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Osaka International School

Extended Essay

Your supervisor assists with:

Defining a suitable topic

Formulating a precise research question

Accessing suitable resources (people, library etc)

Using techniques to gather and analyse information/evidence data

Documenting and acknowledging sources

Writing an abstract

The supervisor reads and comments on drafts but is not permitted to edit the document.

Successful candidates 
(ref. Workshop Materials Barbara Stefanics)

1. Choose a topic in which they have a special interest
2. Formulate a specific (concise) research question or hypothesis
3. Keep referring to the research question whilst writing
4. Explore the research question in a disciplined and imaginative way
5. Often demonstrate a personal interest
6. Investigate issues which may address a particular local or national issue eg software piracy in Indonesia
7. Engage in personal research and may use interviews, surveys or questionnaires
8. Limit the scope of the topic to allow examination of an issue in depth
9. Collect or generate information and/or data for analysis and evaluation (involving primary data collection)
10. Include personal research, not just a narrative or descriptive approach
11. Do not just summarise secondary resources or précis a well-documented topic
12. Include extensive bibliographies (not all URLs as this raises the question of validity) and use footnotes
13. Have well organised conclusions that reiterate main points & address new concerns raised by the research
14. Include abstracts that state the research question and indicate the direction their research will take
15. Use graphical evidence effectively
16. Compare solutions with an evaluation of their likely effectiveness

Investigate issues
This requires in-depth ethical considerations, together with references to the social (eg economic, political, cultural, legal, environmental or historical) significance arising from the interaction of IT with society

Poor essays
Have topics that are broad
Focus exclusively on new technology
Have weak conclusions ? a paragraph or a sentence
Draw conclusions that are not supported in the body of the essay

The Rough draft should include:
Title Page
Abstract
Contents
Introduction
Body/methods/results
Conclusion
Illustrations
Appendix

Documentation
Appendices are not an essential part and may not be read so include all information of direct relevance to the analysis and argument in the main part of the essay. Do not constantly refer to material in an appendix.

Whilst you may refer to various tools, details of programming, architecture, operating systems, hardware etc should not be the focus of the essay.

	Is the topic too broad eg Computer Crime? You can’t possibly cover all crime in the world (An analysis into the frequency and effects of hacking on a local business in South Australia is better).
	What exactly do you want to find out?
	How can you limit the context eg study one business, one group of people?
	Does the topic include everything you want and exclude everything you wish to leave out?
	Are you able to access all the material you will need for this topic?
	Can you state your topic in one sentence? Asking a question is an effective way to limit the scope.
	Have you looked at each word in your research question and restricted its scope?
	What is your research sample ? how many people will you interview, over what period?
	Have you checked the meaning of each word? You may need to include your definition eg hacker.

	What is known about the topic so far?
	How will your research fit in?

Below is a time-line with suggested dates.
An * in the right hand box indicates that you need to check/meet with your supervisor.

With thanks to Elizabeth Schloeffel at St Peter's College for original content