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Yes, pretty much everything is included in the word count. Graph labels and captions count. So this includes axis labels, labelling your demand/supply curves, your diagram titles, etc. I'm not sure about footnotes though because I never used them in my commentaries. What do you mean by headers though? Titles?

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I never counted the header, footer, cover page, table of contents, nor the bibliography in any of my Economics commentaries. Just the plain text within the commentary, the summary of the article, the analysis, and the evaluation, the captions I used within the commentary (like "Summary," "Analysis," and "Evaluation"), and technically, I counted the words in my graphs. But to be honest, I always cheated on my word count a little bit and never counted all the words to the literal extent in my graphs. I would just add a total of 5 words per graph/diagram/cycle to the word count and that was that. I don't think it ever made a difference.

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so the examiners or our teachers wouldn't literally count it?

You can't honestly tell me you thought that your teachers and eventual examiners would sit down with each individual commentary and count the number of words in it to make sure that the students aren't lying about the word counts? They would never get anything done in that case.

Like Summer Glau pointed out, they probably only look into it seriously if you've crossed the word count by a significant threshold. If you're 40-50 words over, I don't think they would care. I know they didn't for me. Not one of my Economics commentaries stuck to the word limit, I was always around 30 (generally more) words over the limit but I still had a 7 in Economics. The same goes for my History IA and my WL (1 and 2). So long as the disparity isn't glaringly obvious, you're in the clear.

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so the examiners or our teachers wouldn't literally count it?

You can't honestly tell me you thought that your teachers and eventual examiners would sit down with each individual commentary and count the number of words in it to make sure that the students aren't lying about the word counts? They would never get anything done in that case.

Like Summer Glau pointed out, they probably only look into it seriously if you've crossed the word count by a significant threshold. If you're 40-50 words over, I don't think they would care. I know they didn't for me. Not one of my Economics commentaries stuck to the word limit, I was always around 30 (generally more) words over the limit but I still had a 7 in Economics. The same goes for my History IA and my WL (1 and 2). So long as the disparity isn't glaringly obvious, you're in the clear.

Funnily enough, I did have a teacher who counted a fellow student's history IA. And counted every IA that was said to be exactly 2000 words. But I agree that it's about the amount of words you go over by. 100 words is a bit too much 50 - maybe pushing it a little as well. And you do not count the numbers on diagrams e.g. the scale of 0 to 80 mentioned. And page numbers/footnotes/bibliography are not supposed to be counted. The title, on the other hand, definitely are. There is always criteria that you can lose marks in for exceeding the word limit, so I would not advise people to go over by a lot of words.

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hey but I heard that for EE they would stop reading at the 4000th word? so all this time I've been told lies yet the IB emphasises on the importance of academic honesty??!

Desy, how will the examiner know which exact word is the 4000th word of your essay unless they sit and count each and every single one? They won't. The examiner will however know if instead of 4,000 words you've written 4,500 and as soon as they feel that you've clearly gone over the word count, they will stop reading. But if you're 10, 20, 40 words over the word count, I doubt they're going to notice at all.

Edited by Arrowhead
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I just checked my guide for the Econ IA, and footnotes DO count. Sorry about that.

oooh can you list what are stated to count in the word count in your guide thing? thanks a lot! and when you said the titles are counted, I don't title my commentaries so which title are you talking about? :S

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They do have certain programms though that may show the wordcount, especially for plagiarism though. Examiners don't have to read more than 4000 words but you are allowed to have a total maximum of 4200 words in your EE. That is what I have been told anyway. Just wait until EVERYTHING has to be submitted as a .pdf file o.O

What I learned is that headers (name, candidate number, etc.), table of contents and bibliography do not count towards your word count. However, labels (e.g. LRAS or AD) and such are supposed to count, but it's really up to what your teachers tell you... I don't think numbers in a graph count as words.

I try to stay honest.

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  • 3 weeks later...

They do have certain programms though that may show the wordcount, especially for plagiarism though. Examiners don't have to read more than 4000 words but you are allowed to have a total maximum of 4200 words in your EE. That is what I have been told anyway. Just wait until EVERYTHING has to be submitted as a .pdf file o.O

What I learned is that headers (name, candidate number, etc.), table of contents and bibliography do not count towards your word count. However, labels (e.g. LRAS or AD) and such are supposed to count, but it's really up to what your teachers tell you... I don't think numbers in a graph count as words.

I try to stay honest.

I was asking for an IA not an EE. I think they are less strict with IAs, do they also do this for IAs that get moderated?

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hey but I heard that for EE they would stop reading at the 4000th word? so all this time I've been told lies yet the IB emphasises on the importance of academic honesty??!

Agree!

It's just a way for them to make sure we follow the right word count. A little bit off or a little less are generally both okay. :D

They seriously don't count the words. Think about it. If 1 IB examiner has to read 20 essays, do you think he/she, will care count each and every work, given that its given to them in hard copy? I guess not, right?

So, don't worry, just keep it close to the word count. :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is a summary of the article we used necessary? I mean is it a part of the word count? Because according to the IA booklet there is nothing about it being a part of the word count. YOu just hand in your article with the required highlighted sections but that is about it. I am slightly confused now

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A summary of the article is not essential, but it is beneficial, it allows you the opportunity to direct interest in the summary to the facts that you will be paying most attention towards in your Analysis and Evaluation. My Economics teacher made it mandatory for us to have a 50-word summary in every IA we wrote, I guess he suggested something right because I did get a 7 in Economics HL. But the choice is up to you, it saves a lot of time for your examiner who then doesn't have to muddle through your article.

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A summary of the article is not essential, but it is beneficial, it allows you the opportunity to direct interest in the summary to the facts that you will be paying most attention towards in your Analysis and Evaluation. My Economics teacher made it mandatory for us to have a 50-word summary in every IA we wrote, I guess he suggested something right because I did get a 7 in Economics HL. But the choice is up to you, it saves a lot of time for your examiner who then doesn't have to muddle through your article.

Haha I wrote a summary in my first IA and my teacher said it was unnecessary. Like Arrowhead said, you don't need to have a summary but you can if you really want to. I would suggest not writing a summary and just highlighting the most important points in your article. It saves time for your examiner because they can read just the important information and you don't have to write a summary XD

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