Is this topic for the Extended Essay in English Lit good?

[kyang315]

I plan on doing it on, "How Edgar Allan Poe's life affected his writings." Would this be a decent topic or would it be too broad of a topic?

[alefal]

Hey there!

I would say it's too broad of a topic, actually. You should focus on one or two literary works written by Poe (assuming we are not talking about his poems, then I would perhaps increase the number somewhat), and, if possible, perhaps also focus on particular events in Poe's life. For all I know, you have already thought of this, but it should be made clear in your research question as well.

Good luck!

[Sandwich]

It's an interesting topic but I'm not sure it would make a great EE. To me it seems that it's a little bit too historical rather than literary. English Lit EE topics ideally need to be analysing themes, ideas and so on within a text - discussing how Allan Poe's life affected his writing isn't quite right. Have you read the English Lit section of the EE Guide? It should give you a decent idea of the sort of stuff they're looking for in high scoring EEs to get you thinking along the right lines.

[IBTutorOnline]

This is not a good topic. As you correctly point out, it is way too broad.

As a rule of thumb, always ask yourself the question 'could somebody write a full book about this title?'. If the answer is yes, you know your topic is too broad. In this case, books can be (and have been!) so you will struggle trying to fit your content into 4000 words

Is this for a language A1 literature EE? Try to get your hands on some previous EEs that have scored As and see if you can get some inspiration on titles there.