyber-workshop which will, we hope rather painlessly, guide you through the
8、entire process. However, before you move along the steps weve laid out and pick up our breadcrumbs of wisdom, youre probably still wondering, and rightfully so, what exactly is a research paper? Another point of confusion may simply include the recognition that research papers come in all shapes, si
9、zes, forms, and disciplines. This is very true and its easy to get off-track on your approach if you dont first clarify and understand the fundamental difference between the two main types of research essays that youre most likely to encounter in an assignment. Research papers come in all shapes, si
10、zes, forms, and disciplines. Once you know what youre writing, its time to do what so few first-year students do: give thought to who youre writing for. This is an integral part of research papers in particular because of the natural broadening of the audience that occurs from the consultation of ot
11、hers 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-wracking, and dangerous aspects of research paper writing is plagiarism, especially when youre not experienced with the process of using secondary sources.
12、But knowledge is power. It cant hurt you if you know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. What is a research paper?A research paper is 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, youll gradually
13、pick up that mindset the more you envelop yourself in tutorial discussions and lectures at the college level, and of course, the more 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, o
14、n the page, in cyberspace, or in the flesh through personal interviews-to build upon what you know about a subject and then (2) comparing their thoughts on the topic with your own. Youll end up using relevant information-facts and/or opinions-from these expert sources, these others, to support the t
15、opic you have been given or chosen to explore. Then, as our subsequent steps will outline, the final product 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
16、be a unique and appopriate integration of evidence you have located outside yourself and personal insights. 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 isnt just some arbitrary can-you-use-the-library? tes
17、t in disguise, but complements your own ideas by providing academic context and credibility to what 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 papers purpose. Note: A mere review of the ac
18、ademic literature in a field-i.e. a summary of the existing body of knowledge on your subject-does not make a research paper. If you think about it, its indeed reminiscent of those high school reports on Japanese culture or papyrus mentioned earlier except that instead of using encyclopedias, youd b
19、e consulting academic journals. By itself then, such a review is not often assigned because it wouldnt test your capacity for critical thinking. That doesnt mean you wont see or write these kinds of summaries though, but usually only as part of longer write-ups for actual research studies in the soc
20、ial or physical sciences.The two main types: to analyze or to argue? That is the question.Regardless of the type of research paper youre 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
21、up by the ideas or information of others in the field. 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 y
22、our strategy from here on in. In fact, it will determine your papers purpose. So heres 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 Writers Complex
23、so aptly explains it: To analyze 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 a
24、nd present the parts of the topic 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
25、 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 you handle. By the end of the paper you will be able to contribute your own thoughts to the academic discussion by drawi
26、ng some conclusions about 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 thinki
27、ng mean though?A term thrown 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 its enough to say that in a research or reading context it means not considering any view as truth simp
28、ly 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 teaches yo
29、u to regard anything- especially if its published or in other media- as if youre 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 have inquisitiven
30、ess 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 level which y
31、ou 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, supported by evidence
32、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 stance, not to explore or
33、 flesh out an unresolved topic. We have included an entire step just on this aspect of the research paper writing process, but its probably worth your while now to know that this stance, this debatable statement or interpretation is known as your thesis. In direct contrast to the analytical paper, y
34、our 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 attempt-to convince the reader
35、 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 considering your reader will get frustrated if your
36、 persuading point isnt 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 critical evaluations, insights, and discoveries are going to be located towar
37、d 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 statement), we cant use that name. Technically, a real thesis paper is the name
38、 given to the research projects pursued at levels of university beyond a Bachelors Degree. Since you are a high school student, refrain from calling argumentative papers thesis papers and youll avoid confusion.In true research paper fashion, we have just laid out the difference between analytical an
39、d 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, lets say you have decided to explore the purpose of madness in Renaissance tragedies. You dont have an answer in mind to turn that into
40、a sentence (that wouldnt 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 would analyze or break down the topic into three or four parts which will later become the main paragraphs of your draft. Perhaps your res
41、earch helps you discover several purposes to madness in these tragedies, with your paper devoting a paragraph to considering each. Or perhaps theres 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 top
42、ic, in the body of your paper youd be using evidence from the plays themselves (a.k.a. primary sources) and expert opinions on the plays (a.k.a. secondary sources). Your concluding paragraph(s) would finally incorporate some of your critical interpretations of both the plays and the experts essays.
43、Here, youd include a critical evaluation and discussion of your overall findings as well as some conclusions based on the patterns youve researched or detected yourself to make some final comments about the purpose of madness in Renaissance tragedies. Now, an ARGUMENTATIVE paper would lay out exactl
44、y what you consider to be the purpose of madness in Renaissance tragedies in a declarative sentence right in the introduction-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
45、chaos? and so on and so forth). See, it ceases to be just a topic (notice above that our topic for the analytical 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
46、time, youll select only that evidence (still examples from plays and opinions from experts) which directly supports your thesis. The body of your paper turns into a site for laying out the proof youve collected rather than a canvas for delineating a topic. And considering that scholars still debate
47、the psychological state of Prince Hamlet (close to 400 years after the play was written!), there is no right or wrong answer. You will not get a bad mark if your professor happens to completely disagree with your thesis. Thats not the point. Solid back-up and convincing arguments, not safe thesis st
48、atements, are what make for happy profs. Because your insights, which are what your professors are 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 pop
49、ular type of research paper. Of course, your experiences may vary depending on the courses and teachers you have. AudienceThe first question you might have is Huh? What audience? This is the most common mistake first-year college writers make: thinking theyre writing for a professor and thats it. Or at the other extreme, and equally ineffecti
