How to choose your Extended Essay Topic
by Tim Williams
When it comes to selecting the topic for your Extended Essay, roughly speaking, you have three options: you could place your trust in your school; you could focus on your supervisor; or you could believe me. While the choice may seem obvious to you, there are some things to consider before finalising your EE topic.
But before we jump into that, be sure to keep in mind that the EE is not meant to make you really good at some subject. The only purpose of the EE is to teach you how to do research. Not even original research. Just the basic processes of creating a research question, finding information, checking sources, attribution, footnoting, etc, etc.
Given that, it doesn’t really matter what you investigate - it’s all about how you do it.
Choosing your EE topic - trust your school?
Now, schools are like any other institution or person, sometimes better or worse, but usually trying to find the easiest way to get something done. So what the school almost always advises is first to choose a Subject, like Economics or Physics. They will usually tell you to choose the one you’re good at.
Then they’ll tell you to narrow it down within that Subject. This is where it’s meant to be up to you. They tell you to go away and read around, and then come back (oh, and fill in a form) with a topic within the Subject. Instead of Economics maybe micro-economics, or light scattering in Physics.
Then you do more reading, come up with a Research Question, get it checked and off you go.
This is perfectly reasonable since schools frankly aren’t usually so bad at what they do, but it’s slow. Why’s that? Because you’re having to wade through a whole mass of reading and investigation (and junk most of it) just to get to any usable topic. And at this stage of the course you probably haven’t even looked at more than about 20% of what there is to study, so how can you know what’s a good topic?
And the last reason it’s slow is that you’re not sure what to do, so you put off choosing because it’s just an extra job - and you have essays, coursework, projects, homework to do RIGHT NOW and the EE choice gets pushed back…and back…
Choosing your EE topic - focus on your supervisor
Supervisors are also like schools - they can be better or worse. Remember though that they do have two jobs and don’t have one job. Their first job is to help you learn how to do research. Their second job is to check you don’t cheat in the process. The job they don’t have is to teach you about the Subject or the topic you chose.
So the thing you’re looking for in a supervisor is only: will they be helpful in teaching you how to research? Because obviously you won’t cheat, and they won’t teach you about the topic. But how do you know if they’re good at that?
Basically, as you always suspected, the only help is going to be their reputation, and how well you get on with them personally. The good ones are well known, and if students have a choice (and schools often just assign you - tough luck) they get snapped up. There’s only so much a teacher can manage by way of teaching how to research, year on year, so they only supervise maybe three or four students.
So if you’re going down this route, go and start talking to them as soon a possible. It can’t be too soon. Try proposing a topic, even if it’s not likely you’ll do it, have a conversation and get a good reputation. Once the dialogue has started, it flows from there.
The problem with this is that you really really have to have a good supervisor since you’re depending on them. Get one who’s too busy, or distracted, or bored, or they leave, or they want to tell you what to do …
Choosing your EE topic - Take my advice
As it happens, I have probably examined as many Extended Essays as anybody in the world, in half a dozen subjects, in three languages, during decades. But one of the skills of research is to discover that you should assess your sources, and you only have my word on that. But it’s true. You shouldn’t just believe me: see if what I say makes sense.
Myself, I’d suggest you work out what you are actually interested in, what you’d spend your time on anyway (if you had time left for a life during IB). It absolutely doesn’t matter what it is - hot air ballooning, snakes, baking, bonfires, macrame, video games, science fiction, cycling, whatever. Because remember, it doesn’t matter what you study - you’re just using it to learn how to do research.
The huge advantage is that you would want to spend time on this topic anyway, so you’re going to avoid (hopefully) the BIG PROBLEM of the EE - procrastination. When it’s just another extra job that you can put off till next week…next week…
The other advantage is that you know something about it already, so it’s much much easier to choose a particular topic. And you’ll have much less preliminary work to do.
Only then do you worry about what Subject it’s going to fit, and any topic can fit any Subject. Wait, what, how do you fit hot air ballooning into the IB? It could be the Physics of heated air; the Art of the decorative themes; the History of ballooning; the Economics of safari flights; the Language of advertising excursions, etc. etc.
A bit more EE advice
The Extended Essay is actually a brilliant opportunity in several ways. You can study whatever you’re actually interested in, universities love it because you know how to work independently before you get there, and more…
Networking
Most opportunities in life come from networking. The EE is your legitimate reason to go and talk to local businessmen, university researchers, zookeepers, medical personnel, professional athletes, hot air balloonists, and so on. It’s a great way to start building connections in sectors and areas you are genuinely interested in.
Universities like the EE
The Extended Essay can be a really good way to demonstrate to a university that you’re seriously interested in a subject; it gives you something substantial to write about in your applications; it can make you distinctive or memorable as an individual. When I helped with college admissions we’d say “Where’s the application from the bike commuting guy?” or “What about that butterflies one?” You get the picture.
But don’t get too stuck - it can look very good if you apply for Physics but do an EE in Mandarin. Just explain it in your application; it can make a great talking point.
Get Real
Remember you can learn and demonstrate research skills equally well on a huge topic, or a tiny one. Doing very well on a very limited topic is easier and as useful as trying to solve the problem of quantum entanglement.
Be practical - do something local and accessible. If you have to wait until summer to undertake that scuba diving in Fiji, you’ve made life hard.
Keep a perspective. It’s only two points, and you’ll probably get one point because ToK, etc. So don’t let it get too big. Just show you can do research and you’ll get the point. So that’s all about footnotes, bibliographies, structure, summary, introduction, simple mechanical stuff. The topic isn’t so important.
It’s all about the Research Question
Seriously, if you get the RQ right as soon as you can, the rest of it almost literally falls into place. If you have a good question, then you know what to answer; what to research to prove your answer; what you don’t need to even think about; how to organise the final essay. Everything. So, put some serious thought and energy into getting your research question right from the beginning and you’ll be off to a good start.
More advice on successfully completing your EE
The Extended Essay is a serious piece of work, but hopefully, Tim’s advice has helped you to get started. As you go through the process of researching and writing your EE you’ll find that there will be highs and lows. You may also find that at some points you’re in need of a bit more advice. When those moments come, be sure to revisit our Study Skills section where you’ll find helpful articles on writing your Extended Essay. Better yet, grab yourself a copy of Tim’s guide to success in the IB - 167 IB Secrets. It’s full of tips and tricks to help you through all your IB Diploma challenges from finishing your EE to organising your exam revision to avoiding the dreaded threat of procrastination.
