54 replies to this topic

[Red XII]

Archaic Dreamer 752, on Feb 05, 2009 - 17:37, said:

Dooga, on Oct 9 2007, 12:17 PM, said:

I think contractions count as 2 words... not sure

Use active voices. It always cuts things down.

My english teacher hates contractions and advises me against using them in any formal writing...is it different for EE? I haven't really been told anything about it yet (from school).

EE is definitely formal writing - don't use any contractions in it.

As for cutting down words, I've been able to eliminate hundreds of words simply by rewording sentences to say the same thing in as few words as possible.  You should be able to cut a lot of words before you have to start cutting content.  Sure, the essay doesn't sound as good and sounds much more dry using minimum-word-count sentence constructions, but the IB doesn't really care whether your writing is interesting.

Remember, examiners are grumpy old men locked in their basements.  They expect to be bored.

My process for reducing words:
1. Reread, removing all filler words and unnecessary words.
2. Minimize word counts in each sentence without changing the meaning.
3. Cut quotes down to remove anything not completely necessary.
4. Remove information, starting with the weakest points.

Good luck!

[JoeGuff]

2401 Tangents, on Sep 04, 2010 - 17:40, said:

I have the opposite problem, i need more words lol. any ideas?

my topic " How did the use of US Radar lead to the Japanese victory at Pearl Harbor?"

and i've got to 1920 words and kind of said everything, should i expand my question to "how did the use of US technologies lead to the japnese victory at pearl harbor" or would that be too broad?

If you've already finished with everything you want to say on Radar, I don't think there would be a problem with including another technology . I would advise that you pick one more technology to include in your essay, if you want to . If you include more than one, it would end up being too broad. So if you can, try picking a technology that's somewhat related to Radar, (possibly Radio?) Otherwise, (to me at least) the topic would sound somewhat odd.
Just make sure to talk it over with your supervisor lol.
If you don't want to use another technology, you could include something like physical surveillance, as I think that would mesh nicely with Radar.

[lia]

mine was exactly 4,000 words - first draft was about 7,000.
Still I´d say I did not cut that many Ideas out.

First of all - instead of e.g.  "Freedom of the Press" , I used "Press Freedom" , and  "the owner of the company"  became "the owner´s company".

Then, I omitted "that" and "the" wherever it was possible, and "due to" became "because".

Then I tried to change the structure of the respective paragraphs - maybe you repeat sth in your 'short summary sentence at the end' that is unneccessary?

Lastly, I tried to stick words togehter like "backroom-deals", or "mega-companies" - words that can go together, even if they normally don´t.

When it got really bad and I was still about 400 words over the limit, I started to omitt these nice introductory phrases like "When", "Additionally", "Furthermore", but that kind of hurt and i don´t recommend it.

In the end, I put some quotes in the appendix and instead of writing "Frederic Remington, a painter, was requested" I put a footnote after his name and then the sentence was only "Frederic Remmington(1) was requested".

Good luck you all!
Í´m soo glad mine is done.. expecting an A or B

[Maxy1896]

O.o., my final Extend Essay version is due tomorrow. I have about 200 words too many... What will happen, if I just write I have lets say 3995 words? They won't be able to prove me wrong, will they? I mean they won't start counting...

[Artoth]

What about titles of the tables and Graphs, do they count in the word limit of EE?

[Drake Glau]

No. They are part of the "illustration" which does not count.

The caption, if you chose to write one, will however.

Edited by Drake Glau, Feb 13, 2011 - 21:12.

[Proletariat]

One way that hasn't been mentioned earlier, to be used if you are indeed that close/desperate, is MLA in-text citations. Citations done in parenthesis do not count to the word count, and English EEs using in-text can end up cutting up to 50 "words" from a final count depending on how much quoting was done.


   For her, sexual intercourse was their “duty to the Party” (77).


In the above example, most word processors will count the "(77)" as a word, when in reality it does not go to the IBO's word limit for EEs.

An additional way one can cut down on words is by moving an author into the citation itself; this is helpful if you're writing on two or more authors, and especially if your paper is structured point instead of block.

[zakia]

do titles before paragraphs count in a history EE? for example if your wrote "Introduction" and then skipped a few lines and had your intro, would the word introduction count

[SoCleo]

They give you an extra 200 words for an over limit. But they really want it to be 4000 words.
Look at how many main points you have, can you cut one out? Do you have over 3 relevant ones explained? Maybe, pick the 2 or 3 that you think are most essential.
Cut down run-on sentences, re-used words too many times? Is there a better way to integrate or shorter way to analyze a point.

Also are there any "awkward" sentences. When you read it out loud, does it seem awkward sounding to you? Maybe just touch up on it along with bring it together more with short flowiness (I know that's not a real word).

[caveat emptor]

Quote

Afterglow

Posted Sep 19, 2007 - 23:28
The word limit for the EE is 4000 words. If you go over this limit you lose marks. There is no minimum but for most subjects, you should expect to go above 3500 words. For experiment based subjects like sciences or math you can go as low as 2500 if there is sufficient formulae working (math) or data (sciences) or other things not included in the word count but suffices to show that you've done work on the essay.

The word limit for the Abstract is separate and is 300 words.

The following are not included in the word count: footnotes, appendices, abstract.

Any direct quotations included in the body of the essay are included in the word count. If you don't want to include long quotes in the word count, put it in an appendix.

~Ruan Chun Xian


Okay so. Does anyone have any ideas, advice, tips or hints on how to cut down the words in an Extended Essay?

Mine is about 6,300 words which means that I am in big trouble and MUST cut it down so it is below 4000 words. My topic isn't that broad. It's just that I have a lot to say surprisingly. I'm doing it in Literature and when I read the book for the first time and come up with the title, me and my supervisor were both sure it would be below the world limit. However, once I did my analysing, reading critism and re-reading the novel, I came up with so many relevant arguments and examples, many of them original. Me and my supervisor both though most of my essay was relevant but the world limit is in the way. I really need advice on how to cut down I know I have a habit of writing long sentences but I honestly can't figure out how to solve it and be more concise

Hey, so am also kinda in the same line, i might go overword, and mine is on ITGS. i apparently kept some stuff in textboxes and not in paragraphs..does that cound into wordcount as well?

[Mija]

Is is specified in any way how many words the introduction should have? :/

[Emy Glau-ski]

Mija, on Aug 28, 2011 - 21:08, said:

Is is specified in any way how many words the introduction should have? :/

There is no specific amount of words your introduction should have, because the amount varies from person to person based on their topic. One EE might need a 500 word introduction and another might need 800. Just make sure your introduction has all the required parts and effectively introduces your topic for the rest of the essay, defining any concepts the reader needs to know and providing relevant background information. What's your subject?

[Hexa]

Do titles, sub titles, etc. count?
I have about 80 words in those alone. >_<

[Emy Glau-ski]

Hexa, on Sep 02, 2011 - 01:44, said:

Do titles, sub titles, etc. count?
I have about 80 words in those alone. >_<

Unless they're in the table of contents or something like that then yes they do count.
If you're over the word count can you make them more precise/take out a few/combine a few sections?

[tank85]

Ruan Chun Xian, on Sep 20, 2007 - 03:21, said:

My Geog IA was supposed to be 1500 words and when I finished the draft it had nearly 4000 words and everything was needed. Somehow I managed to cram stuff into diagrams, footnotes and such but I still had to stretch the truth a bit with my word count.

Anyway. The thing about cutting down words is that it can be hard to do it yourself since you wrote it and you think everything's needed. But it's doable.

1. Look for unecessary words like saying stuff like: "return back" - where just "return" would be fine.
2. Cut long phrases such as "On the other hand" and replace with synonyms that are shorter such as "Alternatively".
4. Change wordy phrases such as "the personality of character" to something like "character's personality".
3. As luami said, change sentence structures around a bit to make them more concise.

The thing is, even if you cut 1 word per line, at the end it adds up to rather a lot.

If after trying it, you're still really desperate, I could look over it for you and try to cut down some words for you. It's easier from an outsider's point of view to see how the word count can be reduced. Don't worry, I won't cut any ideas. And I'm free after Friday (midsession break! yaay!) so I'll have time to do it...

...though I've just realised, it's not in English is it? Darn.

For a geography EE if I include things like statistic do they count as a word?